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  • Saturday : Gem of Norwich

    Saturday : Gem of Norwich

    Expect a flurry of blog posts this week, as I bring everything back up-to-date…. After my successful weekend in Wales zip-lining and paddle boarding with my friend Liam, I need to rush forwards to get that inspirational content on-line. And I don’t care if others don’t think it’s inspirational, I do and I’ll get it written as soon as possible.

    After a quiet day, Saturday was the evening of the Hike Norfolk meal out, and we were delighted to see Gordon appear, he’s someone more often seen at socials than walking, but men of money are often like that. Gem is a Turkish restaurant in Norwich which is located opposite the railway station and in the former building operated by Prezzo. It’s an odd building to be used as a restaurant, with a minimal reception and waiting area, alongside poor acoustics and difficult areas for staff to see. However, the new operators have built themselves a formidable reputation and their reviews are good, with friends having gone telling me that the food is excellent. Although the emphasis of the restaurant is on Turkish food, there’s also some Greek and Kurdish options to add to the mix. As an aside, they opened I recall just before the first lockdown, so it must have been a challenging couple of years for them having to work through the enforced opening and closures.

    In terms of the ambience, it’s loud, but that is apparently a common situation here. By the staff’s admission, there were a very loud table, although they only admitted that after the group had gone, but it did mean that the restaurant had quite a vibrant feel to it during the evening. For some people that sounds marvellous, although I rarely like vibrant venues, I like peace and calm.

    The service was on-point and timely, with the team members being conversational, friendly and knowledgeable. Susanna and I would have gone for the set menus, but the entire table needs to order from those and so we thought that’d potentially come back another day for those. In terms of beer selection, that’s poor, but not perhaps unexpected, but the prices for them were off the scale and were more expensive than some central London venues. The restaurant also does the thing that CAMRA disapprove of and charge far proportionally more for a half than a pint. Anyway, that’s a comment that is a little unfair as they don’t portray themselves as a bar or beer restaurant, so I can’t much say it’s a negative about the venue. Although, I decided to just order tap water.

    The service time was reasonable given how busy the venue was, but the restaurant was hot and they could perhaps do with some air conditioning here. I liked the engagement from the team members as well, they were trying their best to build up a rapport with customers, it’s clear customer service is important to them. I can’t say that we had any problems during the service, but I imagine that they would have been resolved politely and efficiently if we had.

    I went for the main of chicken shish, large pieces of chicken which were cooked over a hot charcoal grill and so were tender on the inside and had a firm exterior. The rice was well cooked and the salad seemed fresh, with everything tasting of a good quality. I did have a coffee after the meal, which took far too long to arrive, although they did apologise on three occasions about that (they were pro-active apologies, I didn’t make three complaints).

    As a venue, I thought that it was professionally run, it can’t be easy getting this volume of food out in a busy restaurant on a Saturday evening. They were fully booked which shows just how popular the restaurant has become, with nearly no negative on-line reviews. Reading through those reviews, there were a couple of annoyed people that they couldn’t change the items in the set menus, but it is clearly stated that this is the restaurant’s policy and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have that policy. The pricing at the restaurant is a little towards the higher end of the scale, but they have the customer service and food quality to back that up. A vibrant venue on a Saturday night isn’t really something they can do a great deal about (other than by becoming unpopular), but it was particularly noisy which wasn’t entirely ideal. But, all still recommended.

    Anyway, I’m of course not one to break any confidences about the Hike Norfolk meal discussion, other than to mention Gordon running off to hide in the toilet to avoid a situation, but I couldn’t possibly write any more than that and I’m sure it’ll be mentioned again at the Christmas meal.

  • Friday : Only a Little Bit More than Nothing in Norwich

    Friday : Only a Little Bit More than Nothing in Norwich

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    Here’s a way of getting through the days quite quickly on this blog, stay in Norwich and don’t quite do anything of much interest. But it seems only right to comments on Simon’s visit to Norwich (this is the Simon of 100 fame), to reward me for my completing the LDWA 100 in 2021. Did I mention that I walked 100 miles in May 2021?

    I forgot to take many photos other than of beer on this evening, but that’s the handy thing about Untappd (note my 2,000 badges that I achieved yesterday…..), I rarely forget photos of beer. On which subject, this was my favourite beer in the Artichoke where we started proceedings, the DIPA#2 from the GlassHouse Beer Co from Birmingham. This is the third beer that I’ve had from this brewery over the years, and they’ve all been delightful.

    Then a quick visit to the Leopard, definitely one of the best pubs in the city, for the Knickerbocker pale ale, with flavours of strawberry, raspberry and cherry ice cream. Now, that’s an innovative beer, certainly a challenge for those drinkers (who I won’t name) who don’t like beer with flavour or taste. It wasn’t quite as rich as I would have liked, but still an enjoyable beer.

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    Then to the Plasterers, with this being the rich and decadent Imperial Stout Muda, from Puhaste Brewery in Estonia. And the Wotsits complemented it beautifully. I think Simon was by this point suitably impressed with the pubs available in the north part of Norwich City Centre.

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    The King’s Head was calling for the last pub of the night. I went for Mini Cheddars with the Nightlight Mild from Elmtree Beers, which was not perhaps particularly notable, but it was well-kept.

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    Emma, eager to hear from the gossip about Bev in Barcelona, as we all walked the Boudicca Way a few years ago, although Emma has perhaps sensibly retired from walking now. Simon couldn’t quite manage an entire night of drinking, but as he admitted, he’s from the north, and I didn’t say anything when he walked back to this hotel after a couple of hours. However, lovely to be back in Norwich, a reminder of just how many decent pubs we have in the city, as well as to see some people that I haven’t seen for some time.

    That was certainly one of the quickest blog posts that I’ve written in recent weeks as well, there’s a lot to be said for staying in Norwich every now and then to catch up.

  • Monday to Thursday : Not Much of Anything

    Monday to Thursday : Not Much of Anything

    I had been getting a little behind with my blog, but I’m pleased to report for purists who dislike gaps that I’m able to catch up in one go by a few days as I was in Norwich for most of the week and have little of interest to report. That means, nothing for me to write about from the Monday to Thursday, other than my trekking up Gas Hill (Mountain) to go and vote.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    As this is a journey that I often take, I wasn’t going to write about it, but Greater Anglia’s choice of train annoyed me. So, I have.

    Norwich railway station on a Wednesday lunch-time in February, it’s getting busier, but I’m sure that passenger numbers aren’t there yet. Shame that West Cornwall Pasty, which was to the left of Starbucks, has closed, but that unit could perhaps be turned into a Greggs…. The M&S at the railway station is still closed, it’s been like that for two years now.

    Here’s the train, all shiny on Platform 2.

    And then I realised this. It’s the bloody Stansted Express train they’re using again. I thought to myself just how not ideal this was.

    I have no idea why Greater Anglia keep using these Stansted Express trains, they were never designed for this route. They don’t have tables, they don’t have first class (not that that much matters to me) and they don’t have a buffet car (actually, that doesn’t much matter to me either). Other customers have asked Greater Anglia why they use these trains on social media, but it’s seemingly a mystery to customers and Greater Anglia alike. Two groups came walking by me on the train on a hunt for tables, but their search would have been forlorn. The conductor, who was friendly and helpful, made an announcement saying that a last minute train change was required, but this train continually goes up and down the Norwich to London mainline so it’s not a rare occurence.

    A lack of table is annoying when using a laptop, although the power points worked. It’s quite hard to sit at these seats without wanting to put your feet on the chairs opposite, because that would make using a laptop much easier. However, I consider that to be a crime against humanity, although it’s possible to put one foot on the heating panel below the window. Greater Anglia have also decided they’d like their trains to be like rolling furnaces along the track in some sort of commemoration of the heat of steam engines, and there’s no way for a customer to cool the carriage themselves.

    We arrived into London Liverpool Street at the unusual platform 4 (unusual as in this train doesn’t usually stop there, it’s otherwise a normal platform) which I guess is because they’ve decided that the Stansted Express train was going to be used to go to Stansted.

    London Liverpool Street is definitely looking busier. All of the e-tickets were failing (again) so the gate guard was busy checking tickets manually, which I’m not sure is how the system is meant to work.

    As an aside, I went to the rear of the station and this is all looking much tidier.

    I don’t know when this was landscaped, but the whole area around London Liverpool Street appears to be being modernised, it’s all a clear improvement.

    I suppose it’s hard to complain with a fare that’s only £10 from Norwich to London (although, as is evident here, I’ve had a good go), but this would be a nicer journey if the train was more comfortable. But, the staff on board were friendly and conversational, although the train was rather hot, but everything ran to time and was efficient.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    I’m used to the journey from Norwich to London Liverpool Street, but it’s rare for me to be getting the 07:00 train as that’s normally an expensive commuter service. Today though, it was £12.50 which I thought was reasonable all things considered (namely how expensive some other Greater Anglia services are which are of a much shorter destination).

    Norwich railway station wasn’t packed with people, but there were a few services about to leave, including the service to Liverpool Lime Street, so it wasn’t entirely quiet.

    Here’s the London thunderbolt that would hopefully get me into the city at 08:51. I boarded and had a carriage to myself, which was rather lovely. I then had a woman come up to me and she said that I looked strong (can’t fault her logic there) and could I open her bottle of water for her. This sort of scenario isn’t ideal, as if I can’t open it then I look ridiculous. Fortunately, I gave the impression of huge strength since I opened the bottle immediately. That’s a decent start to a journey.

    What wasn’t a decent start was seeing that the train was marked as delayed, with no announcements made about it. I’m not sure what caused this, as the signs soon lost their delayed status and the train was ready to rock and roll at 07:00 as expected. The announcements made by the staff were all friendly and informative, with a guard checking tickets. This process didn’t exactly take him long and to my slight disappointment (as I like watching drama unfold) everyone seemed to have a valid ticket.

    Here’s the packed carriage. I also managed to sit at the only block of seats on the train that didn’t have working power, so had to move to the seats opposite. This wasn’t the only technical problem on board, as the shutter at the cafe had broken and jammed, so the staff had to walk up and down the train with the trolley. The service though arrived into London on time, so no complaints there. It didn’t get much busier either, just a handful of people on the entire train.

    This is London Liverpool Street at commuter time, but on a morning between Christmas and New Year’s Day, which is perhaps never going to be packed with hordes of travellers. Nonetheless, it was still quieter than I expected.

    And outside London Liverpool Street station, with a calmness in the air.

  • Norwich – Orford Plaice

    Norwich – Orford Plaice

    This was the final Christmas lunch of 2021 for James and I, at Orford Plaice which is a chip shop we’ve managed to walk by several hundred times and never quite gone in.

    It’s larger inside than I expected, there’s a downstairs eating area and there are a number of tables on the ground floor. The service was friendly and helpful, although we got their last pot of gravy (not something that we really ever buy, although it’s a personal favourite of mine with chips).

    Having chips on a proper plate is a bit decadent for us, or “it’s like being in a Wimpy” as James put it. The food was brought over after a few minutes, at which point they remembered they hadn’t prepared the gravy, but that didn’t take much longer. Our meal was chips alongside battered pigs in blankets. The chips were fine, complemented nicely by the gravy, although I thought that the pigs in blankets were a little generic and not really very interesting. Having written that though, I did like the battering of them, primarily as I like nearly anything that has been battered, it just adds taste and texture. The portion size was also reasonable, with everything at the appropriate hot temperature, although the plate itself was cold.

    Price-wise, this is somewhere between Grosvenor and Lucy’s, with the surroundings being reasonably comfortable. There’s meant to be a masks-on inside policy, but it was ignored by some and not questioned, but I’m not going to burden myself with getting concerned about that. I think I still prefer Lucy’s, their butchers sausages are a nice little treat. This venue has won some awards, which I’m slightly surprised about, but we’ve decided to revisit in the new year to test some more of their menu out. No point coming to any snap verdicts about the food quality….

  • Norwich – Brewdog Visa

    Norwich – Brewdog Visa

    I picked up my new Beer Visa from Brewdog in Norwich yesterday, which I thought I’d be interested in given my attempt to visit every Brewdog in the country. I have to say that I don’t really quite get what they’ve done here, I had hoped it was something like just getting it stamped at each Brewdog. Instead they’re introduced something really quite complex which seems to involve having certain drinks to get stickers and then also repeating the same process at different Brewdog venues. I can’t see whether they’re trying to promote visiting different bars or drinking their mainstream beers, so they’re got some hybrid thing going on.

    It’s actually so complex that I really don’t understand it despite reading the instructions on numerous occasions. Although, to be fair, I’m often easily confused by things. For anyone who wants to read the rules then they’re at https://www.brewdog.com/uk/beer-visa-2.

    Given that I don’t tend to drink Brewdog’s own beers when in their bars, as I’ve had them all, I’m not that interested in the whole process so I’m going to bin the visa. Not the loyalty scheme that I had expected, but apparently they’re relaunching it again in 2023. I’ll wait until then and hope they get something a little more exciting.

  • Norwich – Dhaba at Fifteen

    Norwich – Dhaba at Fifteen

    In an attempt to work through some of the restaurants in Norwich that I’ve neglected to visit over the last couple of years, my friend James and I popped to Dhaba at Fifteen last night. I wasn’t entirely surprised and delighted by Spice Valley last week, but this one came recommended. The welcome was immediate and helpful and we were asked to provide track and trace details. I’ve lost track now of what the actual rules are, but I thought the restaurant was being careful which is always good.

    The menu which I thought was well laid out. There are the traditional Anglo-Indian dishes shoved at the bottom, so they’re there as a choice but the restaurant isn’t going to shout about them. There were numerous really quite innovative dishes there that I haven’t experienced before as well as plenty of vegetarian options.

    The restaurant is perhaps a little plain its decoration, but it was clean and comfortable. It got much busier during the evening, with a number of smaller groups coming in. The restaurant also seemed to be doing a decent amount of takeaways and deliveries, so it seems a popular location.

    I’m always disappointed at any Indian restaurant that doesn’t offer my drink of choice, namely mango lassi. They had it here and it was thick, slightly sweet and very delicious. I approved.

    This is much better from the chutneys and the staff member explained what they were. There was a minced carrot almost like coleslaw (I clearly wasn’t listening when they told me exactly what it was called) and a mint raita which both had a depth of flavour and some care put into them. I’m going to have to e-mail the restaurant so they can tell me exactly what these were.

    [I have e-mailed them and they promptly replied saying that, from left to right, they were a sweet carrot & onion chutney, mint raita and spicy mango chutney.]

    I went for the Kolkatta Kasundi Chicken which is a mustard based curry, something that I’ve never had before. I was suitably surprised and delighted by the arrangement, the chicken was tender and moist with flavour from the sauce, the curry itself had a strong mustard taste without being over-powering and it was served as a generous portion. James had gone for the Peshwari Chicken Pasanda which he thought was equally good, with a similar flavour of almond running through the curry. The rice was fluffy and as expected, with everything being at the appropriate hot temperature.

    The service was always polite and engaging, but without being overbearing or fake. The staff seemed keen to help, which was evident in the way they were offering other customers the option to change dishes to suit their tastes or to make starters into mains. Although the restaurant was getting busy, we were never rushed or hurried, so the environment was comfortable. The prices were perhaps a little towards the higher end of the scale, although the quality justified that.

    The reviews for the restaurant are generally very positive, although I’m bemused by the negative review that complained about the large pieces of chicken. I’m not entirely sure that this is a negative for a restaurant, but there we go….. I’d say that this is one of the best Indian restaurants that I’ve been to in Norfolk, suitably decadent and I think I’ll likely come back here. All very lovely.

  • Norwich – 2021 Hike Norfolk Christmas Party at St. Andrew’s Brew House

    Norwich – 2021 Hike Norfolk Christmas Party at St. Andrew’s Brew House

    We didn’t get to hold the Hike Norfolk Christmas party last year due to national restrictions, even though of course Downing Street managed to do so. But anyway, we won’t get dragged into politics here. The Hike Norfolk event was being held at St. Andrew’s Brew House in Norwich, formerly Delaney’s and now operated by City Club. I won’t linger on the beer brewed here as it’s some of the more pointless that I’ve tasted in terms of flavour and taste (we’re not talking Goose Island), but it’s well kept to be fair to them.

    There was a mix-up or something with rooms, but Steve was in charge of that and the venue gave us a perfectly good space so all was well. We also had a private bar which was handy, although I ended up drinking water as the service downstairs was all over the place and the beer selection was weak. I won’t linger on the service though, it’s Christmas, there was a home match for Norwich City and there are national staffing shortages, so these are difficult times and it doesn’t feel very festive to be negative. The staff were helpful throughout as well, so the ambience was all comfortable and relaxed.

    Liam looking at the arrangements in the private room before the masses came up. There were crackers and I of course promptly lost the hat as I don’t like frivolities.

    There was an awards ceremony for later on in the evening, which Steve and I had written in the afternoon. It’s an important event in the Hike Norfolk calendar and we couldn’t let it not happen. Here are the eight trophies carefully lined up.

    Richard waiting at the bar in his Christmas jumper.

    The starter of ham terrine was really rather good, I liked this.

    The turkey main course was less exciting and the pub didn’t burden themselves providing the promised stuffing and pigs in blankets. It was adequate though and all hot.

    The Christmas pudding in brandy sauce was also perfectly acceptable. Portion control across meals was a bit all over the place as well, but the service was efficient and seemed well managed.

    And then came the awards ceremony that Steve and I presented and is evident from this photo (look at that trophy!), I’m delighted to have won the most prestigious award which is “Bravest Walker”. That was for my very brave walking the 100 that I’ve hardly mentioned this year…… I’d add that I didn’t write that award, although I too would have selected myself as the winner if I had of done. I was very pleased that Susanna didn’t get annoyed at me for her very special prize, so that was a result. It was good to look back on the year and the camping weekend in the Peak District of course gave us many happy memories.

    After Steve and I had done our amateur bit of presenting the awards and taking quite a while over it, Rachel took over to be rather more professional. Rachel presented the awards for distance walked during the year on Hike Norfolk walks and to be fair, mine was a little limited since I’ve been away so much. Although I was also distracted photographing my trophy which I shall be finding a prime spot for. I think we had 29 people at the event and it all went well, so here’s to a year of walking with more gossip and stories ahead…. And thanks to Steve to organising the event.

  • Norwich – Spice Valley

    Norwich – Spice Valley

    A couple of years ago I was able to get some free food at Spice Valley in Norwich as part of their opening weekend, so I felt it was only fair to come back and try their food. It’s taken me two years to do so, but we meandered along to see how they were getting on. Firstly, it wasn’t particularly busy, they had one large Christmas party, and just Liam and me. The environment is clean, bright and really quite comfortable, they’ve done a decent job there. As I mentioned on my post about the Dog House, I’ve got a little out of touch with the restaurants in Norwich and since Indian cuisine is my favourite, I need to get back up to date.

    The soft drinks are over-priced and nearly the same cost as alcohol. Not ideal and I was disappointed at the lack of lassi and this is the first Indian I can recall in some time that doesn’t have it.

    The poppadoms and dips. These were inadequate and generic, with one of them having so much garlic taste as to be inedible. As Will said in the Inbetweeners, “I’m not expecting sparkling”, but I want something slightly interesting…..

    The lemon rice was excellent, actually one of the best of its kind that I’ve had. I went for the Chicken Dopiaza and the sauce was pretty decent, although a little too oily. The chicken was tender, but tasteless, I’m not convinced by the quality of the meat they’re using here. It was all at the appropriate temperature and was pleasant tasting overall though, so I don’t want it to sound like I didn’t enjoy the food. The service was attentive throughout and always professional, with everything being well managed and we weren’t left waiting at any stage.

    Another annoyance was that the restaurant was listed on Amex’s Shop Small which should have got me £5 off, and despite their card machine branding noting the American Express logo, they said they didn’t accept it. I was also annoyed that I wasn’t allowed to keep the receipt and nor were they able to produce a copy other than just a total of the bill which wasn’t itemised. I had already taken a photo of the bill and it was entirely accurate, but it’s shoddy to refuse a customer a copy of the receipt and actually quite brave in case there’s a query over the total.

    Overall, attentive service and a clean environment, but nothing of real note beyond that. I feel though that I’ve returned the favour of the free food of a couple of years ago now, but the quality they had at opening seems to have dipped. It’s fair to say that I won’t be back though and I will continue my little quest to find my favourite Indian restaurant…..