Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Southwold

  • Southwold – The Little Fish and Chip Shop

    Southwold – The Little Fish and Chip Shop

    This looked to me like the best reviewed chip shop in Southwold and apparently there’s nearly always a queue. A queue is usually a positive sign (although occasionally a sign of complete incompetence of course), but it all looked tempting enough for me to visit.

    What I like about this is that they’ve made it idiot proof, so that not even I could get confused where to go. Customers go in the door marked ‘in’ when there’s space, they then order and then wait outside. The customer in front of me ordered what I think was four lobsters and chips, which is very much a Southwold thing to do I think, I doubt that happens much in somewhere like Long Stratton. Since that came to over £80, I was starting to be slightly nervous about how much my order of just chips would come to and even whether you’re supposed to just order chips at a decadent place like this.

    I nervously ordered just chips and was pleased when the server didn’t say “yes, and?” and he was polite and helpful. Fortunately, my portion of chips came to what I felt was a reasonable £2.50 and I didn’t have to wait, they served my order immediately. All very efficient, friendly and I thought really quite organised.

    This photo doesn’t do the portion of chips much justice, and I’m not sure I’ve had chips presented like this recently in a bag. In reality, the portion size was nearly too much for me, although I bravely did finish them as I’m very much against food wastage. The chips were chunky and were fluffy on the interior and firm on the exterior, and they’re cooked in beef dripping, which is the only option. I don’t have any issues with this, but it will of course restrict vegetarians from going. I thought they tasted fine (the chips, not vegetarians) and they were quite moreish, complemented by the sachets of ketchup I had brought with me (the pots of ketchup at the shop were at decadent prices).

    That’s Southwold beach in the background of the photo, it was a pleasant day and reasonably warm with not much breeze. Fortunately, there are lots of benches along the seafront as many other visitors were enjoying fish and chips, and some had acquired beer from the pub. All rather lovely.

  • Southwold – Lord Nelson

    Southwold – Lord Nelson

    I wanted to visit the Lord Nelson in Southwold as it’s the only pub in the town which is listed in the Good Beer Guide. I had half suspected a queue, as it was around 12:15, but I loitered outside the pub and a staff member came to welcome me in. For the first time, my phone really didn’t like the QR code for the NHS login, and despite some considerable efforts on my behalf to get it to work, we resorted to pen and paper in the end. I then nearly broke the hand sanitiser as it was a bit complex, so I concluded the pub must be used to more decadent and intellectual guests.

    The drinks menu, inevitably biased towards Adnams as they own the pub and their brewery is around the corner. The service was all timely and friendly, with the order taken at the table and there was an option to set up a tab.

    There are only six tables outside in the pub’s beer garden and I managed to get the second, meaning that there were four free. I decided, to be fair to the pub, that I’d leave when the tables all got filled, as they all seated four people and the pub might lose four lunches if I blocked their table. I liked that they never rushed me, never made me feel unwelcome and it all worked out perfectly timewise. I left after around 45 minutes and a couple tried to get a table for food just as I left, so everyone was a winner there.

    The Blackshore Stout from Adnams, which I rate reasonably highly as it’s creamy and chocolatey. And, just so Nathan is pleased, it was served at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature.

    The pub is well reviewed and the pricing is a little towards the higher end for food, but nothing dramatic. As Basil Fawlty says, “you’re a bit stuck if you don’t like Adnams” (well, he said duck, but Adnams fits better here) on the beer front, but there was a range of different styles of beer and cider. It’s got a bit of atmosphere to it, even when empty, and the service was all sufficiently engaging. Quite a decent place, and certainly not a bad recommendation from the Good Beer Guide.