Sunday 15 May 2011

The Airways Diner - Norwich

1a Spitfire Road,
Norwich Airport industrial estate,
Norwich,
NR6 6EB

Parking available at rear of cafe


The Airways Diner can be found close to Norwich Airport on Spitfire Road.




It can seat a fair few people and was quite busy when I was there.



75p seemed a fair price for a mug of tea, not when it is barely warm though.



I had to hunt for the salt who had gone to visit another table.



When this uninspiring, flat and lifeless plateful was put in front of me I started to wish I had gone elsewhere.



The low point was those mega economy sausages.



The fried bread was really good though!


I have noticed The Airways Diner loads of times as it is opposite Bookers cash and carry that I shop at on a fairly regular basis. I had been meaning to pop into Airways for well over a year now and finally the day had arrived...

Upon entering - As you enter the counter is immediately to your left, above the counter is a large menu showing you what is on offer, there were 5 set breakfast options available which appeared to be available all day. You place your order at the counter and are given a number on a piece of paper, grab your cutlery and find a seat. There are quite a lot of tables in the well lit cafe, many by the windows so you can people watch while you wait for your food to arrive. 7/10

Service - The lady taking my order was friendly enough, eventually I heard "76" being shrieked out by another lady who bought the food to my table. Despite the cafe being fairly busy I didn't have to wait too long for the food. 7/10

Contents - 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 fried egg, mushrooms, beans and fried bread. 7/10

Presentation - Not too bad but not great. The sausages, eggs and beans were huddled closely together despite there being some space by those dire mushrooms, I guess nobody wanted to sit too close to the mushrooms and who can blame them! 6/10

The food - On my search to perfection I have come across many a sausage and the ones served at Airways although cooked ok were possibly the most economy I had ever tasted, imagine eating meat flavoured foam. The bacon was standard but nothing special, the fried eggs appeared a tad snotty on top but were infact ok. The mushrooms were a big let down as they tasted awful and must have been tinned, the beans were nice enough and the only real saving grace to this frankly disappointing fry up was the really nice fried bread. 5/10

Value for money - £4.95 is a fair price for a fry up but it wasn't very special and tea wasn't included so.. 5/10

Veggie option - I scanned the menu twice for veggie options but didn't see anything and the 5 set breakfasts all included meat.

Overall - If you work on the Airport Industrial estate then it is probably your only option but I would certainly not bother traveling out of your way to go there as it really isn't that special. It serves its purpose as a cafe on an industrial estate quite nicely though, they are making money and the customers seem quite happy. The fried bread is really good though! 6/10


9 comments:

  1. bloody orid sausages, even found a bit of bone or whatever other hard white material it might of been

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  2. I LIKED YOUR SITE............ THANKS FOR SHARING
    Norwich Airport

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  3. T C fines sausages I suspect!!

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  4. I worked at Bookers for nearly 10 years. There's a good chance we've met a few times, FUI.

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    1. We must have met and never realised, I used to call in fairly regularly!

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  5. Several points shout at me here, namely:

    1. Clearly pre-cooked and reheated sausages indicated by the broken skin (and just the word Bookers strikes fear into me)
    2. What is that plastic thing alongside the tea? What's wrong with a spoon?
    3. Sugar bowl or sprinkler beats sachets every time (Bookers again?)
    4. Inadequate portion of beans

    I can only assume that this is an aircrew/spotters cafe which necessitates transport so good to see parking available at this out of town venue.

    If you took the signage off the front, this could easily be mistaken for a 1980s NAAFI.

    When sizing this up against other contenders on this most excellent review site, I'm afraid to say that I won't be winging my way back.

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  6. When sausages like that are served to customers it is nothing short of an insult. The customers should then have the option of either eating them or throwing them at the back of the head of the person responsible.Harry. p+h. I will not visit this cafe.

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  7. Years after the original post, never mind...

    Before Fifer's Lane was redeveloped, when it was a site of UEA residences, back in the late 80s, I used to go to the Airway's Diner from time to time. There was a gap in the hedge behind one of the blocks in the residence site that let you get straight there rather than go all around the road. It looks like it hasn't changed in any way at all, it was always cheap and cheerful and the fried bread was always the best bit.

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