Sunday 8 January 2012

Tea and little cakes - Norwich

(Now closed)

17 Timber Hill
Norwich
Norfolk
NR1 3JZ

Breakfast served till 6pm Monday - Saturday


Tea and little cakes can be found on Timber Hill in Norwich city centre, not far from The Murderers pub.





At the rear is the open plan kitchen.









Inside there is a modern mix of kitsch and contemporary.





There is a full waitress service.





Breakfast is served till 6pm!





The salt/pepper dispenser worked amazingly well.





Yep, sugar lumps!





The tea is served in a tea pot, nice.





This is the big talc brekkie.





This is the veggie brekkie and it was screaming out for a veggie banger or two.





Poached egg perfection.




Having visited a couple of new cafe's in Norwich recently I was delighted to hear that another new place selling cooked breakfast had opened in Norwich, this time on Timber Hill. As they served breakfast throughout the day I was able to meet my fiance for lunch, she is not a vegetarian but told me she would try the veggie option. Great I thought, meat and veggie breakfasts both tested in one visit.

Upon entering - You are visually in for a treat as you enter and are surrounded by a perfect mix of contemporary and traditional, the contemporary seats and lampshades combine nicely with the traditional tables, dresser and beams on the ceiling. There is an open plan kitchen at the rear and and a selection of different size tables to choose from, each with menu's, sugar, salt & pepper and flower in a vase. The background music is at a perfect volume and combined with the sound of people chatting over their meal gives the place a really nice feel. There is a waitress service here so grab a seat and the waitress will soon be over to take your order. 9/10

Service - The waitress was efficient and when a request for mushrooms to be grilled not fried was made she sorted it out without a problem. My only slight concern was that she didn't seem particularly friendly but as the place had only opened recently she may well have been new to waitressing and a tad nervous still maybe? As we were in a bit of a hurry we went to pay at the counter rather than wait for the bill to arrive, the lady on the till was very friendly asking us if everything had been ok. 7/10

Contents - 2 sausages, 2 bacon, 2 poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, homemade baked beans, half a grilled tomato, mushrooms and toasted sourdough bread & butter. 8/10

Presentation - When the plates arrived on the table I was in two minds about whether I could bring myself to destroy the masterpiece that had been placed before me, presentation heaven! 10/10

The food - The sausages and bacon were good quality and tasted really good. The poached eggs were as perfect as you can get and went beautifully on top of the toasted sourdough covered in the delicious hollandaise sauce. The tomato was full of flavor and the mushrooms were about as good as they get. The baked beans were made on the premises and although I must confess to slightly preferring tinned ones they were incredibly nice. 9/10

Value for money - When the food is this good £6.95 is an absolute bargain. 9/10

Veggie option - Yes, as pictured above for £6. I really do think that a veggie sausage or something similar needs to be added though as just serving something without the meat does I'm told frustrate and irritate vegetarians.
*Update* The owners have said they will soon be adding something to the veggie breakfast which is great news!

Overall - Tea and little cakes are onto a winner with there fantastic environment and food. The poached eggs and homemade baked beans make a nice change and the breakfast being available till 6pm was a nice touch too, well worth a visit! 9/10






*Update*

Here is the veggie breakfast with the potato rosti which i am told is delicious!


*October 2012 update*

 The veggie breakfast was looking great with perfect poached eggs.




I tried the potato rosti this time and it was so good, as was everything else!


13 comments:

  1. Thanks for giving us such an amazing review. All the hard work and planning has obviously paid off :-) I have taken on board what you said about adding a little something to the veggie brekkie, and we have come up with a solution.
    Thanks again
    Bec and the team at talc :-)

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  2. Thank you for opening such a great place! The addition to the veggie breakfast is great news and I'm sure it will be delicious. You are the 1st place ever since starting my blog to score a perfect 10/10 for presentation! Keep up the good work and looking forward to visiting again soon.

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  3. I'm hanging to try this place after this review. A good breakky isn't that easy to find, and those photos make it all the more inviting! Well done on the blog and your mission - a very important one! Next time I'm in Norwich, I'm making a bee-line for this place. Thanks!

    Nicky.

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  4. Visited this place after reading this review and really enjoyed it. The atmosphere and food are both great. They forgot my potato rosti (the new veggie addition) but once made aware, quickly brought it over and it was worth the wait.
    Thanks for pointing this place out Fry-Up inspector - we've lived in Norwich for years and didn't know it existed.

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  5. Thanks for your feedback, glad you enjoyed it!

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  6. Lovely food but came out stinking of cooking!

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  7. Right, this is the one we are trying next time we go out ;) Those poached eggs look delicious!

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  8. Been here twice now and both times its been excellent, reasonably priced, accommodating staff, willingness to flex the menu to suit my complicatedly allergic sister, great atmosphere and very friendly.

    Definitely a gem and worthy of the inspectors seal of approval! Thank you inspector for your hard work!

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  9. Really recommend the TALC Big Brekkie, one word AWESOME!

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  10. Hi Fry Up Inspector!

    First time commentator, long time reader

    We went to tea and little cakes a while ago and found the breakfast was fantastic, however, I would urge you to go back and check it out again as we did recently.

    The breakfast was awful, the eggs benedict where hardboiled, the bread soggy, the potato rosti burnt to a crisp and the service poor. the only saving grace was the coffee!

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  11. I will pop back and try the breakfast again soon, thanks for the reply.

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  12. The Tea and Little Cakes cafe is sadly now closed :(

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