Cafe Zest @ House of Fraser - Norwich

Lower ground floor

Chapelfield Shopping Centre

Norwich

Parking available in Chapelfield Shopping Centre

Walk into Chapelfield Mall at any entrance and keep walking, you will get there eventually and it can be accessed on both levels.

Cafe Zest can be found on the 2nd floor of House of Fraser.

Queue up here and wait patiently, you will get served eventually.

The cakes looked lovely and I wanted one.

Im not sure what the lady was saying to him but he was possibly not too interested.

A good pot of tea for about £1.60 and a flag so your food arrives where it should.

No ketchup but fear not as it is available on request.

After the square plate shocker I focused on the food.

It looked nice but was it hot though???

Having tried many of Norwich's cafe's I decided to focus on some of the supermarkets and department stores. I was reminded about House of Fraser, to be honest I rarely go in and had never seen a cafe in there. I was walking through Chapelfield Mall recently and decided to search for the cafe inside House of Fraser and eat some breakfast..

Upon entering - The store guide made it clear that Cafe Zest was on 2nd floor so I jumped on the escalator and saw it straight away as I stepped off. It looked well lit, spacious and pretty empty but it was mid morning on a Friday, a number of tables overlooked Chapelfield Mall. There are no menus on the tables just some sugar, salt and pepper. Make your choice from the menus by the counter and queue up. 6/10

Service - I was behind one person in the queue and it seemed to take that person forever to get served and once they had been I was left waiting whilst some glasses were stacked on a shelf. When I did eventually get served the person serving me was polite, friendly and ensured I had everything I needed when they bought the food over. 6/10

Contents - 1 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 hash browns, fried egg, mushrooms, baked beans, half a grilled tomato and a slice of toast. 7/10

Presentation - When the food arrived the fact it was on a square plate did trouble me quite a lot as it always does. I took a big breath and looked beyond the square plate and decided the layout was not too bad though. 6/10

The food - At the centre of this breakfast was the unbuttered piece of toast with the rather nice fried egg on top, I got round the dry toast situation by popping some of the lovely hot baked beans on top. The bacon was really nice and cooked just right as were the hash browns. The problems started when I bit into the sausage, mushroom, and tomato... All had been cooked properly but were barely warm, it was almost as if they had sat on the plate waiting for everything else to cook. 4/10

Value for money - £6.60 for a cooked breakfast with hash browns and a pot of tea is a fair price if it is served hot, on this occasion some things were not hot though so.. 4/10

Veggie option - Yes

Overall - The place is light, airy and a great place to people spot. My expectations were high and I did walk away feeling disappointed. I honestly think on another day I could have visited, been served swiftly and hot food would have arrived. I will return to see if that is the case in the future but I have to base my score on this visit so.. 5/10