Friday 30 November 2012

All day breakfasts in Norwich



Got up late and fancy a fry up? Here's a list of places in Norwich serving all day breakfasts. Check opening hours though as some places serve till closing but may close mid afternoon. 

Click on the name to find out more information.

7 Surrey Street
Bloomers & Danish
Bond Street Cafe
Cafe on the corner
Charlie's - Norwich Market 
Compleat Angler
Copper Kettle
Corner Cafe
Drayton Road Cafe
Ed's Easy Diner
Earlham Park Cafe
Giraffe
Harriets Tearooms
Harty's Diner
Ivy's
Moonlight Cafe (Now Cafe Norwich)
No 33
Olives
Primo Cafe
Pye Baker
Stepping Stones Cafe
Storm in a Teacup
Sunny Side Up
The Ber Street Kitchen
The Cafe NR1
The Green Grocers 
The People's Palace
The Plasterers Arms (Weekends only)
The Street Cafe
The Muddy Cup
The Rumsey Wells
The Unthank Kitchen
UEA Sportspark Cafe
Woodgrove Cafe



Saturday 17 November 2012

Carluccio's - Norwich

Chapelfield Plain
Chapelfield
Norwich
NR2 1SZ

Breakfast served
Monday to Friday - 8am till 11.30am
Saturday & Sunday - 9am till 11.30am

Parking available in Chapelfield Mall





Plenty of seats can be found outside but as it was chilly we headed inside.



Inside it is light, contemporary and spacious, the chefs can be seen hard at work in the background.



It was time to try an Italian breakfast for a change, the full menu can be found here.



Sea salt is found in the small white bowl but don't expect to find ketchup. A delicious tomato and basil sauce is available though.



The cappuccino here is fantastic and served with an after coffee sweet.



Underneath the slightly untidy breakfast lay toasted Italian bread that soaked the flavours up nicely.



The sauteed mushrooms were really good and the tomato was packed with flavour.



The grilled smoky pancetta (Italian bacon) was delicious with much more flavour than standard bacon.



My usual fry up inspection Friday was looking a bit uncertain as I had a lunchtime dentist appointment. I was considering somewhere that served an all day breakfast but my wife reminded me I could bring my toothbrush along and eat before the dentist. I recently ended my O2 mobile contract and went with pay as you go on O2 instead. They are always sending texts about O2 Priority Moments so I decided to take a look at the offers available. To my delight there was a 2 for 1 breakfast offer for Carluccio's in Norwich, decision made Carluccio's it was to be then. Having read the menu options online I realised I would be eating an Italian breakfast so decided to forget about the full english for this visit and also base it on the usual price charged which most customers would be paying anyway...



Upon entering - Carluccio's is very big inside with a well lit contemporary dining area and further seating on the terrace outside. As you enter you first encounter a shop selling food, gifts and kitchen equipment, beyond this is the restaurant. There is a large hatch in the restaurant looking into the kitchen area where you can see the chefs busy at work. We were asked to choose where we wanted to sit and a menu was bought to the table. On each table is sugar sachets and a bowl of sea salt, ketchup is not an option but tomato and basil sauce is available if you ask for it. Once you have placed your order drinks and cutlery arrive first followed by the food. At the end the bill is bought over. The dining area was quite relaxing and as it was not busy easy to have a conversation in, newspapers were available if you fancied reading one whilst waiting for the food to arrive. 8/10

Service - The waitress was friendly and very on the ball ensuring the correct food arrived just as we had ordered it. It wasn't particularly busy and we didn't have to wait very long for the food to arrive. Pepper was offered and put onto our food (I would still sooner put my own on though!) and ketchup was not available but tomato and basil sauce was offered as an alternative. We were asked how everything was at the end of the meal but not continually pestered like you can be in chain restaurants. 8/10

Contents - Grilled pancetta (about 4 slices), 2 fried eggs, sauteed mushrooms, half a tomato and italian toasted bread. 6/10

Presentation - Hidden away at the base was the toasted Italian bread covered in magnificent looking sauteed mushrooms. To one side of the mushrooms lay a lonely looking half tomato looking slightly browned on top, to the other side a twisted pile of nice looking grilled pancetta looking crispy in places. On top of it all lay a pair of  fried eggs joined together, one looking really well but the other looking a bit over done on the yolk with a crispy, frilly edge. 6/10

The food - The grilled pancetta was rich in flavour, quite salty and tasted amazing making a nice change from standard bacon. The sauteed mushrooms were deliciously seasoned and perfect placed on top of the toasted Italian bread which soaked up the juices nicely. The free range eggs tasted great and the yolk soaked into the toast beautifully. The tomato was packed full of flavour and the tomato and basil sauce accompanied everything perfectly. A truly enjoyable breakfast Italian style! 8/10

Value for money - Colazione costs £7.75 and a hot drink is around £2 (there is also the colazione magnifica that comes with a hot drink and fruit juice for £9.75) so around £10 for breakfast and a drink. The food here is good and price is fairly standard of a restaurant chain. 7/10

Veggie option - Yes, plenty of veggie options available.

Overall - It did make a nice change to try an Italian breakfast and everything on the plate tasted fantastic and worked well together. Don't go here expecting a full English because you won't find one and their Colazione breakfast is not trying to be one. It The dining area was a nice place to eat in and the staff were friendly. As restaurant chains go this was one of the better ones I had visited, better still if you can find a 2 for 1 offer as I did. 7/10






Friday 16 November 2012

Places to visit soon..

Readers of my blog kindly inform me of new

places to visit in and around Norwich and I

am forever forgetting these places. I have

now listed them all and will happily add to the

list and delete them once I have visited each

place.


Please leave a comment if you can think of

anywhere else I have yet to visit. 




In no particular order....

Bloomers & Danish - Norwich

Cellar House - Norwich

Copper Beach - Costessey, Norwich

Lisa Lanes Cafe - Norwich

The Bull - Hellesdon, Norwich

Magnolia's at Taverham Garden Centre

The Barn Cafe - Whittlingham, Norwich

Into Centre - UEA, Norwich

Cafe 33 - Norwich

Cafe Francais Patisserie - Drayton, Norwich

Castle Carvery - Norwich

Brewers Fayre - Thorpe

Coffee 213 - Norwich

The Woolpack - Norwich

Premier Inn - Norwich

Butterfly Cafe - Norwich

7 Heaven - Norwich

Cactus Cafe - Norwich

Gojus - Norwich






A bit further away but if I get the chance I 

will also visit..

Goodies - Long Stratton

V's Cafe - Reepham

All things nice - Cawston

Rosy Lee's - Loddon

Posh Pigs - Beccles

Crown Carvery - Little Melton

The Old Tearooms - Aylsham

The Pigs - Edgefield

Friday 2 November 2012

Logan's Cafe - Norwich

5 Swan Lane
Norwich
NR2 1HZ

Breakfast served until 11am


Enter here..



Order and pay here...





Take a seat here.



Everything you need on every table apart from sauces, these are bought over in tiny clear boats.



The pot of tea came with the breakfast and the biscuit kept me going till the food arrived.



Plenty of chunky white toast with real butter comes with the breakfast.



The ketchup boat sailed across the table and docked beside the plate, fry up ahoy!



The food was good but the "no sausage" situation was quite a blow...



I was off to VW Whitenoise for the weekend so decided to eat a fry up before leaving, somebody on my Facebook page had suggested Logan's telling me it was a favourite of theirs. It had been on my mind for a while so I decided to head into the city to try it out...

Upon entering - There is a sandwich counter straight ahead as you enter the shop and having tried the sandwiches many times over the years I can tell you they are well nice so be sure to pop in and try one. To the left of the sandwich counter is the steps leading up to the cafe, when I entered there was nobody about about at all so a great opportunity to get a couple of photos. The seating area is not that big but as nobody else was there it was not a problem, it was well lit, clean and a great place to sit and eat in. There are menu's on the tables but these did not mention breakfast which left me a tad confused, I was eventually given a breakfast menu once the member of staff finally appeared. I ordered and paid at the counter and the rest was bought over to me at the table. 7/10

Service - There was no staff about when I first entered but for me it was a great photo opportunity so not a problem. The lady taking my order was friendly and efficient, though when she told me "we have no sausages as we are still waiting for the delivery" my first thought was to leave it and come back another day. I soon realised though that leaving and coming back when the sausages were in was not what my blog is about, taking things as I find them is where it's at so the inspection continued. I ordered the full english breakfast and was told I could have something extra to replace the sausage so I choose extra bacon. I sat down in the corner with a great view of everything going on, I was in inspection heaven but sausage hell. First a decent pot of tea arrived with a delicious biscuit, then the toast and finally the cooked breakfast. The chap who bought the food over asked if I wanted any sauces and bought it over in a quite odd looking clear plastic boat shaped container, it was quite a generous ketchup portion which is always welcomed. 7/10

Contents - 4 slices of bacon, 1 fried egg, a grilled tomato, baked beans, 2 slices of toast and butter and a pot of tea with a small biscuit. 6/10

Presentation - Everything was presented nicely, particularly the toast and tea. 7/10

The food - A nice stack of tasty bacon and a fairly good fried egg accompanied a very generous portion of baked beans and a nicely cooked, full of flavour tomato. The toast and butter was really good, hot thick slices that the butter melted into nicely. 7/10

Value for money - I thought that considering you get a good serving of toast & butter and a pot of tea with the cooked breakfast that £4.95 was a bargain. 8/10

Veggie option - No

Overall - A full english breakfast without a sausage initially concerned me a lot but I did manage to focus on what I was served anyway. Logan's is clean, the staff are friendly and efficient and the food was good. Fans of mushrooms, may well despair but for the money you can't go too far wrong, many places are charging £4.95 for just the cooked breakfast so getting the toast and tea included is a real bonus. I have revisited a few places now and Logan's is somewhere I will be sure to visit, I just hope they have sausages next time as it would most likely increase my overall score of 7/10 by at least 1 more point. 



*Update - November 2012*


On my previous visit there were no sausages available but I went ahead and tried the full english with extra bacon instead. It had always been on my mind to return though to see how great the missing sausage really was...



 Poached eggs were an option that were not actually available we were told as they had no way of cooking them so looks like the menu needs amending. 



 At first glance things were looking ok but upon closer inspection things were not looking so good.



 The sausage I had returned to sample was overcooked and frankly not very special at all.



 The fried egg was looking very runny on top.



 Very runny indeed!



It was the kind of egg that was best left!



I was hoping that revisiting would improve the score but things did not improve second time around. Another reader of the blog was also in Logans at the same time as us and he ordered scrambled eggs but got a fried egg. The fried eggs were seriously undercooked and not enjoyable to eat at all. I did think about mentioning this at the end but when asked "was everything ok" the person then turned their back on me to go into the till so I didn't bother. On the subject of eggs why put poached eggs on the menu when they are not available? The sausage was way overcooked and any special quality it may have had was lost because of this. The price is still fantastic as you get toast and a hot drink included for £5.25 but sadly the breakfast was far from being delicious. My advice would be less heat on the sausage, more heat on the egg, remove the poached egg option and add a veggie option. 5/10

Tesco - All day breakfast sandwich

Tesco all day breakfast sandwich - £1.80

Having tried Tesco's Breakfast sandwich I decided to see what a difference an extra 50p would make by buying the all day breakfast sandwich.


The items inside were much more easier to identify inside this one.



Sausage, bacon, egg mayonnaise and tomato ketchup were the featured filling.



There was a fairly generous amount of filling inside.



It was more difficult to identify the flavours but the egg mayonnaise and tomato ketchup did stand out. The texture was much better than the cheaper breakfast sandwich but the cold bacon and sausage slices had very little flavour. This one was certainly a bit more filling but I think I preferred the breakfast sandwich I had eaten the day before.