Following on from my post on The Window Coffee I also discovered a couple of great Norwich restaurants on a weekend break courtesy of Visit Norwich. First on the list of Norwich restaurants was a Saturday night dinner at The Baby Buddha Teahouse. This place is about a 15-minute walk from the main city centre but it’s a real Norwich hidden gem and definitely worth making the effort for. This Norwich restaurant serves up authentic Chinese cuisine. It has a range of Cantonese specialities including chilli salt squid which is covered in a slightly crispy batter, honey roast pork and Chinese hotpots. Admittedly as a non-meat eater there wasn’t much option by way of the starters so I plumped for veggie spring rolls.

But that didn’t matter (as a word of warning) – the mains are so huge you could probably skip the starters, or choose one dish to share between two. Even the portions of noodles were massive. Sharps and I had a serious case of our eyes being bigger than our bellies (there was no way we could eat it all, although we did have a pretty good go). If you do over order, it’s possible to get a doggy bag and take your leftovers with you. Baby Buddha Teahouse is one of the Norwich restaurants which also runs a take away service.

My main of Sezchaun fried tofu with veg had a real kick. I was persuaded by the very helpful waitress to go for the cho-sum seasonal veg with garlic as the other alternatives weren’t veggie friendly or would be too hot for my Western palate! There was a dessert menu but we would have exploded if we’d even attempted it.

The next day on my attempt to eat my way round more Norwich restaurants, we skipped breakfast to make room for lunch at The Waffle House in Norwich. This restaurant has been around for 33 years. Despite my initial hesitation at the idea of savoury waffles, especially as I’m not a big waffle fan, it’s easy to see why this place is an institution when it comes to Norwich restaurants. My marinated tuna salad, a perfectly cooked piece of fresh tuna on a bed of soy sauce, spinach, corn and served with a side of tangy salsa on a plain waffle was utterly delicious. After the first mouthful, where my tastebuds were getting used to the sweet and savoury combo, I barely noticed I was eating a waffle. Sharps opted  for one of daily specials above, pan-fried cod wrapped in parma ham with tomato and bean salad.

If you fancy dessert make sure you order a small waffle as opposed to a large one. Sharps managed to fit in a chocolate brownie waffle with summer fruits, walnuts and butterscotch sauce (with a little help from me). There are also branches of The Waffle House in St Albans and Capetown (the original owners were South African) both of which have slightly different menus. Next stop St Albans it is then…