A friend of mine ate at The Waterside Inn the other night. Despite the fact that he wasn't paying, and he's not a huge foodie, he wasn't that impressed. The golden plum soufflé wasn't up to scratch, apparently, and they had to send the foie gras back. My heart bleeds. Such extravagances (£200 a head all in) are beyond me for the moment and it's a source of anguish, but I'm finding increasing comfort in the excellent lunch deals available in Norwich. Eating out at lunchtime fits perfectly with the student lifestyle – the dinner menus are too expensive and I rarely have anything to do in the middle of the day - so I'm determined to make the most of it while I still can.
It's difficult to know what to make of Bishop's. After a glowing recent review by Jay Rayner (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/19/jay-rayner-restaurant-bishops-norwich ) I was immensely looking forward to eating there, to the extent that my excited gibbering managed to convince four chums to join me for a let's-celebrate-our-loans-coming-in meal. It turns out to be a place of contrasts. Our bespectacled Italian host wears an expression that says we've just walked in to his library to return a two month overdue book, but in actual fact he's a friendly and efficient waiter. The tiny dining room is cosy but nice and light, although the oversized mirrors are somewhat offensive. And then there's the food. I've never been so confused by a dish as I am with my potted shrimps starter. A generous ramekin full of buttery prawny goodness, with a nice sweet shallot touch, is betrayed by a comically stingy portion of bread. Suddenly, Signore librarian is nowhere to be found, which proves to be a problem across the table too as a nicely made and properly smoky ham hock terrine also suffers from half baked frugality. This is annoying but perhaps I was unwise to ignore the combination of garlic aioli and dapple gallette (a big cheese crisp to those of you in the cheap seats) which accompany a pepper and aubergine roll. Lesson learned: when someone next offers you garlic and cheese together, don't turn it down.
Mains don't mess about, by which I mean they're all about meat and gravy, and normally I wouldn't complain about that. But today I can actually, as whilst my Guinea fowl is satisfyingly soft and surprisingly flavoursome (somewhere between chicken and pheasant for the uninitiated), it is let down by its' entourage. I forget now how fennel, mustard, lemon and tarragon are meant to be arranged around the sweet meat but they're four pretty big hitters in the world of flavour and you'd think they could have organised a better shindig than what I get, which is a bland little pile of fennel and an anaemic sauce. Confit duck is more impressive - it's seductively crispy and the meat falls off the bone just the way you want it to. It comes with nice cabbage and roast spuds although there aren't quite enough of them, nor of the cherry sauce, which is roundly raved about.
Three of us manage to man up and face our dessert destiny, and sure enough we're taken three different ways. My path is the stickiest – it genuinely pains me to report a below-par treacle tart. There's way too much orange marmalade, the soft 'n' chewy treacle filling is totally overwhelmed, and the pastry's soggy. Crème brulée fares better – which is clear from the satisfying sound of the first crackle of spoon on sugar to the delightful, orange scented (pastry chef take note) cream. And finally, a “rich dark chocolate pot” reveals itself to be about half a pint of dense, buttery cocoa of an intensity that would make the woman off the M&S adverts blush. This is not just a chocolate pot... it's a heart attack in a glass. We can't finish it between 5 of us.
If you think I've done a lot of nit-picking, you're absolutely right. This is the kind of scrutiny I'd give to a far more expensive eatery, the kind I can't afford right now. At £15.50 for three courses this is bloody good value, even if it is a shade pricier than St. Benedict's or 20 St. John's. Bishop's is not without it's flaws, but it's a good and timely reminder that even if I miss the soufflés and goose livers of the Michelin world, I definitely don't miss paying ten times the price for them.
