Tag: norwich

Posted on

Mushroom Tagliatelle

I was in Norwich for a workshop and staying at The Georgian Townhouse on Unthank Road close to the city centre. It is a really nice hotel, part of small chain of boutique hotels with three hotels in Norfolk, one in Mumbles, Wales, and one in London. The rooms are a real nice mix of modern and old. 

I went down to the restaurant, which has all the character of a lovely old pub, I had eaten a nice plate of food the day before, so was looking forward to my second visit to the restaurant. 

I had enjoyed my starter, the pan-fried scallop and crispy pork belly, which was delicious.

For my main I went with the garlic roasted Portobello mushroom tagliatelle with a creamy plant based mushroom and truffle sauce, pumpkin seed pangratatta. I had been tempted by the Pumpkin ravioli, sage butter, roasted pumpkins, sautéed wild mushroom, crispy shallot & pumpkin seeds, however I didn’t want to have pasta for my starter and my main course. I did think about asking if they would do it as a main, but I didn’t want to make a fuss.

Whilst writing this I checked and I saw on the menu of one of the other hotels in the chain, they do offer the pumpkin ravioli as a main option as well as a starter. Maybe I need to stay there next time!

Though I went with the Portobello mushroom tagliatelle, I was a little concerned, as in Leamington Spa I once had a mushroom pasta dish which I wasn’t enamoured with, actually disliked it entirely, sent it back in the end. So, I wasn’t 100% sure that this was going to be the best choice for my dinner. However I do like mushroom pasta, and I think the Leamington Spa experience was just a one off bad experience. I had a little trepidation as I awaited my dish. Having had an excellent starter though, I did have quite high expectations. The pasta dish arrived, and it looked delicious.

bowl of pasta

The pasta was cooked well, and the mushrooms were tasty. I did think the sauce needed a more powerful punch of truffle in there, but it was nice. I liked the pumpkin seed pangratatta which gave some nice crunch to the dish. I enjoyed the dish.

Posted on

Time for scallops

Sometimes when staying away, I see a dish on a menu, and I think, oh that sounds nice, I want to try that. Regardless of what other starters are there, I find myself deciding to have that dish. This was certainly the experience I had when visiting Norfolk recently. I was in Norwich for a workshop and staying at The Georgian Townhouse on Unthank Road close to the city centre. I have no idea if I had been to Norwich before, I thought I had, possibly on a school trip, but if I had it was over forty years ago. I really don’t think I have been there. I did live in East Anglia in the 1970s and 1980s but moved to the South West in the early 1990s. 

The Georgian Townhouse is a really nice hotel, part of small chain of boutique hotels with three hotels in Norfolk, one in Mumbles, Wales, and one in London. The rooms are a real nice mix of modern and old. 

I went down to the restaurant, which has all the character of a lovely old pub, I had eaten a nice plate of food the day before, so was looking forward to my second visit to the restaurant.

I looked over the menu, for my starter I decided I would have the pan-fried scallop, crispy pork belly, sweetcorn salsa, burnt apple puree & samphire.  I was very tempted by the Pumpkin ravioli, sage butter, roasted pumpkins, sauteed wild mushroom, crispy shallot & pumpkin seeds, however I didn’t want to have pasta for my starter and my main course. I did think about asking if they would do it as a main, but I didn’t want to make a fuss.

The pan-fried scallop and crispy pork belly starter sounded an interesting dish. I wouldn’t expect to have this combination of ingredients in a dish, and I certainly wouldn’t expect to see this kind of dish on the menu of this kind of hotel. However I have had scallops and bacon before, so the combination of pork and scallop isn’t unknown. I’ve not had samphire before so was looking forward to that as well.

The dish arrived and it looked very pretty.

There were two good looking scallops, two pieces of pork belly, the plate was dressed with the sweetcorn salsa and the samphire. Under the scallops and the pork was the burnt apple puree.

The scallops were cooked perfectly, just the right amount of caramelisation, but still fresh and not overcooked. The pork belly was tender, but had some crisp edges. The salsa was nice, and the samphire added contrast to the dish, whilst the burnt apple puree complemented the pork beautifully.

This was delicious, I really enjoyed eating it, and I certainly finished and cleared the plate.

Posted on

Roast Venison at The Georgian Townhouse

I was in Norwich for a workshop and staying at The Georgian Townhouse on Unthank Road close to the city centre.

I have no idea if I had been to Norwich before, I thought I had, possibly on a school trip, but if I had it was over forty years ago. I really don’t think I have been there. I did live in East Anglia in the 1970s and 1980s but moved to the South West in the early 1990s. I visited lots of places in East Anglia, and in Norfolk. I knew I had been to Hunstanton, Thetford, Dersingham, and Kings Lynn. But I am not sure if I had been to Norwich. If I had then it would have been once.

The Georgian Townhouse is a really nice hotel, part of small chain of boutique hotels with three hotels in Norfolk, one in Mumbles, Wales, and one in London. The rooms are a real nice mix of modern and old. 

I went down to the restaurant, which has all the character of a lovely old pub, and was given a nice warm welcome. I looked over the menu, well I had in fact already checked out the menu when I booked the hotel. 

I decided to have the roast venison loin, with sticky red cabbage, horseradish puree, fondant potato, rosemary jus, spiced seed granola.  It wasn’t too long before the food arrived.

This was a very dark red plate of food, and I think it needed something else to give it a bit more variety of colour on the plate.

I couldn’t find the horseradish puree, and the spiced seed granola had been replaced by some roasted mixed nuts. The fondant potato was okay, not quite what I thought it should be though. The venison was slightly pink, tender, and had a nice flavour. I also enjoyed the sticky red cabbage which had a nice intense flavour, and wasn’t too sweet. It was a nice contrast to the venison. The nuts added some interesting texture to the dish.

I really do think though the dish needed some more vegetables, to add texture and colour. I was reminded writing this, of the venison dish I had at the Hazelwood Castle Hotel near to York.

The venison was lovely and tender, and full of flavour. I enjoyed the vegetables, though I think I would have enjoyed having some more jus with the meal.

I think even some kale or green beans would have made the dish much better at The Georgian Townhouse.

I did enjoy the food, and I am being a little picky, but this wasn’t a cheap meal, and I think some slight changes and additions would have made this a much better dish.

Posted on

Minibar Economics

I was in Norwich for a workshop and staying at The Georgian Townhouse on Unthank Road close to the city centre. This is a really nice hotel, my room had a Nespresso machine and a small Smeg fridge.

There was also a minibar with soft drinks, beers, wines, and snacks. The minibar was also quite expensive, so I didn’t have anything from there. I appreciate that the minbar could be a nice little earner for the hotel, but I wonder how inelastic the demand is for stuff from the minibar. 

As an economist, inelastic demand means simplistically that if you raise the price of an item, then though the demand for that item falls, the result is that you in fact get an increase in revenue.

With an elastic demand, when you raise the price, demand falls by a greater proportion, as a result you get a fall in revenue.

Generally the elasticity of a product is dependent on the availability or closeness of substitutes. So in a hotel room you can either have something from the minibar or not have something. You could pop down to the bar, or even out to a shop, but that requires effort. There is the fact that there is probably a point in time when you want something from the minibar, and you really want it, so much so you need it. Then you are probably more willing to pay extra. Then there is the urgency, if you want something, but are willing to wait, or you know you are going to want it later, then the time you have will make it easier to find and source substitutes. So buying something on the way to the hotel, rather than waiting until you are at the hotel.

So as the demand for drinks and snacks in a hotel room, is very likely to be inelastic for most people staying in a hotel room, then it makes economic sense to price accordingly.

I think I would probably buy stuff from the minibar if it was more realistically priced. As it was, most times I buy snacks and stuff from the supermarket before I travel, or pop to a local shop. In city centres now there is also a wealth of small branches of the major supermarkets with longer opening hours, again providing more accessible alternatives.

One other factor that probably needs to be taken into account is the growth of online delivery services such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo that allow you to buy groceries and have them delivered, I wonder if that has an impact. I certainly have seen people have food delivered to their hotel from Uber Eats or Deliveroo. 

Maybe it is time for hotels to think about their minibar and minibar pricing. Though I should also point out that in many hotels I now stay in, they don’t even have a minibar anymore.