Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Norwich
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Norwich restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 10 restaurants in Norwich and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Norwich restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Norwich Restaurants
1. Stoke Mill
British, Modern restaurant in Stoke Holy Cross
Mill Road - NR14
On the River Tas, this 700-year-old mill was once home to the business that became Colman’s Mustard and has been run by Ludo and Andy Rudd since 2013. We had good, if slightly guarded reviews about its longstanding restaurant, but none of its new, more exciting offshoot – Store – which opened in 2021 and where Hazel Yuill and Liam Nichols won a Michelin star in early 2023 for their seven-course tasting menu at £110 per person (hence we’ve left it unrated).
2. Namaste India
Indian restaurant in Norwich
2a Opie Street - NR1
2021 Review: “Exceptional” Indian vegetarian and vegan cooking wins high ratings for this “beautifully decorated” little restaurant on a central Norwich backstreet – a family-run business operated by “people who really care”.
3. Benedicts
British, Modern restaurant in Norwich
9 St Benedicts St - NR2
“Great local Norfolk ingredients are used to good effect” at Richard Bainbridge’s inviting if simply decorated destination that’s “probably still the joint best restaurant in Norwich”, and as such “well worth a visit” for its “consistently good” cooking from a series of set menus that are pleasantly ambitious but without the excessive flummery of a classic tasting menu format.
4. Last Wine Bar & Restaurant
British, Traditional restaurant in Norwich
70 - 76 St Georges Street - NR3
2021 Review: “After nearly 30 years under the same ownership” owner James Sawrey-Cookson retired and this “well-loved Norwich institution” changed hands last year: bought by a number of business-minded regulars. Chef of three years’ standing, Iain McCarten is “well into his stride, but what makes this place so popular is the whole atmosphere (there is a real sense of belonging”). “Hopefully the new owners don’t ruin the formula” although change is certainly afoot, with a new outside terrace and adjoining brasserie section opening in autumn 2019.
5. Roger Hickman’s
British, Modern restaurant in Norwich
79 Upper St. Giles St - NR2
“French-inspired fine dining in a cosy room” – using “high-quality ingredients” and “intricately presented” to showcase “the skills of the chef” – has won a national reputation for this long-running fixture “in one of the well-preserved historic quarters of the city”. The ratings slipped a touch this year, accompanied by a couple of reports from erstwhile local fans who bemoaned staff turnover post-Covid and an experience that was “disappointing” compared with past years. But they are still outweighed by those who say: “We have dined a good few times over the years and the high standards have remained consistent”.
6. The Wildebeest Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Stoke Holy Cross
82-86 Norwich Rd - NR14
This “terrific find just outside Norwich” is an “excellent gastropub” with “really pleasant staff” – owned and run by locally born chef Daniel Smith, it’s “sister to the Ingham Swan and just as good”. Originally a village pub called the Red Lion, it was re-named with an African theme as the Wildebeest by a previous owner, and the name stuck. Top Tip – “the daily fixed-price lunch is very good and very good value”.
7. L'Hexagone
French restaurant in Norwich
22 Lower Goat Lane - NR2
Launched in 2020 by Frenchman Thomas Aubrit, son of a cook and nephew of a butcher, and English wife Gemma (FOH), this “very small” but very good Gallic outfit in Norwich Lanes has cemented its popularity with “simple good food” from a short menu featuring all the expected classics (e.g., onion soup, boeuf bourguignon). Thanks to the “very attentive” hosts, a “warm atmosphere” pervades both the miniscule downstairs bar and the 20-seat upstairs dining room.
8. Benoli
Italian restaurant in Norwich
5 Orford Street - NR1
“Oli Boon’s cookery makes every visit a treat” – “fabulous fresh pasta” is the key attraction on a “limited but delicious Italian menu”, which “changes constantly – at this “high-quality addition to Norwich” which is entering its fifth year; and the food is consistently a flavour explosion”. (“Oh, and Oli’s brother Ben has never worked here: he’s a lovely chap, but is just in the name”). Top Menu Tip – “the parmesan croquettes are to die for”.
9. XO Tavern
Pan-Asian restaurant in Norwich
13-15 Saint Georges Street - NR3
“A fresh and vibrant menu with a fusion of local foods and inspired cooking” inspires enthusiastic (if limited) feedback on Jimmy Preston’s funky two-year-old, which started as a pop-up and went permanent in late 2021. In early 2023, The Observer’s Jay Rayner also raved over its “face-slapping flavours” and “cheeky, magpie-like romp across Asia” (including XO seasoning which includes Frazzles, Scampi Fries and Monster Munch).
10. Mark Poynton at Caistor Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Caistor St Edmund
Stoke Road - NR14
Excellent feedback this year for ex-Alimentum chef Mark Poynton’s dining room in a country-house hotel a ten-minute drive from Norwich. The odd reporter feels that “the venue doesn’t match the food just yet”, but all agree that “you’re made to feel special as soon as you enter the restaurant” and that the food – which is exclusively from a tasting menu – is “fantastic”. At six courses for £49.50 per person, the entry-level option is particularly affordable.
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