Gateway to the Norfolk Broads
The Norfolk Broads are a series of linked shallow lakes that are popular with English vacationers, watersport and birdwatching fans and windmill fanciers.The towns of the Norfolk Broads range from rustic resorts and quaint villages to luxury boating havens for sailors and sailing yachtsmen. Oulton Broad, a suburb of Lowestoft (actually in Suffolk), is located on the lake of the same name. It is considered the southern gateway to the Norfolk Broads. A relatively undistinguished village, it is, nevertheless, a handy stopover in a tour of the Broads, a place to launch or hire a sailboat or to stock up for a stay elsewhere in the Norfolk Broads.
Unfortunately, for such a conveniently placed village, Oulton Broad is something of desert when it comes to dining out. There is a Balti restaurant, a dubious looking Chinese takeaway, a pretty - if limited - tea shop, a couple of fish and chip shops and several pubs serving food that can only be described as dire.
An Oasis
Having, the night before, attempted to consume one of the worst pub meals I have ever had the misfortune to leave, uneaten, on a plate (recommended by the landlady of my B&B), I did not hold out much hope for my taxi driver's suggestion of the Red Herring for lunch. The restaurant turned out to be a pleasant surprise - an oasis of relaxed style and interesting food.This is a bit of an all purpose place. It has a front room that looks a little like a pub, a stand up bar, a rear restaurant and a lovely, brick-walled terrace with heaters for multi-season dining. On weekends it serves brunch (actually more of a largish English breakfast) until early afternoon and in the evenings I understand it is a somewhat lively wine bar.
The Menus
For lunch there's a large selection of tapas, sorted into short lists of hot and cold as well as fish, meat and vegetarian. The use of the term "tapas" is more about the idea of small portions than about Spanish food - the menu draws on the full international spectrum, from Continental and Modern British to Pacific Rim.Typical dishes, slightly larger than starter portions, include:
- tiger prawns in chilli,garlic and parsley butter
- slow cooked lamb in tomato, paprika, garlic and chickpeas
- melon with feta cheese, honey and paprika almonds
- duck liver pate with ciabatta and Suffolk chutney.
At dinner there's a shorter selection of tapas, along with eight main courses such as:
- slow cooked Moroccan lamb with chick peas, honey and glazed almonds
- red onion, feta and avocado tart
- red snapper with crab and pea chowder.
First Hand
For lunch, I tried Thai fish cakes accompanied by chilli noodles with bok choy. To be honest, the noodles, though well flavored, were a bit soupier than I expected and I would have liked a little more bok choy.But the fish cakes more than made up for any disappointment with the noodles. The four small fish cakes were golden and succulent, packed with crab, salmon and virtually no fillers, and beautifully seasoned and spiced.
Service was relaxed and friendly and the terrace (pictured here), a quiet, peaceful sun trap on a breezy day. With coffee, the whole thing came to under a tenner - about the same as I had spent the night before for a pub meal I could not even swallow and that is probably still glowing in a landfill somewhere.
Red Herring Essentials
- Where: 152 Bridge Road, Oulton Broad, Suffolk
- Telephone: 01502 566 499
- Price range: Inexpensive to moderate
- Opening times:
- Monday to Saturday - 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 tp 9:30 p.m.
- Sunday - noon to 5 p.m.
- Visit their website
