Giraffe Norwich review

Once upon a time Norwich had a serious lack of lunchtime venues apart from the odd sandwich shop, pub and chain fast food restaurants. More recently there has been an explosion of places to eat which means, on the whole that you don't have to queue for ages at a weekend to get something decent for lunch.

Giraffe is a nationwide chain which promotes food from around the globe. I've eaten at a few Giraffe restaurants before in London and Cambridge and so when Tootsies folded I was quite excited when I heard that it was to become a Giraffe. It's not in a dissimilar vein I suppose !

Thursday was an INSET day for Norfolk schools so I had son no1 with me and with some birthday money burning a hole in his pocket we decided on some shopping in the morning with a treat of lunch out before picking up son no2 from nursery. Son no1 for an 8 year old doesn't have a bad taste in places to eat. It's not all McDonald's and KFC so maybe I am doing something right. His initial choice was Carluccio's but we settled on Giraffe because he likes the plastic giraffes you get in the drinks there !!

We were there early at about 11.50 as we had to get back for son no2. We were shown straight away to a table and son no1 furnished with an activity sheet and crayons. He quickly decided on his meal (sausage, chips and beans) but the kids menu is quite broad with pizza, pasta, chicken and beef burgers, chicken strips and cottage pie plus fish and chips and BBQ chicken wraps. They quite willingly interchange chips and mash and there are veggies too ! Because we were eating midweek we got a drink and main from the kids menu for £4.75 which I thought was excellent value.

I went for the Huevos Rancheros which I utterly adore, yes I know it's more Mexican fare and yes I am possibly a tiny bit obsessed ! I could have chosen from the brunch menu or the lunchtime menu and there was offers again on the adult menu which seemed nice. I can't possibly go into details on the menu here as I'd be here all day but here is a link.

The food arrived quickly and was steaming hot, my only criticism being that son no1's food arrived 5 minutes before mine and no one made any effort to see where my food had got to. Son no1 got two huge juicy sausages, a smallish portion of chips which he supplemented from my side dish and some baked beans. My huevos is pictured above. The salsa was different this time to before and I wasn't quite as keen but it was still a delicious combination of crunchy tortilla, chorizo, cheese, black beans, eggs and salsa - what is there not to like ?? In my opinion though it could be a little spicier with a little more chilli heat but now I'm being picky.

All in all a good experience, fast and friendly service and some yummy food. We were in and out in 35 minutes which given we were in a hurry wasn't bad. The bill arrived super promptly when I said we were pushed for time and came to a not bad £20.85.

I'd recommend for a quick bite of lunch and it gets the kids seal of approval too. Just one thing, if anyone from Giraffe reads this PLEASE bring back your yummy cajun chicken burger, I was distraught when that was taken off the menu !