Prelude Restaurant in Norwich

Reviews

1. Rosemary ★★☆☆☆

   My friend and I had a meal at Prelude before watching House of Ghosts. We were very disappointed as previous meals there have been very good. Bread which came with the starters was very dry and there was no butter. We had to ask for some. The cassoulet with butter beans had mainly beans and very little belly pork. The charred cabbage was practically impossible to cut. The choice of main courses was very limited and this dish was the only thing we felt we wanted. The dessert was equally disappointing. A cold lump of ginger cake with some sort of sauce. Will definitely not eat there again.

   almost 8 months ago
2. Maureen Franks ★★★☆☆

   Well I wanted to like the experience before the concert BUT- on a very small menu of 5 mains - they had run out of the fish dish.Choosing brisket, I asked to swap polenta for potato. 'Yes.' Got the polenta! A different waitress took it back to swap it for potato. BRISKET Well cooked. No real sauce to speak of and frazelled cavalo nero. Just not a lovely meal.

   almost 9 months ago
3. G Gray ★☆☆☆☆

   Very disappointed, won't be going back! Main meals - my friend had the Smoked sausage, braised butterbean cassoulet with pork belly, charred caraway cabbage and saffron aioli. She noticed that she had no pork belly and informed the waitress, who went to the kitchen and brought back a small bowl with 3 very small, less then inch square, pieces of pork belly, we did think that the plate would be taken back to the kitchen for the chef to place the missing belly pork on! But putting them on her plate she noticed that they were dried up and burnt, as in black burnt on top and over cooked, surprised that a chef thought it was okay and would let food go out on a plate like this!!! The very thick wedge of cabbage, wasn't charred it was burnt black around edges the middle was hard and had so many caraway seeds all you got was a perfume taste, that with warmed up aioli on top was not good and inedible, the butter bean cassoulet could have had more sauce …... Best thing was the sausage. I had the Slow-cooked brisket, crisp thyme and Parmesan polenta, salsa verde and cavelo nero. The brisket was dry, polenta was not crisps they were over deep fried chips stuck together, hard and hardly any polenta inside not nice. Salsa verde was not a verde it was tomato salsa! Waitress came to ask if everything was okay and my friend said 'no-cabbage burnt and belly pork burnt, unable to eat' she offered meal replacement, but was put off by what she saw on her plate and by the time a new meal would come I would have finished. The bill came with no goodwill gesture, when asked the waitress explained she had already spoken to her manager, that’s telling in its self!, the manager asked her if she offered a replacement meal and as she had then... no! I would've expected the manager to have come to our table, knowing the waitress had pointed out about the meal being incomplete when served and then burnt. Our waitress was very good, polite and apologetic, we reassured her that she was fine and the issues were not her fault. Hind sight I should have asked for the manager to come to us but thought at the time to show good customer service the manager would have come over. We will not be going back, already told friends and daughter who is going on Saturday not to eat there. Not impressed by food and definitely the manager for putting it all on the waitress and not showing up personally at our table to offer apologies for incomplete burnt meal served! Perhaps the manager can not handle complaints from a customer? And the chef needs to take pride in presentation and taste of all his plates that go out to customers, I would have liked to have seen him sit down and eat the food that was served !!

   almost 9 months ago

1. Jane Templeman ★★★★★

   We were visiting from Yorkshire and as regular theatre visitors and like to visit theatres out of our area. I looked up what Norwich as to offer. After show tickets were booked I found out about Prelude. Fast forward a few weeks and we really enjoyed our experience at Prelude, a nice menu where my picky two people can pick a 3 course meal. It's not very often that we can all pick from a set menu and choose things that we all like. The food was delicious and we all tried something new with no disappointment. We choose to eat our dessert in the interval, if we visited again I don't think I would opt for the 3rd course as I was pogged from the previous two courses.

   1 year ago
2. Simon Rossiter ★★★★★

   Great pre show meal. Sea bass, lamb, lemon posset and cheesecake. Good service, slight mix up with the bill which was resolved. Great value for money. You can also order interval drinks and dessert to have at your table!

   almost 3 years ago
3. Colin Day ★★★★★

   Having dined for the first time at Prelude we were somewhat shocked at the negative reviews. Our visit was extremely pleasant. It made our trip to the theatre and the overall experience so much more enjoyable. We went on the Saturday of the last night performance of Peaky Binders. The staff were most helpful, pleasant and efficient. It was a nice touch that some were wearing Peaky Binders caps. All of the waiting team, all females incidentally were smartly dressed in light blue shirts and jeans; why some reviews have thought it inappropriate we could not see why. A nice bubbly atmosphere in the restaurant. The menu albeit not large was adequate, given that some customers clearly arrive late due to traffic hold ups etc.’ which leaves only a relatively short period of time before the performance starts. Portions were fine for us but as some of the reviews mentioned, they are not large. The food was nicely presented, hot and on warm plates. We were able to leave our coats on our chairs and thereby avoiding having to take them into the theatre as the table is booked for you for the evening. We mention this because there is no cloakroom facility for the theatre in general. We ordered our interval drinks and they were waiting for us when we returned during the break. Overall this is not fine dining it is a service of a pre-theatre meal within the confines of the theatre building, only a very, very short walk to the auditorium. We loved it and this very first visit will definitely not be our last. We sincerely felt there was absolutely nothing to dislike. A fabulous evening at the Theatre Royal Norwich.

   almost 3 years ago

1. Diane Rice ★★★★★

   Awesome dining experience, lovely food and ambience, and fabulous attentive staff. Best place we've eaten out at for a long time.

   almost 3 years ago
2. Barry Rainbird ★★★★★

   Excellent meal after panto. Very relaxing meal everyone really enjoyed themselves. Staff were very good even though it was very busy.

   almost 3 years ago
3. John Hughes ★★★★★

   Lovely food. They timed everything well knowing we were going into a show after. Loved having the table for the interval. Instead of buying smallest ever tub of ice cream we headed back into Prelude for desserts and coffees,which were waiting for us. Great night out with the show in the middle.

   almost 3 years ago

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