Bites: The Clipper, Norwich

My good friend Matt & I have a tradition. Every month on payday we will go to a restaurant and have a bromantic meal. Well... it turns out that way. We usually invite a whole bunch of people but as we know, people are slack and don’t bother so the bromantic date happens.

At the end of March we went to The Clipper on St Benedict’s Street in Norwich for an Indian meal after toying with a few ideas and I’m so glad we did.

It was a Wednesday night so it was relatively quiet, just a few family groups and some couples so we got seated fairly quickly.

After no time at all our waiter – who stayed with us pretty much all night – took our drinks order which, quite naturally, had to be a pint of Cobra. I really like Cobra; it’s quite refreshing but rather fizzy and quite corn-like. I like it but couldn’t help but think “If only King Cobra was still in existence”.

As soon as our drinks hit the table, our waiter offered us poppadoms – two each would do nicely with a selection of dips. They were brilliant poppadoms which may seem like quite a relative thing as essentially they are just oversized crisps but they were everything you want – Light, warm, salted and they just work as a starter.

We then proceeded to order our food. I got a chicken kurma as I wasn’t really feeling the big spice that night, Matt got a Chicken Bhuna. We both got Keema Rice and a Naan each.

The Kurma was spicier than most, which was a very welcoming surprise. Still has the very creamy and sweet thing going on but just with that added kick that you needed, in fact, I think it was the perfect dish to go with Cobra.

Matt’s Bhuna was disappointing. Bhunas are supposed to be at least a bit spicier than it was. It was filled with the flavours you’d expect – Garlic, ginger, coriander & tomato but just lacked any kind of heat at all. It was nice, just a bit underwhelming.

The Keema rice was great, although not the best I’ve had. There wasn’t enough mince meat and again, it wasn’t as spicy as I was used to.

Naan bread was nice. Light and fluffy and great for dipping into the sauce and/or making a sandwich/mess of the table.

All in all it was a great meal. The food was good, the service was impeccable (so good that we left a much larger tip than we usually would) and it was standard prices. All of that for two of us came to around £34.

I’d highly recommend checking The Clipper out if you ever come to Norwich with a few pre or post drinks in The Ten Bells just down the road!

What are your favourite Indian Restaurants where you are? What makes them stand out?

Now to decide where the next bromantic date will occur...