The Workshop, Norwich

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, and after a morning of cleaning the house, my Mother and I decided we needed a good vino, and some grub to keep us going so I had a brainwave! I had lived in Norwich for almost 2 years and had heard such great things about this quirky pizza and tapas bar called The Workshop. Now I have to admit, I travelled down Earlham Road at least twice a week for the past two years, and I had never seen this little place tucked away until I made the effort to search for it. I think this is testament to it's unpretentious vibe, and the non fussy nature of this eatery.

Outside viewed from Earlham Road.

First we ordered a white wine spritzer (which came with a sprig of mint in it, which I thought was a lovely touch and really added to the flavour) and then perused the tapas menu. As it was a lovely day we sat outside in the sunshine, and watched the world go by, but we couldn't help gorking at all of the other food which was leaving the kitchen - especially the pizzas which looked incredible! We were really intrigued by the continental tapas so we decided to order a few of the dishes which took our fancy the most!


Mediteranean salad and toasted ciabatta

We knew we weren't absolutely starving so we only ordered four tapas style dishes, but we made sure we ordered a salad including toasted bread so that would fill us up a little more, as well as being able to dip it into the yummy sauces! The first dish was a salad of sweet peppers, sundried tomatoes, mozarella and basil. It was so sweet and fresh, and the splash of colour really made you want to delve in and finish the whole bowl immediately.

Chorizo and apple cooked in cider and honey

We also ordered quite possibly the most delicious tapas dish I have ever eaten both in the UK and abroad. It was a dish consisting of spicey chorizo and sweet apple in this absolutely incredible honey and cider sauce. I could have eaten a bucket load, and when the meat and apple was finished we lapped up the amazing sauce with our bread too!

Filled greek pizza

We also orded something called a greek pizza, which the waitress informed us wasn't your 'average pizza'. It was very similar to a calzone, but slightly thinner more like tortilla bread which made a nice change, and seemed much lighter. It was still scrummy though...and filled with the fresh meditteranean flavours of tomato, spinach, pancetta and pine nuts.

Baked eggs with Halloumi

Lastly we opted for the baked eggs with tomato, paprika and halloumi. This is something I had never tried before but it was incredible. Runny egg york and the smoky paprika and parsely, went well with the creamy, dense texture of the halloumi...(the bread went well dipped in this one too - definitely a great idea to order some).

Although not a huge amount of food, this was all surprisingly filling between the two of us, but upon leaving we couldn't resist trying one of their homemade desserts (in our case the cannoli with orange marscapone) and saving it for our afternoon snack - keeping in line with the rest of the food this was also delicious!

Norwich I believe is greatly enhanced by places like The Workshop, it has a great vibe, the staff are friendly and really helpful, and most importantly (in my mind) the food is some of the best i've tasted in the city over the past two years. I will definitely be returning to sample some more of their excellent tapas, and also to try one of their pizzas over a few more glasses of wine with friends!

Also worth finally noting was their excellent selection of interesting and vibrant vegetarian options which can so often be overlooked in restaurants.