Sunday 2 February 2014

Mandy's Diner - Brooke

(Now closed)

1 Brooke Industrial Park
Norwich Road
Brooke
Norfolk
NR15 1HJ

Opening Hours
Mon - Fri 
8am till 3pm

Saturday 
9am till ?

Breakfast served all day



With no information online regarding opening times I stopped by the day before to ensure they would be open when I visited the next day.




The diner is fairly big and has a distinct formula 1 theme.




The big daddies breakfast sounded great and nice to see fried bread and black pudding  on the menu. The free tea or coffee with every breakfast made it great value for money.




Daddies sauces wait for big daddies breakfast.




A large mug of instant coffee came with the breakfast.




The big daddies breakfast was really big and served piping hot on a large oval plate.




The fried bread was excellent and arrived on a side plate.




Quality sausages, tasty bacon and I couldn't resist ordering a slice of black pudding.




A lovely pair of fried eggs and golden crisp saute potato slices, nice!




The mushrooms were excellent and lined up neatly beside the sea of beans in a nice thick sauce.



 
A really enjoyable breakfast!




I regularly drive past Mandy's Diner in Brooke and had been meaning to visit for a long time. With most of Norwich's cafes now covered I decided to finally visit Mandy's, I looked online for opening times but couldn't find anything so stopped by the day before my visit to check when they would be open. With breakfasts served till 3pm I decided to visit at lunchtime...


Upon entering - Mandy's Diner has its own car park beside it so parking is no problem. Inside is bright and colourful with a formula 1 theme throughout, plenty of good sized tables can be found with a menu, salt, pepper, sugar and sauces on each one. Place your order at the counter and pay on your way out, drinks and food are brought over to your table when they are ready. Plenty of newspapers are available if you fancy having a read whilst waiting for the food to arrive. It has a good atmosphere and was a nice environment to dine in. 8/10

Service - The chap serving me was friendly and welcoming, I placed my order and was told everything would be brought over to me. The drink arrived first and shortly after that the food, whilst eating it I was asked if everything was ok. The pace here felt good, everything being done in good time but not at all hectic. 9/10

Contents - 2 sausages, 2 bacon, 1 slice of black pudding, 2 fried eggs, saute potatoes, mushrooms (or tomatoes) fried bread (or toast) and tea or coffee. 9/10

Presentation - It certainly looked impressive when it arrived on the large oval plate. A sea of beans in the centre had a neat row of mushrooms lined up along the bottom edge. A generous stack of golden saute potatoes looking bubbly and crisp sat to the right of the plate, to the left the sausages, bacon and black pudding. At the top lay a very nice looking pair of fried eggs, the fried bread was served on a separate plate looking golden crisp and delicious. 8/10

The food - The sausages were decent quality with great taste and a good meaty texture, the black pudding was nicely cooked and the bacon was really tasty with a good flavour. The saute potato slices were delicious, not over oily and cooked till golden crisp to the point where they start to bubble slightly but with a nice fluffy centre, perfect dipped in ketchup. The fried eggs were beautifully cooked with lovely runny yolks and the mushrooms tasted great. I was delighted to discover a golden crisp fried bread that was not holding too much oil, perfect dipped in the egg yolks. The beans were cooked till the sauce goes quite thick and stodgy, just how I like them! 9/10

Value for money - The big daddies breakfast with black pudding and a hot drink included came to £7. A good price for such a large and tasty breakfast that is cooked so nicely. 8/10

Veggie option - No

Overall - A great diner run by friendly staff, offering great food at a reasonable price. It is always nice to see fried bread on the menu and the black pudding option is a welcome sight too. A vegetarian breakfast would make a good addition to the breakfast menu and choosing between tomatoes and mushrooms was a tough choice but I imagine you could possibly pay a bit extra and have both. If you are in Brooke it is well worth visiting Mandy's Diner for this great breakfast, saute potato slices have never tasted so good! 8.5/10



6 comments:

  1. Surely for that price you should have had both tomato and mushrooms. Doubt if a veggie would have given it 8.5/10...

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    1. £7 for the largest breakfast on the menu including a hot drink is not bad at all. Indeed it would have been nice to have had both mushrooms and tomatoes but with fried bread and black pudding on the plate it was ticking a lot of other boxes. Fair point about vegetarians.

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  2. D'you think they'd react well to an ad-hoc request for a veggie breakfast? Seeing as they have the essential ingredients (I'm happy with 'everything else', substitutes like veggie sausages or halloumi are okay but not mandatory).

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    1. They seemed like nice people that I imagine would happily do the breakfast without the meat. Some veggie sauasages replacing the meat served with everything else would make a great addition to the menu.

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  3. In this sentence, I believe you meant "addition" instead of "edition": "A vegetarian breakfast would make a good edition ... " Otherwise a great website! -- TXC from New York City

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    Replies
    1. Well spotted and thanks for pointing it out to me, cheers! :-)

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