A long way past lunchtime and having just driven a long way from home, we literally dropped our luggage off at our hotel and went in search of some sustenance. The Lodge Hotel, is also a pub and restaurant, and but a short walk from our hotel in picturesque Old Hunstanton. Initial signs were good, the Commonwealth Games were showing on a large screen at the end of the bar area, the radio playing a selection of decent tunes and a hugely impressive bar selection, which also had a section promoting World Beers. The restaurant was utterly deserted, so we sat in the bar area to eat our lunch, a good mix of sofa type seating and large tables with comfortable leather backed chairs. There is also a sizeable outdoor area, with seats both under a canopy and picnic type benches with parasols, in what was a well kept and sun drenched garden. We only really wanted a snack, so we both had a coffee and shared a BLT, with lemon mayo, an accompanying dressed side salad and skinny fries. All very fresh and tasty, and a good strong cup of coffee. A great place to wile away an hour or so.
We were so impressed, we promptly booked a table for the evening. When we arrived in the evening, the Lodge was much busier, both inside and out, a little bit of its lunchtime charm had ebbed away. Still undaunted we looked through the sizeable menu, all the old favourites like fish and chips, steak and gammon were there, along with more unusual dishes like a Keralan Curry, and Crab and Crayfish Linguine. Resisting my natural urge to try the Lodge Burger, I went for the Chicken fajitas, not cheap at £14 (£3 extra for the chicken) and my wife went for the Melanzane Parmigiana, a dish of grilled aubergines and courgettes, in a tomato sauce, with a mixed salad. The dishes arrived promptly, my wife's vegetarian dish looked good, but sadly the taste didn't match, quite bland really. The fajitas arrived de-constructed, chicken sizzling on skillet with green, red and yellow peppers, along with onion, as well as small amounts of guacamole, sour cream, cheddar and salsa. Tortillas were plentiful, but tasteless, the whole dish was OK, nothing particularly wrong with it, making my own dinner was fun, I guess. The accompanying Lindeboom Pilsener from the Netherlands was refreshing and went down smoothly on a hot summer's evening, but the dinner had not lived up to the chilled out promise of the lunch. read more
