Brunch at Frank's Bar

When we got back from our wonderful holiday to Croatia, WOTVM had the bright idea of going out for brunch the following morning to try and combat our holiday blues.  We strolled into the city on a gloomy Friday morning and after passing a packed Number 33, which had been on our list of possibilities, we narrowed our choice down to Frank's Bar or Pandora's Kitchen.  As we'd been to Pandora's Kitchen recently, we decided to give Frank's a go.

Frank's Bar (picture courtesy of their website) has a special place in our hearts as it was where we went on our first date.  It was a quiet Wednesday night and we managed to wile away four of five hours in the blink of an eye, although we did also knock back quite a few gin and tonics and rum and gingers.  We like to go back to Frank's pretty regularly although usually only for drinks; Frank's has built up a tasty-looking menu and really developed its food options over the years but aside from some bread and hummus, we've not previously sampled their foody wares.

The breakfast/brunch menu has some interesting options and after ordering drinks - coffee, orange juice and herbal tea - and spending several minutes agonising over our choices we realised that we'd both narrowed it down to the same two dishes.  We decided that sharing was the way forward and so ordered avocado, cherry tomatoes and poached eggs on sourdough toast and sabih, a traditional Israeli dish of aubergine, boiled egg and a tahini dressing served on a toasted pitta with a mango pickle.

Our brunch arrived quickly and looked amazing, with a nice little dressed salad garnish on the side of both dishes.  After taking a quick snap, we set about ruining the aesthetics of our dishes by carving them in two and swapping them about.  We tucked in hungrily - it was around 11.30 and we hadn't eaten since the night before - and we were very happy with our choices.

The sabih was very flavoursome, it had a background sweetness from the mango pickle which complimented the rich sesame flavour of the tahini and the deep, smoky taste of aubergine.  The pitta bread was slightly crispy on the outside and was an excellent vehicle for the Middle Eastern flavours on top of it.  The boiled egg worked well with the other elements of the dish and added some hearty chunks of protein.

The avocado on toast was very nice indeed.  The avocado itself was perfectly ripe and the poached egg was cooked to perfection, with the yolk oozing out over the rest of the dish.  The sourdough toast had a good tangy crust and absorbed the juices from the tomatoes, avocado and egg nicely.  Our only small complaint is that we could have done with a few more tomatoes, the ones we had were sweet and juicy but we only had one or two each and could have done with a couple more.  The dressed salad with both of the dishes was a nice accompaniment.

Our bill, including drinks, was just over £20 which we felt was reasonable.  The portion sizes were just right (other than the missing toms) and we felt nicely full but not stuffed at the end of our brunch. 

We'll definitely give the food offerings at Frank's another go when we inevitably make another visit.  The service here is always friendly and today was no exception; we love the table service that comes as standard at Frank's, such a simple but great concept for a bar/café.  It's a great little place and quite rightly a Norwich institution, if you've never been before you should definitely go.  The décor is shabby shic and suitably hip and cool, it's the kind of place you can just as easily come for a coffee as a beer, a slice of cake as some tasty mezze plates.  You can visit their website here and you can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Any questions or comments please comment below or send us an email.