The Bell — Restaurant in Breckland District

Nice historic restaurant bar and hotel. Came here for dinner and for the history. Presumably one of the older inn's of the town.

The staff seemed friendly and keen to help. I mainly had a younger waitress who was polite and took my order well. I felt like she might have perhaps be new to the role but that might just be me overthinking it. She took my orders well, calmly asking me to repeat if she didn't hear me. Answering questions and general serving was good if not perhaps a bit long. I paid the bill from another lady who was also friendly and asked if I had a nice meal, as we both jokily said it filled a spot.

I had a three course meal, of mussels (for starters), sirloin steak and chocolate brownie.

Despite being fairly pricey for me (6.49 roughly), the mussels was delicious despite not being a coastal town. It came in the typical garlic sauce and a piece of bread. All The mussels was well cooked and was delicious with the garlic sauce. They gave you a fair amount of mussels and a large ish bread to dip with the remaining sauce.

The steak was ok and medium sized. It definitely wasn't bad but I had better. The cost was kind of standard I believe (at 13 something) and came with chips, a roasted tomato, fried onion's and greenery. The steak was medium I believe despite being recommend at medium rare (my usual choice) so it was a bit more chewy and tough to what I'm use to however the waitress didn't ask how I wanted it (presumably because she was getting busy with other customers) and I forget to tell her which is fair enough. Despite this it was still nice and you could taste the seasoning which was not overwhelming and was actually quite nice. The main thing is probably the sides (tomato, onion rings, etc) which was all tasty and a fair amount other than only one tomato.

Finally the dessert was a triple chocolate brownie (about 5£) which like most desserts for me and my family was the best part. It was an ok size and included a scoop of ice cream on top. The sauce and brownie was amazing and the ice cream cooled the warm brownie adding that extra taste and sweetness.

Overall a good place to eat with a few historic and interesting facts/ things within and nearby. The overall cost was under thirty pounds making it about an average three course meal cost for me. With decent quality and taste, as well as a fair amount of food.

Overall a place I'd recommend going to, especially if you're interested in eating in one of the more older and historic places. Four...

Pros: This is my 4th visit to The Bell, the staff are just so helpful, and nothing is too much for them to make your stay as good as possible. Adam has replaced Victoria as Manager and is doing a brilliant job. From Adam to front desk, bar, kitchen, dining room, domestic workers all these staff are wonderful workers and are a huge credit to Greene King chain The bed, the room, bedding and towels, are all clean and comfortable. Food is well cooked to individual liking and there a good choice on the menu.

Cons: Rooms are very old and tired looking Peeling paint Peeling paper Dirty silicone around bath Cardboard under the bed legs to make bed level Carpets are dirty looking and despite them being hoovered daily there is ingrained dirt in the carpet Wooden window frames in bedrooms are literally falling apart, wood is literally rotting and gaping holes, you can see a clear view through the holes to the outside ledge and this allowing cold air in and very dangerous. For example I went to open the window and a lump of wood frame fell out and the actual window glass was loose as it had nothing to hold it to the crumbling frame. Window curtains are grubby to touch and smell dirty. Exterior grounds, in particular, the view to the river from room 1, is a sight of filth, and disrepair, the frontage needs a good tidy up as this is beginning to look grubby and uninviting.

I was informed on an earlier visit 2 years ago that The Bell was inline for upgrade/renovation, unfortunately it appears from this visit that this is not a issue for Greene King. I was to book for my family, 3 double rooms for later this year, however seeing that The Bell is so run down and is showing signs of poor decor, I did not book for this August. I will look for an alternative, and I am aware that there is another hotel just up the road from The Bell and have now booked there for the 8 days needed for my family in August. I will not stay at The Bell again whilst it is total disrepair. It is such a shame as the staff that Greene King employs there are just the best and are working in extremely poor conditions, but they are always smiling...

We chose this Greene King public house/hotel/restaurant as I had a voucher from GK for a previous outing at a different GK establishment which resulted in being overcharged and given a miniscule amount as an apology. As Thetford is local to where I live we chose The Bell for lunch, the place was all but empty both in the bar and restaurant and asked for a table which we were told to choose anywhere in the seating area, after reading the menu I went back to the bar to place our orders, I chose the Steak and Ruddles Ale pie with mash and seasonal vegetables and my wife fancied the Salmon Fishcake Florentine and after waiting for approximately 10 minutes a member of the staff came to our table to apologise for the fact that there were no fishcakes left but it could be substituted with a salmon fillet, not on the menu, which my wife was pleased to accept. When the two plates arrived the salmon in its Florentine sauce look wonderful although the sauce was devoid of any real garlic in the cream sauce, the Steak and Ruddles ale pie also looked very edible, the mash unfortunately was akin to dried wallpaper paste that was hard across the top surface due to probably being under a heat lamp for too long in the kitchen and allowed to dry out, the seasonal vegetables, carrots, peas and broccoli all of which were also very dried out like the mash, there was a small jug of gravy which I used to liven both the veg and mash up. A few minutes into eating our meals we were asked by the same member of the staff if everything was OK and to my shame I decided to not complain or mention the veggies or mash as I'd already laced them with the gravy to help and generally don't like to make a fuss and we were taking advantage of our voucher. The general atmosphere of the 'restaurant/seating area' was/is very very old and looked as if it hadn't been redecorated or given any tlc since being built, I am very aware that period buildings are very hard to keep maintained but even the tables and chairs were shabby in the extreme which made the whole experience and...