The Recruiting Sergeant — Restaurant in Broadland

We could tell on arrival this place was popular, with a full car park (still the odd space thankfully). It had a well considered interior and friendly waiting staff who offered a warm welcome.

Reserving and conveying allergies was simple by way of email, to which the Recruiting Sergeant was responsive and they really had some lovely options for coeliacs and vegans, not just boring old risotto, fruit salad and sorbet. Even the roast options were extensive, with about 15 choices!

It would be remiss not to mention the portion sizes here. The child's portion was my usual plate size and the adult's was enormous! Often a large dinner is a tasteless one, but these were flavoursome and hot.

Dessert was delicious too, again with a range of tempting choices and great portion sizes. Beautifully presented with a running theme (raspberry in various forms was the added touch this season) which was enticing and felt very well planned.

Really the only areas for improvement were a strangely designed powder room, with one door at the end which didn't seem to attach to the wall and could not be locked and the hand dryer being so close to the entrance it caused a near miss to both our children when an unassuming customer opened the door straight into them.

I've never had to mention great service as an area for improvement before but here goes. The attentive staff were almost falling over each other to be available, resulting in us being asked 3 or 4 times each if we would like any drinks, mains, desserts, anything else, coffee throughout. The table next to us received the same. So there were plenty of chances to put in requests. At the same time it seemed that with an agreed system, the waiting staff would be better informed as to the progress of the meal, so they could use their time more efficiently and avoid potential confusion.

Cannot recommend highly enough. You will love it. It would be great to know if the uneaten food goes to energy or swill sources afterwards?

Thank you for a lovely dinner, friendly and polite service and attention to order details and preparedness. Excellent. You are in the right job. This is the best meal I have had in Norfolk ever.

Update April 2022, another great visit and we really enjoyed the great wine choices and tasty food again. Remain happily content and...

Arrived at 4pm for Sunday lunch and the place was absolutely packed. It doesn't appear to be a pub for drinking. There are a large number of tables but the service is superb. We ordered an aperitif and this arrived within a couple of minutes. So often the drinks service can be so slow that your meal is arriving before your pre-lunch drink. We were off in a small cosy side room which can often be the death of decent service, but the small army of hyper-vigilant waitresses kept popping by to see if anything needed ordering or clearing. A refreshing change from the places where wait-staff appear to execute a task and steadfastly refuse to survey their surroundings to see if anything else can be done for customers. This kept up pretty faultlessly for the duration - further drinks orders practically materialising before you'd put an empty glass down. Lunch arrived promptly. Huge roast beef and roast pork lunches in our case. Very good quality meat and lots of it. Decent Yorkshire pudding. Nice fresh well-cooked green veg. We thought the rest of it was a bit bland to be honest. No space for a dessert sadly. A really good lunch overall and one of the best-run places at this scale we've eaten in...

I am not really a fan of staying in pubs. It always seems like staying in a B&B, but with noisier fellow guests. The Recruiting Sergeant, however, has morphed into a very popular and upmarket restaurant and although it still has a bar, the only place to enjoy your drink is in the garden, as all the tables inside and outside are reserved for dining. It was very quiet by 22:00.||The room was in a converted attic, with a very narrow and quirky entrance. The room was very small, but bed was comfortable. Surprisingly, the bathroom is much bigger than the bedroom would suggest, with a full-sized tub. On the downside, there was no shower, which made the morning get away a bit more protracted than usual as it took quite a long time to fill the tub.||There is no air con, and as the weather was quite hot (30+) and the room was a converted attic at the top of the building, it was stiflingly hot at night. I would recommend timing visits for cooler days/nights.||The dinner and breakfast were both outstanding. The portions at dinner were huge. I made the mistake of ordering a starter, so I couldn't eat most of the main course which was a shame as it...