Jacks at Woodlakes — Restaurant in King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Jack’s: Where Cheesecake Defies Gravity and Drinks Come with a Surprise Twist

After a day of shopping, we decided to revisit Jack’s, a restaurant we hadn’t been to in years. We thought it would be a nice way to wind down the evening—little did we know we were in for a night of culinary mystery and beverage-related suspense.

The experience got off to a rocky start with my drink order. I asked for a pink gin and slimline tonic with no ice, and what arrived was pink gin swimming in ice, accompanied by a bottle of lemonade. After some gentle negotiation, my drink was returned, without ice but with the same gin, which now carried the unmistakable chill of its former frozen companions. Nothing quite like a game of “Spot the Ice Residue” to set the mood for dinner! I took this as a sign and wisely refrained from ordering any more drinks.

My husband started with a fishcake that, according to his review, had the aroma of fish but the flavor of mashed potatoes. My own starter was chicken strips, served in a bowl, because apparently, cutlery should come with a built-in challenge. Ever tried using a knife and fork in a bowl? It’s like fine dining meets an obstacle course.

The main course was the redeeming moment of the evening. My cod wrapped in ham was delicious, and my husband enjoyed his burger and chips (because, let’s face it, burgers are usually a safe bet). For a brief moment, we dared to believe the meal had been salvaged.

Then came dessert.

Ah, the cheesecake—or rather, the theoretical cheesecake. The chef himself delivered it, already apologizing before we even laid eyes on it. A bold move. It turned out to be a mousse-like creation, and my husband’s portion had suffered some kind of structural failure on the way to the table. It had collapsed on the plate, looking more like a cheesecake crime scene than an actual dessert. As I sat in stunned silence, trying to decipher what had happened to this once-proud “cheesecake” I suddenly realised that instead of the ice cream we had ordered, we had been given pourable, single cream. My husband, who doesn’t like cream, pushed the jug aside with a sigh of a man who had been through enough.

Determined to make the best of it, I poured some onto my dessert—only to discover that eating liquid cream from a flat plate is an activity best suited for contortionists or those willing to risk public humiliation.

The service throughout the evening had been attentive, and our waitress had done a great job, until the desserts arrived, at which point she was swept up in a wave of new customers. After waiting a while to flag her down, we decided that rather than spend the rest of the night trying to make eye contact across the room, we’d just go find her ourselves and settle the bill.

All in all, Jack’s was an experience. The food was mostly good, the service was friendly, and the entertainment factor was...

A disappointing experience, long wait, cold food and poor manners!

I visited Jacks on Sunday 13th April with three other members of my family. We ordered standard breakfasts with teas & coffee. When ordering, I asked if the hot drinks could be served at the same time as the breakfasts so that the drinks were still hot. The drinks arrived 15 minutes later and then the breakfasts arrived another 10 minutes after that. All the breakfasts were served on cold plates and the temperature of the food was just tepid. So much so that one of the meals we sent back to be zapped in the microwave. When it came back to the table it was missing an egg which was then delivered two minutes later on a cold side plate. There were only two waiting staff covering the whole of the busy restaurant, doing their best to keep up with the demand. To cap it all, Jack himself came over and swiftly cleared our table whilst my elderly mum was still eating her breakfast. Busy or not, this is rude and bad mannered.

We got our bill and because of the cold breakfasts, the price of one of them had been deducted. Nice gesture but we didn't want a free breakfast...we wanted four decent ones!

The whole restaurant atmosphere was one of rush and stress which didn't make for a relaxed Sunday morning brunch with the family.

All previous visits to Jacks have been really good which makes my last experience so disappointing.

Jack - I'm no expert but you need more staff and you need to slow...

Me and my husband are currently staying at woodlakes park and decided to try out jacks for dinner this evening and my gosh it didn’t disappoint! It’s advertised as dog friendly and they are true to their word on that. A lot of places I’ve been to that have advertised as dog friendly tend to pop you in the corner which makes me feel like a naughty school child! However we were very welcomed at jacks and had a lovely table in the restaurant. Maddy our cocker spaniel is well behaved and just sat under the table hoping for a spare chip at the end :) she was also provided with a dog bowl of water. Now onto the food. I went for the pie of the day which was chicken and leek. It came with a generous helping of mash and vegetables and lots of gravy. The pie was delicious and was a perfect end to a rather chilly day! My Husband went for a black and blue burger which he said was very tasty and he’s sometimes quite hard to please when it comes to food. One big thing I noticed was the amount of sweet potato fries he had! Most restaurants we have been to, if you swap chips for sweet potato chips you don’t get much of a serving, but at jacks the serving was plentiful! Very fast service, no waiting around. Very pleasant staff who often checked in to make sure you’re happy. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and are hoping to go their for breakfast in the morning before we leave for home. I would definitely return, even if not staying on the site. Thank you Jacks, big...