Ciscoe's Pan Asian & Sushi — Restaurant in Norwich

This supposed to be a special night out to celebrate my birthday but upon entering we were directed to a shabby little table in a corner. The decor gives you a feeling of a depressing teens bedroom and due to it's size it doesn't need many people before the noise of chatting, laughing and swearing(we had our two young children with us) became deafening. It was a shock that for a 'premium' Asian style restaurant to be given cheap throwaway chopsticks was quite an insult not to mention my wife received a splinter from hers. Finally and unfortunately we come to the food. We ordered Yakitori Chicken skewers and Tempura Prawn Ramen for starters. We asked for a few bowls to share the Ramen. While waiting, the manager came over and attempted to take the dry clean bowls while saying 'I will clean away your miso bowls' we had NOT ordered Miso and explained we are still waiting for the Ramen starter. Embarrassing he went to check on the Ramen. The Yakitori arrived along with the Tempura prawns but no Ramen. We started presuming the Ramen was on its way. The Yakitori was quite bland and needed to be drowned in sweet chilli and soy to be granted any flavour. Eventually after ten minutes we asked where was the Ramen that the manger went to the kitchen to chase up. It turned out it was not prepared and had to wait another ten minutes for it to be made. Eventually it arrived and we shared it out accordingly. Again this was a 'premium' dish that was quite bland. But even as we were serving it out the mains came along which led to a confused rearranging of the small table. For the mains we ordered the Sushi lover's platter and two side sushi plates. At last these looked very special and something Ciscoe's could be proud of. We spoke too soon...the rice was low grade and nearly all the sushi fell apart when picked up. It was clearly made to look beautiful but eating it showed its true quality. Based on the other sushi providers in Norwich Ciscoe's has a very long way to go to be considered adequate let alone premium. In truth the only premium part of Ciscoe's is their prices. If you love quality sushi avoid Ciscoe's at all costs. To summarise what was supposed to be a pleasant evening out to celebrate my birthday with my family turned out to be an expensive lesson on how not to...

My partner and I ate here for date night. We were excited to try out a new sushi place in Norwich, and as far as the food goes, it was perfect. It was well-presented, good sized portions, and definitely among the top if not the top place for sushi in Norwich. However, for a restaurant to charge such high prices, the service left a lot to be desired. There were lots of small things that collate into a below average dining experience that not even the good food could save. For starters, the hostess seemed bored and disinterested. She had ask us for our water options before we had even sat down, and quickly returned to behind the bar to go on her phone after clunking them on the table. Our waitress was similarly aloof; she placed out plates down with a heavy hand, and would turn and start walking away mid sentence. There was no patience or care, friendly or personal service that could've made this place very memorable. The quality of the chopsticks was very poor; they splintered when being taken apart. You would think a restaurant offering £80 sushi platters would invest in decent chopsticks to refine the dining experience. The napkins are also thin and café quality. A very minor point, but the acoustics of the place made it very hard to hear what each other were saying, even though we were sat less than a metre apart from each other. I understand restaurants run on very tight profit margins, but I really see the potential of Ciscoe's becoming Norwich's go-to place for an upscale sushi dinner- if only the service could reflect the quality of the food.

You go to the restaurant to dine, but I feel this place does not currently value the dining experience. There's good sushi for better value out there.

(Also, the bottle of water ending up totalling £4.20. For a bottle of still water. That was ordered to the table before we...

I've been to Cisco's a couple of times now. The place has a nice atmosphere with some lo-fi music playing in the background, and a pretty trendy atmosphere overall. The waiters here are very nice, chatty and I have no problems whatsoever with them!

In terms of the food, it's pretty good overall, but there are some odd decisions that the chef makes with regards to it. For one thing, quite a bit of the food comes not cut, meaning awkward times eating with chopsticks unless you also awkwardly ask for a knife and fork to get it to a more bite sized chopstick piece. This is a particular issue with the katsu curry. It's not a huge thing really, most of the food is fine, just be wary with the cauliflower tempura or the katsu that you may want a knife and all is well.

Speaking of the tempura, really good! Highly recommend getting some as the batter is light and tasty. It especially works well with Cisco's cauliflower tempura, which is surprisingly filling for such a small plate.

The katsu curry however, was a little bit bizarre and not what I expected. The curry sauce was more akin to a thai curry with coconut milk added, so if you order this, make sure you're aware that you're not going to get that savoury katsu curry taste and instead getting a sweet and spicy sauce. The taste is fine but nothing overly special.

I would say this place is worth trying, but if you want a more Japanese food experience, unless you're after some sushi it's likely you're going to be a bit miffed, unless you get the tempura which is great!

4 stars here, it's a good place to chill for lunchtime and the staff are friendly and approachable, but some odd menu choices and a few minor nitpicks stop it from...