Recently I was invited along to the opening/press night of the Cosy Club in Norwich. I went along on the 12th February with my sister and we had a wonderful evening.  The Cosy Club is in the old National Provincial Bank building on London Street in Norwich, a stunning building which has been made even more amazing by the transformation that has taken place on the inside. Cosy Club have really pushed the boat out when it comes to decorating this building and it looks so magnificent because of it! By looking at my photos you will see what I mean – it is breathtaking how glamorous and stylish they have made the interior of this new restaurant.

“Cosy Clubs celebrate the joys of relaxed dining, drinking and lounging in a fabulous, welcoming setting. – Think aristocratic abundance with a dash of local village cricket pavilion pottiness” —— Cosy Club

Upon arrival at the venue we were met by lots of people who, like us, had been invited along to the opening night. There was a great atmosphere and everyone was dressed up for the evening ahead. We were welcomed at the door and then taken to our table.

From the get-go it was obvious how happy the staff were and they were all so friendly too. Especially the lovely Hannah and Maisie – I’d asked them if I could take their photo to feature in this blog post and they happily agreed. Don’t they look fab in their work uniforms of vintage inspired clothing and they have such lovely, friendly faces – exactly the kind of people who you want to take your orders when you go out to the Cosy Club for a meal.

Once my sister and I had been seated a man came round and asked if we would like a glass of wine. My sister was pregnant so she had a soft drink but I went ahead and had a glass ….and it was delightful! I’m not much of a drinker so it was lovely and felt like a real treat.

Once we had received our drinks someone came over and asked which kind of tapas we would like to eat and we told them that we were not fussed really as it all sounded delicious! A little while later they then brought us our tapas and they looked so appetising as they were presented beautifully.

The Tapas we received were :-

• Crispy Sesame Chicken – with a soy & ginger dipping sauce and a coriander, chilli & lime salad.
• Halloumi Sticks – with chipotle chilli jam.
• Goat’s Cheese & Spinach Croquettes – with tomato tapenade.
• Feta, Heirloom Tomato & Lovage Pesto – on sourdough toast with fresh basil and balsamic glaze

The tapas are 3 for £13.95 or £4.95 each. So the food we had been gifted for our review had a retail price of £18.90.  I don’t ordinarily order tapas so I am unsure how much they normally are in other restaurants so I can’t really compare the price to other tapas restaurants. However I do sometimes order starters when I go out for a meal (and on the Cosy Club menu it says these are also ideal to have as a starter) and at £4.95 each these are good value and about the same price as starters in other restaurants I have visited.

The little dishes all looked wonderful and we couldn’t wait to tuck in! My sister was over the moon that we had been given Halloumi Sticks as they are her favourite! They were served with a yummy chipotle chilli jam and it was the perfect pairing. You got 3 of these in a portion which was a good serving size for a starter/tapas. 

The Crispy Sesame Chicken was divine and so crispy! Yum! I loved the addition of the dipping sauce as it meant you could take your time nibbling a bit, dipping it in to soak up the sauce, nibbling a bit more etc then having a drink. basically it was a great tapas dish as you could take your time over it and it lasted longer than a couple of minutes.

Both my sister and I adored the Goat’s Cheese & Spinach Croquettes. They were unlike any croquettes we had eaten before and we would both definitely order these again (to be honest we’d order all of the tapas again but these were a stand-out dish that we’d definitely want to go back for!).

The final tapas dish to talk about is the Feta, Heirloom Tomato & Lovage Pesto on sourdough toast with fresh basil and balsamic glaze. It was yummy and we both loved eating this. It had a great mix of flavours and it was a nice change to try lovage pesto. 

While we sat and ate our tapas it was lovely to look around to see so many happy, smiley people everywhere. Everyone had dressed up for the evening and there was a great atmosphere with a lot of chatting and laughing going on at every table. The staff were all busily going about their jobs and making sure to take the time to talk to people along the way.

I am so jealous of the uniforms, if you can call them that! , that the ladies who worked at the Cosy Club were wearing. They were a mix of vintage, style clothes with floral prints and stylish details. They all looked so elegant and the clothes fitted in 100% with the branding/theme of the restaurant.

Once we had finished eating our tapas and drinking our drinks, my sister and I took it in turns to go and look around the venue to take some photos. You’ll have to excuse the quality of some of my photos as the camera on my phone didn’t like the atmospheric low lighting of the evening….although I really did!

As you can see from the photos dotted throughout this blog post, the Cosy Club venue is stunning! As soon as you arrive at the entrance you will fall in love with the place and then once you walk around and take in all the decorative elements around the venue you’ll just decide you want to live there and not go home!

My absolute favourite part of the restaurant has to be the original glass domed ceiling…it is so beautiful you will not be able to stop yourself taking a photo of it! The other bits I loved are the chandeliers, the staff’s clothing, the food and the overall atmosphere of the place. Plus, I was impressed with the accessibility of the venue. There is a ramp so people with pushchairs and wheelchairs can get into the ground floor of the venue (where the public eat – upstairs is for private parties) and there is a spacious disabled toilet with a baby changing table.

I love that my sister can dine here with her kiddies as she can actually get into the restaurant because of the ramp and she wouldn’t have to struggle.  Also they offer a Kid’s menu and the kids mains are all £5.95. You can view it here cosyclub.co.uk/menus/.

The Cosy Club is open throughout the day so she could easily pop in at any point throughout the day just to have a cup of tea and a sandwich – it wouldn’t need to be for a full-blown evening meal.

Another thing I have noticed about the Cosy Club Norwich is that they have some fantastic offers on, such as:-

• Free teas for OAPs every Wednesday between 10am-11am. Free pot of tea per person, cannot be substituted for coffee or any other drink. Available to anyone aged 65+.

• Breakfast Club  – Any brunch dish and any size hot drink for only £8.25. Available Monday – Friday between 9.30am-11.30am.

• Tremendous Tuesdays – After 5pm choose any 3 tapas dishes and a glass of wine for only £13.95. Other drink choices are available, please check with your server. Premium drinks and cocktails are not included.

• Marvellous Mondays – Join them on Mondays from 5pm to enjoy a free drink with any main meal. Please ask your server for what drinks are included, premium spirits and cocktails are excluded.

• Teatime Tipple – Enjoy any 2 of their tongue tickling cocktails for just £9.95 between 4pm-8pm Sunday-Thursday. Note that Pitchers are not included in this offer.

• Hot Drink & Brunch Loyalty Card – 5 stamps = a free hot drink; 10 stamps = a free brunch dish. One stamp per hot drink can be collected any time, rewards are available to redeem 9am- 5pm Monday-Friday only.

So, all in all, my sister and I were extremely impressed with the Cosy Club Norwich, the food was amazing , the staff were so welcoming and the venue is truly awe-inspiring.  We feel very lucky that we offered the opportunity to go to the restaurant for their opening night and we genuinely think it will be a fantastic asset for Norwich. I am certain it is going to be a very popular place to visit , not only for the food and cocktails but also because it’s a fab place to take some great photos to post on Instagram!

If you would like to pay a visit to the Cosy Club in Norwich you can book a table online by going to cosyclub.co.uk/location/norwich/ but they do have a lot of tables so I am sure you can also just go to the restaurant to see if they have a table available, although I would imagine it will get rather busy at the weekends. They can be contacted on 01603 358640 or you can email them on norwichbookings@cosyclub.co.uk.

There are three private dining rooms in the listed building venue – AW Russell, The Vault & The Oval Office. You can book to use these by going to cosyclub.co.uk/hire/norwich. I had a little look around these and they are amazing spaces and the perfect place for a private party.

Opening times for the Cosy Club are as follows :-  Sunday-Wednesday 9am – 11.30pm, Thursday 9am – 12.30am, Friday-Saturday 9am – 1.30am and food is served every day from 9am – 10pm.

Now that you have finished reading this long review, Thank you, you may like to take a moment to follow Cosy Club on social media as that way you can keep up to date with any new offers they have running. You can find them on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter.

 

Further Reading: The EDP article about Cosy Club Norwich – www.eveningnews24.co.uk/what-s-on/cosy-club-norwich-london-street-look-inside-old-bank-1-5889021