Fatso’s Norwich – A Dads Dinner Review

Fatso’s is an American Themed Restaurant Local to Norwich with 2 locations, its been around for many years however after some relocations etc..the one we attended was on the Riverside complex. Boo and I were attending to sample the menu and investigate the Children’s menu more in-depth.

We have been to Fatsos several times over the years across their locations, including the former Great Yarmouth one where we had attended fairly regularly at the time, however in recent years we haven’t been, I think we had been once in 6 or 7 years, so with there newer location, we thought we would give it go. Having a Fussy family I was hopefully being an American style restaurant there were simpler Dishes for them, so I was eager to see what was on offer.

The restaurant itself is quite open, with a view into the kitchen and Bar, it was deceivingly big with several booths seating, near the back you can view straight onto the river. The lighting is terrible for pictures lol, but it has the quicker American style things dotted around including neon lights type, and several American type references on the wall.

Starters…

For starters, Boo went for her normal, Halloumi! where ever she can get it she will have it lol, these Fries though were a little larger than I normally have seen, unfortunately, they were perhaps a little overdone and crispy, inside was still nice as its warm cheese lol, but not exactly pleasing on the eye.

For myself I choose Chicken Wings, these can be done in 3 different coatings, a hot Louisiana, Barbeque or sweet and smokie bourbon. they also come with two dips, the sauce you choose and a blue cheese one, with celery sticks. I had decided on BBQ but I loved blue cheese so I was more than fine, if there had been hot I can understand the celery sticks and blue cheese to balance it out. These were good, there is a bucket option for more to share as well.

Main Course…

Mains was an easy one to decide, they regularly have offers for Loyalty cardholders, (which we took out there and then) and this month’s offers were 2 for 1 burger, there is a whole host of other items like steaks, Fajitas, chicken, ribs etc… Boo is a fussy eater so she went for a C&B Burger, just cheese and bacon… with Fries, this looked good, the bun was a bit big for the width of the burger but still, it was a good size burger,

what was also good was the bacon, it was a normal slice! many places, especially American do smokey streaky bacon, which is fine for me but not for Boo, so to have normal pieces of bacon was a welcome change.

I went for a Sea&Land burger, essentially with Prawns and Marie rose Dressing (thousand Island), I love this combination when it comes to burgers, I would have liked more sauce but it was still fine, with it I wanted to do something different, so opted for Curly fries, to be honest these are just like normal curly fries, which is no bad thing at all.

Desserts…

Desserts, there are a few options now, a selection of Sundaes, Super shakes, Waffles, Freakshakes (very in at moment) and a few others like Brownies, Cheesecakes, Fudgecakes. Boo opted for a Monster Mint Sundae, with Icecream, mint sauce, chocolate brownie pieces, and chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

It didn’t look the most appealing as there were big gaps between layers of the Glass, but the brownie pieces were almost inedible, I assumed they had been in the chiller, though boo felt they were a little stale as well, they were almost like a hard biscuit to bite through, with just a solid mass inside.

She didn’t eat them all for obvious reasons. I opted for the OMG! chocolate Fudge cake as for me this is always a reliable choice, much like Boos brownie, mine was stone cold, a little whipped cream on the sides, and some chocolate sauce over the plate. The cake was fine, I wasn’t wowed, it was ok to eat, it wasn’t hard like the Brownies but it was just really cold, I then thought to myself in restaurants you often have a choice of Cream or ice cream, and the cake itself can be cold or hot, but hey ho.

Kids Options…

The kids menu, focused around main course and dessert for £6.95, with the choice of Pizza,Ribs, Fish fingers, Hot dog, Burger, Nuggets, Fajita and mac cheese bits, so very traditional but still a good selection and most come with a choice of potato, and desserts being DIY Sundae, Fruit Salad, Banana and ice cream, and Dipping Doughnuts. 

You can also add Beans or Salad to your meal and you will need to buy the drinks separately, I do think this is all a bit odd. £6.95 is not cheap, but you are getting two courses, but why? in a world now that we have kids eat free, offers for 2 or 3 courses, drinkings included etc.. I don’t like this setup, the drink option s poor and actually unhealthy, there’s milk, that’s it, the rest are either fruit shoots or fizzy.

I like that you can add salad and beans but again for healthy options, this should be just standard, and in my case, I don’t want a dessert for my children, why isn’t there an alternative price or option, some have starts or desserts as its option. The good part of all of this is the portion sizes as like the adults they are a good size, but there’s an argument to say that portion control should be smaller, thus a cheaper price.

Overall…

Overall the menu, the decor, the food all feels old school Fatso’s to me, it isn’t an issue, it’s the Stereotypical American Restaurant. It is a bit pricey, in today’s world of offers, deals, Meerkats, Meal deals, Kids eat free, this is not one of the first places I would choose to feed my whole family. That’s also part of the problem, a meal can be £10+ many between £12-£18, even the burgers were near £10, and this puts in the ballpark of other big named restaurants, that do a similar style food and have offers etc.

The service was fine, they weren’t incredibly busy which helped but that’s part of the location, nights are busy and days are not, as it has leisure complex around. The food was mostly good, not exceptional, not wowed and bordering on fine, the desserts were a little disappointing, and I have some reservations with kids options, and debatable whether I would like to try it or not for those reasons,

Though the selection is still good and for the most part fits my fussy kids. This is probably fine for a rare special treat or night out because of the price, but at the same time the food is fine, and that’s my overall from the visit, its fine.