I’ve always been insanely envious when I’ve seen people share their food hall experiences on social media, wishing we had something similar in Suffolk. Last year we visited Yalm in Norwich and loved it – and now we have something similar closer to home.
Tower Street Food Hall in Ipswich opened this February, featuring six kitchens, two bars and two floors of dining in the former home of Yates, not far from Christchurch Park. It’s a beautiful building with a relaxed vibe, and, on a Friday lunchtime in half term, was relatively busy when we arrived.
At Yalm we ordered our food via an app and it was brought directly to our table – at Tower Street Food Hall, the experience is a bit different. Once you’ve claimed your table you head to one of the bars to buy your drinks, and order your food directly from one or more of the six vendors on the ground floor.
Once you’ve paid, you receive a buzzer which vibrates and beeps loudly when your food is ready to collect. I understand why they’ve chosen to do things this way, but it does make it a little more disruptive to the dining experience if you’ve ordered small things from different kitchens and have to keep jumping up mid-meal to collect.
We did order from multiple places – three, in fact. The first dish to be ready was The Baconator with fries (£17) from Slap & Pickle’s Tower Street Food Hall venture, Chosen Bun.
I won’t lie, it seemed a little pricy for a burger and chips. The double patty cheeseburger, though, was both cooked and seasoned beautifully, with a decent amount of cheese and that delicious smoked bacon. When you consider that they use slow-grown, dry-aged, grass-fed beef, the price point seems a little more reasonable.
Those fries were incredible. Hand-chipped, triple-cooked and nicely seasoned, they didn’t need any sauces for dipping, they were perfect on their own.
Next up, the Big Bro Toast Bites (£3.25) from Asian fusion restaurant Big Bro Bao. This is the sort of thing I tend to go for at a food hall or festival: smaller dishes which mean I can try more things! I’d seen someone else recommend them on Instagram, and they were clearly popular: we grabbed the last portion.
This take on prawn toasts was delicious. Served as squares rather than the normal triangles, the prawn filling was lovely and juicy, the toast itself not greasy like some can be. The team had overcooked them a *little*, but they were still very enjoyable.
Our final dish came from The Bucket List, a Cromer-based business who specialise in loaded fries. I’d like to say my choice of The Nuggs Bucket (£12) was mainly for the seven-year-old, but the description appealed to me, too.
A huge mound of crispy golden fries came topped with a creamy Cheddar and bacon fondue sauce, BBQ sauce, grated Cheddar and mounds of aioli – not only delicious, but with a beautiful, almost whipped texture. And then there were the nuggets themselves. These were incredible: the coating crispy and well-flavoured, the chicken tender and delicious, and an unexpected katsu-like flavour between the chicken and the coating.
There are three more kitchens that we didn’t try at Tower Street Food Hall. Titu’s Kitchen serves up Hyderabadi flavours, while Dad & Daughter’s Pizza has a hand-stretched Neapolitan-style pizza offering. And then there’s London Calling, serving up everything from jellied eels and pie and mash to salt beef beigels.
I guess we need a return visit…