Reviews
Read independent reviews from the food critics and delighted customers who have visited The Walk Cafe, Nottingham.
Becca is Learning
Coffee Shop Review; The Walk Cafe, Nottingham
Thanks to Becca Dean for this glowing review. It’s the kind of review you dream of and makes all the care and attention we put into creating our customer experience worthwhile.
This cafe is the mother ship, the place I belong, the one my heart belongs to more than any other. Including Costa Coffee, (Ipswich), Rootz, (Chorleywood), the coffee shop in the V&A museum and even including The Breakfast Club, (Soho).
If you find a coffee shop that can top it, let me know, I’ll sell all and spend the rest of my life in there. I’ve actually half a mind to do that with The Walk, Nottingham. Or at least pack up and move to Nottingham so I can be near it. The only problem would be that my obsession could become restraining order city.
Today I got to visit one of the eight wonders of the world, (I don’t know if The Walk has officially got on the list yet in all honesty). Whilst I love to visit Nottingham to catch up with all kinds of CYM-type people, (possibly a superior breed of person, but don’t tell that to Oasis or LST students), it really is the icing on the cake when I get to do catching up in The Walk.
Read more on Becca’s blog
What Katie Found
Lovely review from Katie who came to The Walk Cafe early one Sunday for a photoshoot there with one of our favourite Nottingham bands. Some great pictures and a nice review – thanks Katie.
Me and Steve were up at 6am today (6am, on a Sunday, in January!). It was all for a good cause though, we headed north to Nottingham as Steve was taking some photographs of our friends band Yunioshi. The shoot was in a cafe called The Walk on Bridlesmith Walk in the city centre. I didn’t even know that this amazing place even existed until today! read the full review and see the pictures
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Benji’s Guardian Twitrip to Nottingham Visited The Walk Cafe
It was time for some food. Pamreader and Jtownend had fingered the The Walk Cafe as a Nottingham must – and the cafe itself had been showering me with tweets and even designed a competition in honour of the TwiTrip – so I duly paid a visit. Inside, as well-healed locals sipped on Earl Grey poured from china teapots, I gorged on slabs of rye bread layered with pastrami. A very good start indeed.
Click here to follow Benji’s complete Twitrip to Nottingham
Nottingham Evening Post Food Focus 12 March 2010
A FIRST visit to The Walk cafe hits you in waves. First you find the place, tucked in the little pedestrian nook that is Bridlesmith Walk, just off all the main roads. That feels like a triumph, secret knowledge, even if the place is packed (as it likely will be) when you walk in.
Then you enter and are immediately greeted by the food counter, practically straining under the weight of every sort of pastry to satisfy any sort of sweet tooth. (For balance’s sake, a few savouries usually also adorn the counter.)
Then you might notice the ornate tea sets – the gold-coloured strainers, the crystalline tea pots, the sleek wood boxes filled with teas you’ve likely never sampled before.
And at this point, you haven’t even made it to the dining room and your seat.
By the time you’re there, sat amidst the eclectic artwork and well-heeled if slightly mismatched and askew furnishings, you’re ready for the main event. Sandwiches. Tiers of dessert. Perhaps something off the wine-list. And – always – to wash it down, tea.
The goal, said manager Alistair Fazekas, is “bringing something to Nottingham that nobody else can really offer”. That means a menu that borrows from European cafe culture and the New York deli ethos, while pouring it all into a distinctly English receptacle. A stroll through the menu – which received a few new items just yesterday – is a glance at an international way of doing lunch. One with some local flourishes.
Anyone who’s ever had lunch in a proper New York Jewish deli won’t need much explanation of the pastrami on rye or the salted beef. The lineage of the muffuletta might be a bit less well-known (Sicily by way of New Orleans, since you asked), but the sourdough option for this meat-heavy sandwich works even without the lesson on provenance.
And, notes Alistair, while the items may hail from all over, the ingredients that make them come, more often than not, from reasonably near. Many foods are sourced from Delilah, the award-festooned deli just down the road. And Delilah likes local. So the strawberry jam for the afternoon tea scones come from a small Notts operation, the artisan breads all hail from Hambleton Hall, etc.
And then there’s the tea. Lots and lots of tea. More than 300 teas, if you’re counting.
Tea that, after a recent change, comes from French tea specialists Dammann.
In addition to serving the teas in the cafe, they also offer boxes of Dammann teas, individual teas and tea accoutrements. Alistair believes The Walk, Harrods and Fortnum & Mason are the only shops in Britain that retail Dammann. (This came about by a personal connection. The company is now owned by Italian coffee company Illy – one of Illy’s top British-based people is a Walk fan.)
It might be apparent, then, that The Walk’s tea selection is something they take somewhat seriously. In fact, they’re now rolling out something new – seasonal afternoon tea menus with pastries and about 20 different teas that will change every four months or so. The first one’s an Alice in Wonderland-themed affair, selected because of the Tim Burton film of the classic tale. The theme will manifest itself largely through dessert selection and presentation. And look for more film-themed seasonal menus in future, including one to honour the release of Sex and the City 2. (New York cheesecake? Seems likely.)
“We want to bring a bit of theatre and a bit of entertainment to it,” Alistair said. “It’s keeping it fresh as well.” And it’s getting people to try something different with their afternoon pastry. “Everybody wants English Breakfast,” Alistair said. “We’re trying to push all the other teas.”
Erik Petersen
Guide2Notts Review The Walk Cafe
Hidden Gem : The Walk Cafe
Nottingham is home to some of the finest restaurants and cafes in the country every palette and price range catered for. Here at Guide2Nottingham we spend most of our time out and about in this city of ours so we would like to draw your attention to the places we visit and that we think you should too.
Today we would like to talk about one of Nottingham’s hidden gems. The Walk.
European Cafe Culture is hard to replicate having evolved over many years abroad. The U.K’s cafe scene is still in its infancy, this usually results in humdrum cafe bars playing Nora Jones and serving croissants, and don’t get me wrong I love a good coffee but I often long for the real thing.
The Walk comes highly recommended because they have managed to capture the essence of cafe culture without becoming a pastiche as so many have.
Mis-matched vintage china, a golden tea pot and a real sense that you have stumbled across something very different and very exclusive whilst still maintaining that warm “everyone in here is a new friend” feel is an accomplishment. The well dressed staff with their impressive knowledge of their food and a selection of gorgeous cupcakes that define the word delicious make The Walk a real gem.
The menu features a selection of patisseries, finger sandwiches and afternoon tea along with an impressive collection of coffees and teas, most of which you will find nowhere else in Nottingham. Wines, continental beers and champagne make up the drinks section of the menu and of course softer options for the children. All perfectly suited to lunch with friends, or a romantic rendezvous with a loved one.
The Walk may not remain “hidden” for much longer however as recently in a feature in Vogue Nottingham’s own Paul Smith chose it as one of his favourite places in the city. And The New York Times who lovingly refer to Nottingham’s residents as” knitters” had this to say;
“Twenty-something knitters are keeping the area’s textile-rich history alive at The Walk (12 Bridlesmith Walk; 44-115-947-75-74; thewalkcafe.wordpress.com), a dainty patisserie that even provides blankets for patrons to drape over their legs, granny-style.”
With a garden for the summer which last year played host to Barbeques and some of the most inventive birthday party’s I have seen, the walk is a great venue all year round.
The Walk Cafe is a real hidden gem that offers a taste of true European cafe culture right here in Nottingham and offers everyone a very warm welcome. Don’t just take our word for it go and visit The Walk yourself.
The Walk Cafe
12 Bridlesmith Walk
Nottingham, NG1 2GR
Telephone 0115 947 7574info@thewalkcafe.co.uk
Fabulous Places Nottinghamshire brings you the most fabulous independent coffee shops, eateries, gift shops, local artists, galleries and much more. All the places selected to feature on their website have been given the FP Stamp of Approval, guaranteeing you will like them just as much as Fabulous Places do!
To read what Fabulous Places has to say about The Walk Cafe and take a peek at the fabulous things their independent reviews have said about The Walk Cafe experience visit their website www.fabulousplaces.co.uk/Nottinghamshire/
The Guardian Places The Walk Cafe In The Top Ten
Nottingham’s top 10 budget eats
As the city hosted its first major food and drink festival the Guardian’s Tony Naylor went in search of the best of the city’s budget eating establishments. Thanks to Tony The Walk Cafe was right up there in the Guardian’s top ten.
Here’s Tony’s review of The Walk Cafe -
The Walk
“Budget” is all a matter of perception, and many people would never pay £7 for a sandwich. But, at the Walk, we’re talking superior sandwiches, salads and platters, executed with flair from fine ingredients – and backed-up by first-rate cakes and tea. Any kitchen that can make something as banal as mushroom soup sing (£3.95) is clearly doing something right. The place itself has an upmarket Mad Hatter’s Tea Party feel: a phalanx of pretty cakes and tea pots at the entrance (you can choose your pot) giving way to a smart, iodsyncratically dressed space, complete with a brightly, almost psychedelically, decorated outdoor patio area.• Dishes from £3.95. The Walk, 12 Bridlesmith Walk, + 44 (0)115 947 7574; thewalkcafe.co.uk.
Even the Twitterers are Twittering about The Walk Cafe
Rebecca Breen
icklebeckster@TheWalkCafe Thanks to you all for a brilliant party for my parents!7:48 PM May 31st from web in reply to TheWalkCafeBendy
bendyhttp://twitpic.com/5cth7 – proof that god exists. just sat down for tea and a cake at @thewalkcafe. now that is yummity yum12:53 PM May 17th from TwitPicSaners
Kublai_SanOff to the @thewalkcafe for high tea and then star trek. Perfect sunday11:02 AM May 17th from TweetieFive star reviews of The Walk Cafe, Nottingham
“I don’t give 5 stars lightly!
This really is the most delightful hideaway in Nottingham. Not unknown obviously! And destined to be better known yet!
Lovely coffe/tea/toast AND the lentil salad? YUM!! Will let you know when I try the cakes – hopefully when my sister comes over from Germany!! A cafe with waiting staff – WOW!”
xxThanks to amatsuscribbler on Qype.co.uk
Licensed to sell scrumptious things
Nottingham Evening Post Eating Out
IF the giant, towering cake in the window hadn’t acted effectively as bait (unlikely), then the statement “Licensed to sell scrumptious things” would have hauled me in by the tastebuds anyway.
On entry to The Walk cafe in Bridlesmith Walk, the display of gateaux, tarts, flans and cupcakes (the most spectacular north of London’s Borough Market) is designed to dazzle.
They’ll have you at “hello” and they know it.
The Walk specialises in pots of tea served in charmingly mis-matched vintage china and accompanied by Cake (with a capital C).
Sweet Treats
Milk and Make up Blog – personal review
Today Hele and I went on one of our regular shopping trips to Nottingham. We received a tip off from a friend to visit The Walk Cafe- an amazing teashop/cafe/patisserie serving, cake, afternoon teas and delicious sandwiches. Tea is served in amazing teapots and mismatched chintzy cups and saucers.
It does amazing cupcakes and we couldn’t resist picking up a box on the way out.
Tea and Fairy Cakes at The Walk Cafe
Nottingham Evening Post – The Food Sleuth
LUNCH comes in tiers. The slices of crustless sandwiches lead into the scones with jam and cream, which in turn give way to the tart at the top of the ornate cake stand.
This is proper high-tea stuff, served by a sharp-uniformed waiter. It’s the sort of experience tourists pay good money for in London (while labouring under the assumption that the natives dine like this every day).
And yet The Walk, Nottingham’s new city centre cafe and teashop, didn’t stumble out fully formed from a Wodehouse novel.
Read the full review…
