Dun Cow Salthouse in North Norfolk

Sadly the worst beef meal I have ever had. In hindsight should have said on the first cut of my fork. However being British kept quiet. The beef got caught in my throat and I had to use the loo to force it up. After we complained it was removed from the blackboard menu. I assume the owner, she took our complaint on board but offered no apology

OUTSIDE PUB RESTROOM EXPERIENCE — REVIEW NOT OF THE PUB ITSELF. My friends and I visiting Norfolk for the day, we had the unfortunate experience of eating at Cookie’s Crab Shop who don’t have restrooms for their customers and so directed us to this nearby pub. You have to insert a 20p coin to use the toilet, which is fine, we weren’t customers. Luckily we had 20p left because Cookie’s Crab shop is cash only. 2 of us needed the toilet, one of us on our period. So I held the door open a bit while my friend went first so I could use after. An employee of the pub (young looking lady with a blonde pixie cut) saw me holding the door and said “that’s cheeky it’s 20p each”. I was embarrassed and thought she was being funny, so just smiled. Then she came back again and said “the money for the toilet goes to Romanian Orphans.” I said “we only have 20p left, can I get coins out at the bar?” She said “no”. Then came back again 30 seconds later and repeated the Romanian Orphans line. If the money does go to Romanian Orphans, why wasn’t there a poster talking about that initiative on the outside of the door? Or, she was making a joke about the money going to charity — we were quite confused!! (There was no toilet paper in the bathroom either). Odd experience and wouldn’t make me want to come back and visit the pub properly.

Lovely meal at the dun cow. Food was amazing. Brilliant atmosphere , super friendly staff. Would highly recommend

Top class food and service. Lovely setting too.

Favourite place when back home in North Norfolk.

Had a lovely Easter meal & the best of our trip away! Food was amazing, especially the tuna tempura & the lamb special - 10/10 🌟

We've been regulars here for nearly 15 years so were keen to check the place out under the new management. Our booking for 9 people for a special occasion was not straightforward - we couldn't sit together and there was no guarantee we'd even be served at the same time. Thankfully they managed to give us adjacent tables at the same time. Food as always was very good. Service was fine. Only 3 stars because the booking experience wasn't great. Hopefully this is just a teething issue and will improve as they find their feet.

Lovely pub, fine views and location. Very helpful staff and management.

Traditional pub with a real sense of nostalgia when you walk in. Fires were going and plenty of people enjoying themselves and looking at the gorgeous views. Service was brilliant and food excellent. Couldn't have asked for more. Would have loved the weather to be a little warmer so that we could have appreciated the pub garden at the front with the flowers and the views. Maybe next time...!

We always come to the Dun Cow when we are in the area. It was just as good as always. Great selection of wine and beer as well as a good selection of food on the menu including some lovely specials. The dining room at the back has been done up - and is a nice improvement.

Lovely pub , the staff are friendly the food is delicious the views are amazing.. Definitely well worth a visit . Highly recommended.

Some good, new vegetarian dishes since the change of hands. Shakshuka removed, inevitable veggie option on too many pub menus! Chorizo fish stew delicious, good crab salad, crowned with a creamy basque cheesecake, and tangy, fruit compote. All the food beautifully fresh.

Great pub with a relaxed vibe and great staff. Gets very busy in the summer with good reason, some of the best food in the area with great views.

Good value, friendly service, delicious food

This is a near perfect Norfolk coastal location. The access roads to the village can be challenging and require careful negotiation. However the pub itself is delightful as are the staff. (Grammar nuts, I know staff is a singular noun!) We had superb burgers with excellent real ale. The interior is proper pub, plus lots of exterior seating when the weather is right, which it was on this occasion.

Food was delicious, served super-quick and the beer was great!

Came in on the off on a Monday lunchtime. Place was pretty much full so we were lucky to get a table. Good sign. Lovely friendly service and warming environment. 2 of us had Fish and Chips (but a pet hate is thick soggy greasy batter), so we asked the waitress if the chef could do us a thin batter and give it an extra shake! What came out was a beautifully thin and crispy batter covering a lovely piece of haddock. Very impressed. Excellent choice of drinks at the bar, if a tad pricey (London prices!). Would definitely return.

Delicious food, great staff, warm fire, amazing views.

Landlord took over Aug 2024. Superb place. The beer is excellent very well kept. The food is just lovely and reasonably priced. Highly recommend. Can be Busy worth booking a table.

Excellent service and good food 😎

Beautiful location and a proper pub with a great outside seating area to enjoy. Food and beer quality is excellent. Highly recommended.

Right. I wasn’t in the place to eat but I was at the bus stop with my boyfriend. And I was having server tummy pains. My boyfriend had to help me walk to duncow. And then we asked if we could go to the toilet. And she saw me holding my stomach and clearly saw I was in pain. But she turnt round and said “no not really no not really” in a bit*** voice. So my advice that they should allow people to use their toilet wether their eating there or not. Terrible place. Bad worker. Do better.

This is a fabulous family run pub in a world of corporate owned inns and it shows. Warm welcome, great service Very good pint of ale. Great food. Puts other local places to shame. Thank you .

Lovely food. A special place to come for tea. Good size kids portions, great burger and sea food and dog friendly!

The fish stew and beer battered haddock and chips were both excellent.

We’ve been visiting the Dun Cow for a few years and went a couple of times this week. The new folks running it are so welcoming and it’s gone from good to top notch. Lovely food, really friendly staff, beautiful views… and they really went above and beyond to help celebrate our little one’s birthday (thank you, folks). We’ll definitely be retuning.

A fantastic pub on the coast. Parking was quite limited but the food, service and ambience was excellent. Would thoroughly recommend. We had mussels and they were delicious. Solid sticky toffee pudding too. Wherry on tap.

Busy dog friendly pub with good food and beer and plenty of parking round the green.

Had a great meal each. Tuna tempura was probably the best I have had, fish stew good value for money. Sauce tasty, two big pieces of fish. Shandy was cheaper than a pint. Good little walk to the sea afterwards.

Great food and very welcoming. Lovely staff.

Great food. Lovely buzz. Loads of smiles.

Really great place for lunch with a super menu - some classic pub food but lots of great, fresh, European options too. Not your standard, deep-fried pub fair + a good wine list. Lovely staff too.

THANKYOU. Very much. To all the team at Dun Cow. And 2. Chaps Who went above and beyond on Tuesday nite. 17/12/24. To help. Us when our car broke down. You were all. Amazing. And as usual the meal we had was. Super. / perfect and service excellent. We enjoyed. Prawns and vodka Marie rose. Sauce. Aluminium. Fries. Fish stew. Special. Pork chop. Was good value for money. Great ingredients. And good portions We will be back and are now back home In london . Thank you all and a merry Xmas.

Lovely genuine local pub with delicious food.

Great food and beer ,with exceptional views

Lovely food and atmosphere as always today but just one niggle, we had the roast beef which was lovely but the roast potatoes were quite hard and undercooked. I would still recommend the Dun Cow though👍.

Great food and atmosphere, seafood particularly. Good beers too!

A great place to eat. Everything about it was lovely and we were a group of 9...

Under new ownership, so things may be about to change but previously offered a great selection of beers, truly fantastic oysters and seriously fresh fish. The views over the marshes and out to sea from the beer garden are pretty special and there is table service outside. The staff are friendly and always there to help. Nothing is too much. A 'lite' decorative revamp in the dining room makes this a nicer space when the weather necessitates inside dining.

Stopped and had a great meal, nice welcome, lovely views, good atmosphete and superb cooking especially the seafood stew & dhal 🙏

Absolutely awesome food, lovely to meet Matt Katy and their family, wishing you all the best in your new venture and we will be back. Great service and atmosphere.

Our first visit. Although impromptu and not booked we managed to get seated. The menu was varied and provided choices for all 4 of us. The food was beautifully prepared and tasty. The choice of wines and beers were comprehensive and reasonably priced. The service was efficient and friendly. Our first visit but definitely not our last.

Great place for drink and lunch

Food really good for Sunday lunch. Dog friendly, staff friendly and great views over the salt marshes. Beer good, what more can you ask for on a lazy November Sunday afternoon. Plus bonus, this time of year it was relatively easy to park as it can be a nightmare in the summer high season months.

A fab lunch today whilst driving back from Cromer, staff were super friendly and food came out fresh and hot. Thank you!

Visited the pub at the end of a multi-day cycle. The place was fully booked for Sunday lunch, so book in advance. The food and service were great. The choice of drink was pretty good as well. The atmosphere was really good, with views of the sea and fire burner going. I went for tartar, seafood and chorizo stew and sticky toffy pudding. All three courses were tasty and well portioned.

Another excellent visit. With a stunning location and cosy atmosphere inside, this is one of our favourite places to eat. The food is great, nothing over the top or ‘try hard’, just simple food cooked really well that compliments the location. Can’t wait to be back!

Delightful pub near to Cley marshes.

Fabulous dinner tonight at The Dun Cow. We loved the tuna tempura and the mussels and not forgetting the delicious basque cheesecake. Service was excellent. It’s recently changed hands and the new owners are super friendly and accommodating.

Fantastic place in a great location. Top notch food with a warm friendly atmosphere and super attentive staff

Lovely pub but with beautiful food and a view

Nice atmosphere and good service. Food was fair to good.

Great food in a relaxed, cosy and friendly atmosphere. A rare find that is unpretentious, feels local but delivers on quality. Went three times and never disappointed. Steak tartar, crab starter, mussels and fish stew superb

Went for our anniversary lunch here and glad we did. Fish and chrizo stew with sourdough and the best alioli I've eaten. My husband had the swordfish steak which was perfectly cooked. To follow had to be sticky toffee pudding...will definitely be returning to try out more of there menu.

On a slightly chilly Sunday we happened to find ourselves in the area after visiting Holt. We dropped in for a drink and decided to have some small dishes at the bar. Fantastic food with a really warm welcome and great view. We locally and will definitely be back!

Lovely pub with great food and service. Popped in on a cold wet Wednesday night to find it full but managed to squeeze us in for a lovely dinner. Highly recommended.

So disappointed. Poor quality food, aggressive and rude management when politely pointing out dry food. We have since found out new management which could explain it. Will need to do better.

We loved Norfolk that much we moved here ! We’ve known of the pub for years and it’s my youngests favourite place . We went for a Sunday roast two weekends ago staff were lovely. Food delicious . Thought nothing of it . We have a much more local haunt as a go to on lazy Sundays - which I feel pips this pub just . but what stuck out we paid the same price for 3 meals as the meal for 2 at the dun cow ! Ouch !! Tourist trap maybe ? 🤔- shame

We will never return to The Dun Cow, it was shocking and the owner was very dismissive of our concerns and feedback. The food was completely over priced and lacked imagination and finesse. So sad, because we were looking forward to our time at the Dun Cow in Salthouse having read reviews.

Great place, amazing food, will come back.

A real pub which is much more than a pub. Another venue which is competing to be in my top five eating places. On a busy Thursday evening they still found room for our late request of a table for 4 and 2 dogs. Like the Tardis, pub sized on the outside but loads of room on the inside, we were in the well-designed bar with well-spaced tables and a cosy, friendly atmosphere. The quality and range of the food is documented elsewhere and we totally agree that it's the tops. In addition to the fish dishes, the venison steaks were superb too. Compliments to the chef(s).

This lovely pub has got better and better over the last 15 years. I do hope that the new owners don't spoil it. Please no pasta dishes. Keep the innovative menu's that we've come to love.

Wonderful location and great food

Excellent well cooked food interesting specials on blackboard. Prices fair for the quality. Definitely worth a visit.

We booked a table a relatively short notice and we’re glad that we were able to be accommodated. We were sat at a window which allowed us both to be able to look out across the salt marshes. The food was exquisite. For starters we had potted crab and toasted sourdough bread with smoked salmon and dill. For our mains we had cod loin with cream sauce, broccoli, fondant potato and parsley oil and pork chop with mustard sauce, crushed potatoes and kale. For dessert we had lemon curd yogurt posset and chocolate masque with pistachio custard and amaretto ice cream. We couldn’t find a fault in the food or service.

Great lunch lovely pints of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord

I've never been disappointed. Great food, location, and staff are always very friendly.

Not sure how you can charge £17 for a chicken burger one piece of chicken, a bun, one lettuce, one tomato and a truck load of chips. Don't mind paying but it would be nice to feel like you get something for your money worth. Lovely view.

Having spent 2 weeks visiting the regional pubs and restaurants I thought I would be visiting “just another average pub”. Quite the opposite. What a great place. From the minute I entered the staff were very friendly. I ordered the duck special which was exceptionally good. My wife had the crab linguine which was equally good. Definitely worth a visit.

Really accommodating staff, great atmosphere, wonderful food, lovely views, 10 out of 10, definitely recommend! Shout out to Mike & Kate for going above and beyond, many thanks.

We had booked lunch for Dad’s birthday, 3 of us travelling 60 miles (120 mile round day trip) specifically for this special occasion. Unfortunately 30 minutes before our reservation, we received a call to say there had been a problem with burst water, causing an issue with the electrics therefore our booking had to be cancelled. This was very disappointing as we’d been looking forward to this celebration especially having travelled so far. Sad to say I am therefore unable to rate the food, service or atmosphere as we had to find an alternative location at short notice.

Me and my partner always like to pop in here for a drink when we visit family. We decided to eat here last night for the first time. My partner had the steak which was cooked perfectly and I had the lamb burger by far the best burger I've ever eaten!. We always love coming here as its such a lovely place.

Food and staff really great👍 will be back

Lovely, unpretentious and straight to the point. Nice varied selection of plates. Will be back.

Nice place for food, booking advisable.

Best pub in the area and very nice food with good beer on tap.

Beautiful location and nice gardens to enjoy a drink in the sun. Nice friendly staff

Bad luck for not having any power on the day of our reservation, of course unforeseen and not your fault. However I was very p-ed off to learn that you had known of this for 4 hours and had not bothered to try to call or message to inform us. We were looking forward to this meal and had to make the journey for nothing. Do better.

Great for dinner. I left my glasses there and after contacting them they posted them back.

Great menu, well executed, nice staff, nice old pub setting. The lamb burger was juicy and tasty. The kids menu burgers were great too. The carameliseda white chocolate mousse with lemon thyme shortbread was delicious!

The dunn cow serves the best fish and chips I've ever eaten in my 80 years.

Well... I don't know what's changed. We went to the Dun Cow last year and it turned out to be the culinary highlight of the trip. We were excited to repeat the experience this year, but alas, it was but a shadow. First off we ordered a couple of starters which we indeed quite tasty. Seeing how quickly those came out we got worried the mains we ordered would arrive too quickly. One goes for the dining "experience" after all, not just to fill a belly. The very polite staff informed us (oddly they seemed surprised at the request) that that's no problem and that we should wave them over when we're ready and that the braised chicken leg, which was one of our orders would take 15 mins to come out. When we were ready (no longer than 10 mins) we ordered our food (Lamb burgers w/ blue cheese sauce + Braised chicken left w/ bbq sauce), expecting it would take the mentioned 15 mins. Unfortunately the food started arriving pretty much immediately, meaning it was prepared beforehand and shoved under a heat lamp. Not ideal. We were still quite excited for the food however since we had such a great experience last time! Unfortunately the quality seems to have tumbled straight down. The braised chicken leg that was advertised on the specials board was very far from special. The bbq sauce it was swimming in must have been straight from a McDonalds sachet and the chicken itself was supremely underseasoned. The lamb burgers barely tasted of lamb and were underseasoned. That being said, the chips and blue cheese sauce were tasty. The house wine was also very nice and reasonably priced. We were quite disappointed, but decided to get some dessert too since what we had last time was amazing. More disappointment I'm afraid. The cheesecake was badly cooked and not of the right consistency, while the chocolate marquise w/ vanilla ice cream and pistachio cream was (against all odds and with great effort I'm sure) made to be incredibly bland and boring. We found out that the venue is having a change of hands, so I'm guessing the old chef just couldn't be bothered anymore. The only thing I can say to the new management is good luck and please take note from the mistakes of the previous owners. Old review: Absolutely delicious food! Lovely cozy pub, great atmosphere, the staff were nothing but professional, friendly and accommodating. Great experience, would go back in a heartbeat. The only tiny wrinkle was that we wanted to finish off the night with some espresso coffees but the only kind offered was filtered coffee.

Amazing amazing food in an INCREDIBLE location and the staff were so accommodating and friendly. Great atmosphere. We aren’t local, wished we were. Highly recommend everything about this place. We visited after a trip to see the seals with our daughter and dog 🐶 Thank you 🤩

I'm a Narrrfolk girl, and every time we're up North Norfolk, we go ere. Love it

Friendly staff, Good selection of beers Nice garden area

Kitchen doesn't working when we being there, but food truck on pub territory make absolutely awesome chips with many stuff. Highly likely

Yet another trip on another holiday to the Dun Cow. Never disappoints, great food and beautiful location.

Lovely food Amazing views Dog friendly Nice beer garden 100% recommend

So enjoyed our visit.Good choices on the menu we opted for the BEST Fish and chips ever. Love friendly attentive staff and by current standards good value. Thank you.

Awful meal not sure if the chef had an off night. What was more disappointing was the managers reaction to the fair and politely put criticism (very discreetly done by myself) had much better meals and customer service in the neighbouring George and dragon/ wiverton bell.

Booked for Anniversary Sunday lunch. No Sunday dinner. Very limited menu no mussel no risotto . Been many times before must of changed hands. We both choose fish & chips which didn't disappoint.

Always visit the Dun Cow when we are in Norfolk. Great service nothing too much trouble, superb food.

Always a wonderful place to eat. Not fancy, just good food at a reasonable price in a lovely building with a garden overlooking the marsh for when the weather's nice. We always eat there when we're in Salthouse and suggest you do too!

We have been here many times as the food has always been excellent. Sadly at the last 2-3 visits the standards have dropped. We had lunch here yesterday as the friend we were taking requested to go there. The service was beyond bad, the staff really didn't care whether we were there or not, items ordered were forgotten, the staff were mainly at the bar chatting and looking at their phones seemingly oblivious to diners. The food was very mediocre (not sure it was all freshly cooked) and most definitely not worth the prices they are charging. I didn't mention the quality of food at the time as no one bothered to ask us. At the end when we asked for teas and coffees we were told the only hot drink available was a filter coffee and nothing else. No apology or explanation was offered. We won't be returning.

Great meal last Monday - thankyou

Lovely views from the garden and good food 👍

We were randomly floating around the area, yesterday, trying to find somewhere to eat. We were a little late for lunch but they very kindly invited us in and prepared lunch for myself, my wife and two children. Everyone enjoyed their food. I had a lovely bacon burger, my son had a steak which he loved, and my daughter had a little burger. My wife tried fresh oysters and some raw tuna; she loved it all, too. Friendly, welcoming and comfortable place, with delicious food. Do it!

Was always lovely and delicious. However, we booked 3 months in advance and they sat us in the back house or garden. When there was a table free. The service seemed to favour the locals and the burger, the best thing on the menu and the source was the name of the restaurant, had been taken off in the name of high prices. If you are a local and looking for a good country pub with a variety of food, this is amazing. If you are a tourist and want a burger and a warm, non-claustrophobic place to sit, you may want to rethink.

Had lunch here yesterday, was nice and busy but staff fully attentive and lovely, food was delicious and quick and good value for money! Beautiful views outside the front too for an after lunch drink.

Lovely place, very dog friendly, sat outside on a nice summer's day and enjoyed the views, confit duck from specials board was absolutely fantastic, as was desert and starter.