The Bell Hotel - JD Wetherspoon

I made plans to meet a friend at this venue at 1 PM. Arriving 30 minutes early, I took the opportunity to order a classic pub dish: Cod and Chips with Peas, complemented by a refreshing orange juice, all for a reasonable £9.03. Despite the pub's popularity and bustling atmosphere, I found a table to enjoy my lunch comfortably. The meal arrived promptly and was cooked just to my liking. The pub had a great staff-to-customer ratio, ensuring attentive service. Plus, I was able to park my car at the Castle Quarter Car Park, which was just a stone's throw away.

This was a grand pub for drinking, with wooden banisters and linings around glass making for a pretty design! Counter is well kept and staff were friendly, lighting has a good number of different lamps too. I had a Corona Extra, sitting comfortable at one of the smaller seats here!

The rougher end of JDW pubs. Nice and central with outside seating and two floors of inside seating although the downstairs is small. Usual beer and not many guest beers available when we visited.

Only popped in for a pint on a summer's evening, big beer garden at the front to watch the world go by.nice atmosphere and good price for the beer..

Great little boozer. Friendly and welcoming staff. Good quality ales 🍺 at a very reasonable price 👌

First thing we noticed was the cleanleness of the entire pub. The staff were friendly, helpful and a very happy crew. Good was delivered with an excellent presentation and hot on a hot plate. Will definitely revisit every time we come to Norwich.

This was my 450th different Wetherspoons pub and it didn't disappoint. A wonderful historical hotel that's been carefully restored with a good selection of information about the local history on the walls. The usual great value for money guest ales for 1.99 on a Monday.

I don’t usually leave negative reviews but I had a really disappointing experience here. I was meeting some friends who were already inside, and since it was after 8pm, they were doing ID checks. I couldn’t find my provisional that night so I brought my expired passport instead. I figured it would be fine since it clearly shows my date of birth and photo and I've used it as proof of age plenty of times before with no issue, even at this Wetherspoons. I've even used it to board domestic flights, so that just makes this reaction feel all the more over the top. When I got to the door, one of the staff turned me away because my passport was expired. At first I genuinely thought he was joking. It didn’t seem like that big a deal. I asked why that mattered when it still shows I’m 21, and he just acted really rude and condescending about it. He kept saying it was “Wetherspoons policy” but made no effort to explain anything properly or treat me with any basic respect. I wasn’t being rude or argumentative, just confused and trying to understand. I work a job where I have to check ID too, so I completely get that rules are rules and staff have to stick to policy. But there’s still a way to talk to people. I wasn’t demanding to be let in, just asking a question, and the way I was spoken to felt really unnecessary and demeaning. I may look younger to some people, but I’m 21 as it shows on my passport, visibly tattooed, was completely sober, and on my own. I wasn’t part of a big rowdy group or anything, so his behaviour just felt completely unwarranted. It's not like I was some 14 year old with a fake ID trying to get in. To be fair, another staff member at a different entrance was much more respectful. He explained the policy calmly and said he understood I was clearly over 18 but couldn’t risk his job over it. I completely respected that. If the first guy had spoken to me like that, I wouldn’t have felt the need to write this at all. We ended up going somewhere else and had a great night, so my disappointment isn’t about being refused entry. At the end of the day it's just a pub. - But it’s just how poorly the situation was handled that left a bad impression. A bit of basic courtesy goes a long way, and unfortunately that was completely missing in this case.