Cookie’s Crab Shop
The Green Salthouse Norfolk NR25 7AJ
Cookie’s Crab Shop on the north Norfolk coast has been going for over half a century, since a small fish shop opened on the Green in the tiny coastal village of Salthouse. It spawned a café whose fame spread so much that more tables had to be crammed into a jerry-built gazebo and shed in the yard, and nowadays crowds cheerfully brave the chaos of the queue-to-order, then queue-to-pay system, necessary even if you have reserved a table, which at most times is pretty much essential. The huge blackboard menu over the counter prominently features Cookies’ signature royal salads: plates are piled high with dressed crab, smoked mackerel, chunky hot-smoked salmon, anchovy fillets, cockles and prawns, plus beetroot (unfashionably pickled) and cucumber salad – all for an astonishing £6.50. The absence of fripperies means that if you want a glass of wine, local cider or beer to accompany your meal, you will have to remember bring not only the grog but the glasses too.
