North Norfolk is awash with great pubs with rooms – The Hoste Arms, The Victoria, The Gin Trap to name a few, which makes it hard to stand out from the crowd. So rather than try anything too clever, The Rose and Crown’s owners have focussed on simply offering a great pub – and to that end, it’s a roaring success.

We arrived on a busy Friday night and wove through the crowd at the bar to the tiny reception under the stairs. A cheery waitress said she’d call someone to help, then got chatting to one of the pub’s regulars. The bar was being propped up by members of the local cricket team, and I peeked into a dining room buzzing with tables of weekenders and Norfolk residents.

At the front of the pub it’s very much pints of quirky East Anglian ales, bumping your head on low ceiling rafters, and walls adorned with rural prints and sporting memorabilia. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s a second bar at the back and a second and third dining room, plus 16 bedrooms in a wing that stretches into the car park, and a huge beer garden with a children’s play area.

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BACKGROUND

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Like many successful Norfolk pubs, The Rose and Crown has grown to accommodate demand but that’s not diminished its appeal – its managed to keep the village pub atmosphere despite it’s expansion.

The dining rooms each have a distinct character – there’s the bright and airy family-friendly room at the back that opens onto the garden and the sultry dark pink dining room that isn’t to everyone’s taste, owing to its garish walls. My favourite is the one at the front of the pub. There’s an intimate and cosy feel to the room, with attractive chunky wood furniture set around an open fireplace, wooden floors, a Farrow & Ball-style olive hue on the walls, hunting prints and maps, and comfortable banquet seating.

Bar the odd tractor roaring past, the scene out of the window is that of uninterrupted bucolic England – a village green, magnificent church, and fields beyond (although Snettisham probably considers itself almost a town with its choice of pubs, restaurants, shops, school and churches).

It’s worth making time to look around the extraordinary 14th century St Mary’s church, which is just 300 yards from the pub. The towering spire and vast West Window suggest ambitions more lofty than its countryside location.

Back at the pub dining room, we ordered starters and mains from an all-rounder menu that couldn’t fail to please, and is offered in all three dining rooms and the pub. There is everything from burgers (£9.25, from the Holkam estate nearby) to crispy duck leg with noodles and hoisin sauce (12.75) and goat’s cheese stuffed courgette flower tempura with tomato carpaccio (£10.75).

Unlike most menus of this sort, which dip into cuisines from around the world, our dishes didn’t suffer for the lack of specialism. Starters of summer vegetable linguini with a mint pesto (£5.25) and grilled sardines with cucumber pappardelle (£5.75) were fresh and colourful. The main course of pan-fried mackerel with potato salad and runner beans (£15.50) was missing its gooseberry accompaniment because it wasn’t in season, which was encouraging. It was perfectly cooked, as was the baked whole seabass en papillote with a citrus salad (£14.95).

The wine list was better than your average pub, with a sound selection of grapes and vintages supplied by a wine merchant in Norwich. Bottles start from £13.50 and eight by the glass from £3.50.

On the subject of food, the breakfast was also a hit. I would happily have taken home a bag of the homemade granola-style muesli, which I topped with fresh yoghurt and stewed prunes. The fresh fruit was limited to a bowl of mostly unripe plums, but the cooked breakfast more than made up for it – flavoursome local meats and eggs done just right.

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