Socius in Burnham Market, North Norfolk has been receiving a lot of attention recently, and rightly so. Small plates aren’t always everyone’s cup of tea, but I love the ability to try lots of different things during a meal – especially in places with a regularly changing locally-sourced seasonal menu. Since opening in early 2018, owners Natalie and Dan, who is also the self-taught chef, have picked up numerous awards and accolades including winning Eat Norfolk restaurant of the year 2019, among others.
Sat in the cosy ‘wine wall’ area of the restaurant on raised stools we were a little tucked away behind the stairs, but that didn’t stop the attentive and friendly staff. I got to enjoy a view of the beautifully displayed bottles of wine that were available
Socius has been understandably hard to get a table at this summer since re-opening, reduced capacity and a great review from Giles Coren in The Times means it’s hot on everyone’s must visit lists right now. We had only been able to secure a table for 8:30pm so were getting hungry and jumped straight in to order some plates and get things going. Our wine, a local Flint Vineyard bacchus and a Calusari pinot noir from Romania, were with us within moments of our order being taken.
With our evening now in the hands of the chefs, the first of our ordered plates was on its way over to us. Paper-thin slices of courgettes served with pieces of monterossa tomatoes, goats cheese and a fresh parsley sauce drizzled over. I couldn’t have wished for a better start to the meal, it was light but full of flavour.
We then moved onto beautifully fresh burrata, with a salad of heritage tomatoes, cucumber, chimmichuri and olives. The burrata was so smooth and paired perfectly to counterbalance the acidity of diced red onions in the chimmchuri sauce and the sweet tomatoes.
King oyster mushrooms came next and while they weren’t my favourite in terms of their chewy texture, the flavours were great. They were scored and served alongside some chestnut mushrooms, and what I can only describe as several different mushroom-based sauces. Each of them were delicious and complimented the flavours of the dish as a whole, but it was hard to identify the differences.
Braised beef cheek, crispy potato, garlic, cheese and onion 
Courgette, Monterossa tomatoes, goats cheese, parsley 
King oyster mushrooms, white onion, thyme 
Burrata, heritage tomatoes, chimichurri, olives
The lamb belly really stole the show though, it was heavenly and worth coming for alone. I’ve never had that cut of lamb before and it was just so succulent and fell apart with our forks – my mouth is watering all over again as I write this! The layers of fat dissolving into pure unctuous flavour as soon as it touched your tongue. Pureed squash was delicious on the side too, and added a great pop of colour to the plate.
Lastly came braised beef cheeks in what was the fanciest take on loaded potato skins I’ve seen. The tender beef was rich and deep inside the crispy potato skin, and sat under the decadent cheesy top with a scattering of spring onions. Alongside this we also received our chips, and while they were deliciously seasoned, it was a shame for them to arrive so late in the meal so we could only enjoy the large bowl of them with what was our final savoury dish.
Sharrington strawberries, meringue, lemon, sorrel 
Socius chocolate bar, salted caramel, cremeaux, gelato
We couldn’t resist dessert and shared their ‘chocolate bar’ which was a chocoholics heaven and like a stick of fondant in the best way, thankfully the salted caramel sauce and gelato were on hand to . We also went for their take on an Eton mess with local Norfolk strawberries, cream, pieces of meringue, but with lemon granita on top. While it was hard to pinpoint the sorrel which was also apparently in the dish, the granita proved to be a surprising and refreshing addition to what is a fairly traditional dish.
Dining at Socius was an experience that definitely lived up to what I’d hoped and read about, with this tucked away restaurant, back from the sometimes quite showy centre of Burnham Market, delivering really refined, interesting and tasty food with service to match. Each of the exceptional plates were lined up to follow the one before seamlessly, giving us time to appreciate each dish in turn while also not feeling rushed.
I’m already looking forward to my next visit and what the ever-changing menu will have in store for me then!