The Empire Great Yarmouth

Throughout Great Yarmouth you will find miles of beautiful beaches stretching from Winterton to Hopton. This seaside destination is a firm favourite among families with its traditional seaside attractions, history and iconic locations.

the empire great yarmouth

The coast is a great place to find seafood. But you will find a wide variety of restaurants, cafes, and pubs along the golden mile. As well as traditional English dishes, you will also find Mexican, Greek, Italian, and Chinese options to suit all tastes.

Our latest adventure to Great Yarmouth involved a lot of fun and excitement with a visit to The Hippodrome Circus and ended with the best mushroom pizza you can imagine at The Empire. In light of this, we wanted to share our opinions about our afternoon at The Empire with a couple of snaps as you read.

this must be the place mimiroseandme

The Empire building is pretty iconic and situated just along the seafront. Once was a purpose built theatre that has had many guises over the years. Now open as a live music and street food venue. We were kindly invited along to go and see what The Empire has to offer after watching a show at the Hippodrome Circus.

The Empire is actually owned by Jack Jay, who family own the Hippodrome Circus so there were lots of amazing discounts available for those with tickets - you just needed to provide your tickets before placing an order.

As soon as we walked in you could see it had a great ambience with feel-good music in the background and the most amazing smell of food. For me, this was an excellent start to our afternoon. At the bar, we were greeted by a friendly member of staff who explained what was on offer and how to place our orders.

live music sign mimiroseandme

The interior of the restaurant was very stylish, yet quirky and you could spot something different around every corner. This new décor adds a new dimension to The Empire's vaulted ceiling, which has always made for a striking view. We really liked the atmosphere created by this celebration of the town's past as an entertainment venue, and there was so much to see.

hollywood cafe sign mimiroseandme

Eating at The Empire

Our table was at the back of the Empire with a great view of the stage and seating area. We received clipboards containing menus from three street vendors; Eagle & Cactus, The Bun Exchange, and The Dough Exchange.

There is a QR code on the table so you can scan and order online without leaving your seat. However, we found the app really difficult to navigate around and it wasn't so easy to find things like sides dishes or a dedicated place for the children's menu. We found that some of the food choices available didn't have enough detail in the description or nutritional facts. So with that, we decided to go ahead to the bar to make our order instead.

the empire back bar mimiroseandme

With a mouth-watering menu offering everything from burgers, pizza to and burritos, and vegan doner kebabs. It's no wonder that The Empire Great Yarmouth was filling up with many families. The food menu as a whole is amazing, there is so much selection and something for everyone. 

Eagle & Cactus is a vegetarian Mexican cuisine where you can choose from a range of different dishes that include tacos, burritos, nachos and delicious spicy sides. The Bun Exchange offers incredible burgers, crispy fried burgers as well as fries and hash browns. The Dough Exchange serves up handmade stone baked sourdough pizzas with tasty topping to your tables, as well as dough balls and succulent chicken wings.

We decided against appetizers because we wanted to enjoy our main dishes before getting full. I ordered from Dough Exchange and got the Garlic Shroom Pizza which was a classic margherita with fresh portobello mushrooms, roasted garlic oil and panko crumbs, coming in at £10.95. My husband on the other hand went for something a little meaty and ordered The Empire Pizza which was fully loaded with pepperoni, roasted ham and Bun X burger bites, which was also £10.95. You have the option to downsize your pizzas with the Honey I Shrunk The Pizza option for £9.00 - but let's be honest we were not going to do that.

garlic shroom pizza the empire

We also ordered Cajun Lime & Sour Cream Chicken Wings that were really good and fell right off the bone, these were £8.95. We also ordered twice cooked skin on fries for £4.00 and Salt & Pepper Fries that were skin on fries with seasoning, fried peppers and onions.


For the little one we decided to keep it simple with Kids Nuggz and Fries. These crispy chicken breast nuggets were coated in a southern fried chicken crispy batter. Considering that this was a child's portion, she got few nuggets on her plate, normally she can only have two or three so the portions were really good. These chicken nuggets were served with French fries, and a tomato sauce, coming in at £7.25.


Everything was freshly made to order and was brought straight to our table as soon as it was ready. Our pizzas came in their own box with a wooden fork ready for us to take with us. Our daughter's meal and the sides came in their own cardboard containers with red and white paper that can be used to wrap leftovers. We liked the idea of all our food being in grab and go containers and boxes.


Our meals were superb. The pizzas were so so delicious which combined with the wings was amazing. The fries were delicious and cooked to perfection. Our daughter really enjoyed her meal and said that the chicken nuggets were the best she's ever tasted, and she has become a chicken nugget connoisseur over the years.

We had a lovely afternoon at The Empire and we will certainly be back again soon. The food was delicious and reasonably priced. The atmosphere is totally unique. It has everything you would want from a venue. It has many option of great food, amazing cocktail bar, beers and live music. The Empire is a great venue, but I would say with the lighting, music and bars it's aimed at adults and families with older children. The food is incredible but it is varied and if you have a picky eater, it may be difficult to find something suitable.

**We have been kindly gifted our meals to The Empire from Visit Great Yarmouth as part of the ambassador program but as always my words and opinions are my own. Images are subject to copyright, please seek permission before using.**

14 comments

  1. omg the place is amazing!!! Reminded be a bit of our local Hard Rock Cafe...I would love to go there, super cool.

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  2. I don't think I have been to Greatt Yarmouth, and would love to go as my grandparents had a few holidays there years ago

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  3. That is the kind of sort of pub food that I love to have when we go out as a family. Everything is just so much more fun with great food!

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    1. We really liked the idea that the food menu changes from time to time! Best mushroom pizza I have ever had!

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  4. It looks like an awesome place to visit! So much fun!

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  5. This sounds like a great family friendly restaurant to visit. It sounds like they have a lovely range of food. My kids would love the pizza. It looks amazing.

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  6. Looks like a really fun place to check out and the food looks delish too!

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  7. While I am not familiar with Yarmouth, we are certainly big fans of all seaside destinations and iconic locations.
    ~ Paula Richie

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  8. I got so hungry seeing all of those food pictures! haha. Sounds like a lovely place to visit.

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  9. This place looks amazing! I suddenly started craving and got hungry after looking at these photos.

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  10. The food at The Empire looks delicious, glad you had a great time! I am adding this to my list when we do visit Great Yarmouth in Summer next year

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  11. Okay, that pizza is calling my name. I think this is a place going on my where to eat list.

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