The Little Hippo

We stopped in for lunch after shopping at the Waitrose down the street. Such a cute little restaurant! It’s very small inside and meant mostly for takeaway I think. There are two medium sized communal tables inside, but that’s it. There’s a selection of sandwiches and drinks in a case, and you can get the sandwiches toasted if you want — they’re all made that day. They also have a variety of specials — when we came in, they had a menu of different beef sausages (or, hot dogs, I suppose!) that you could get different ways — the only one I remember was Chicago style but I can get behind that! They also had a salt beef bagel which my boyfriend got, and I got the jambalaya with pulled pork. The salt beef bagel was okay — not as good as the ones in Brick Lane, but not bad. The jambalaya we both enjoyed much more. I wouldn’t say it’s jambalaya at all actually, but it was a lovely tomato and lentil stew. It would be delicious without the pork but not nearly substantial enough. The pork was smoky and juicy and the perfect complement.
Everything is inexpensive, and they have a variety of coffee drinks as well. The guys working behind the counter were funny and friendly. Though we’re keen to try the Fat Hippo next time, we’d surely come back if we needed a quick lunch in Jesmond again!