The site which was mainly scrub land was discovered by local entrepreneur, Mark Eames, seven years ago. Mark realised its potential with such a special location overlooking Rollesby Broad and had the vision of building a tearoom to rent out.

He pulled together a team of people to help develop the concept, including a talented local architect, William Glover, who drew up the plans for the wonderfully designed buildings that you see today, nestled into the reed bed.

Although, understandably the local residents were concerned the development might spoil the landscape, with the support of various agencies including The Broads Authority, permissions were eventually granted.

Belinda Minors who lives in the nearby village of Acle happened to pass by the site and saw the buildings being constructed and fell in love with the setting and the magical views across the Broad and offered to manage the venue.

With the assistance of other supporting partners; with enterprise, creativity, appreciation of the environment and a lot of hard work, the site has developed into a mini Broads tourist attraction and high quality dining experience.

The Waterside primarily uses locally sourced food and products and is proud to have employed over thirty local residents.

Belinda is constantly striving to raise the standards of food and service for local residents and tourists alike and The Waterside Rollesby was successful during the first year in not only being awarded the Gold Charter Mark which is the highest accolade available in the Broads for quality, we also won the prestigious EDP Readers Restaurant of the Year.

Exciting new expansion plans to extend our facilities are planned for 2014 and we will update you as the story continues.