Adventurous foodies in Ipswich can experience crocodile cuisine and zebra dishes, after a cafe in Ipswich has launched a brand new menu offering unusual meats including horse, buffalo and camel.

The Grumpy Mole, on Queen Street, Ipswich, launched the extraordinary meat additions to its menu last week, in an effort to get residents out of their established food habits to try something new.

Among the gourmet dishes are crocodile tail skewers, ostrich burgers, buffalo steak with real ale chutney and camel steak, alongside the traditional menu serving cooked breakfasts, burgers and lunches.

Gary Barnes, 55, the owner and chef of the Grumpy Mole, said: “When I was in Australia and New Zealand, the cafe I worked in served traditional Aboriginal food, so I decided to bring that culture to the Grumpy Mole.

“Ipswich needs something different and over a period of time people just don’t like changing meat, so we wanted to show people we can do something different.”

Mr Barnes, who was born in New Zealand but brought up in the UK, has travelled around the world, and brought his culinary experiences from abroad to his latest dishes.

He added: “I don’t think I would have learned as much if I hadn’t have seen all those places. I spent a year and a half in the States and learnt all about Buffalo steaks so that kind of experience naturally helps.”

Mr Barnes took over the Queen Street cafe nearly two years ago, and after completely renovating the interior from a regular greasy spoon, has added the new meat dishes to complete the Grumpy Mole’s transformation, but progress to this point has been tough.

“It’s been very, very slow. Last month was the slowest month, But this is a way of doing something different, and we are the only people in Ipswich that do it,” he said.

“The amount of people that want to try the crocodile shows there are those willing to try things.”

With the menu launched and the final pieces in place, Mr Barnes is optimistic people will be enticed by the unusual dishes.

He added: “I think they are all adventurous, and we are going to try and keep them going for as long as possible.”