More tea? (V's Cafe - Reepham)

V’s,

Reepham,

Opening times Mon-Sat 09:00-17:00,

Recommended 

Today I drove to Aylsham (with my bike in the boot) to meet Andrew, it being his turn to host our ride. He had 'planned' a loop that would take in Reepham where he was sure there was a cafe or tearoom. This was disappointing as if he had kept up to date with this blog he would have known that I went to Reepham last Friday to the old railway station. This was when I discovered there were two disused railway stations in Reepham that both have tearooms. We therefore decided to aim for the Reepham and Whitwell station, where I had not been. I got him to promise to keep up to date with the blog in future before I would agree to set off.

Andrew's idea of planning a route is setting off in the right general direction until we get to the edge of being lost. At this point he consults his map, points down the nearest road and we repeat the process until we get nearly lost again or get to our destination. Apart from spending more time in the village of Foulsham than necessary, by passing the church in all 4 directions, we found our way to Whitwell.

On arriving it was clear we would need a plan B. Despite a station full of steam trains it was very light on visitors and staff. We did find the cafe building and a man in orange overalls tinkering with his gauges. He said that if there was no one in the tearoom he would make us a cup of tea. We tried the tearoom and came across a nice lady in a little office. She explained that they were shut but would be open at the weekend. She also offered to make us a cup of tea. I decide not to explain about cafe rating and the need to have hot chocolate and home-made cake (see there must be rules) so we politely declined her kind offer. On leaving the man in orange overalls became very insistent that he wanted to make us a cup of tea and we had to go through a number of excuses before we eventually got away tea free. It is clear if the volunteers spent more time attracting visitors and less time drinking tea then the tearoom would be able to open 7 days a week.

Thanks to my previous cafe and tearoom research I knew we could go up the road to V's cafe in Reepham town centre. V's would become the first cafe that I had rated 3 times and thus become my most rated cafe. I was also confident they wouldn't be insisting that we drank tea. As you can see from the photo below V's does have an outside seating area, which can quickly fill up on a nice day. Today I spotted there were still some outdoor seats available but as it was raining we decided to sit inside.

Standing in the outdoor seating area outside V's Cafe.
Which today still had some seats & tables available.

V's is a tearoom/cafe hybrid and does a nice job catering for those wanting a full English breakfast or those wanting tea and cake. The cake selection is small (normally 3) but all 3 looked good so I awarded a mid score effective cake selection rating.

I went for hot chocolate and rocky road cake and Andrew latte and a flapjack and date slice. The hot chocolate was excellent and more chocolatey than on previous visits and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) also liked his coffee. The cakes were very good and all ratings were at least a point higher than previous visits (remember ratings are averaged over last 3 visits).

V's is a very pleasant stopping point for refreshments on a ride and I'm sure I will be calling in again, hopefully on a nice day when we can make use of their outdoor facilities. 

Cafe rating based on 3 visits to V's Cafe

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.8	6.7	5.3	6.8	6.0	6.33

Route

Click here to download 35 mile Norwich Reepham loop gpx to your GPS