Race against time. (Rosy Lee's Tearoom, Loddon)

Rosy Lee’s Tearoom,

Loddon,

Opening times Mon-Sat 07:30-17:00,

Sun 09:00-17:00

Highly Recommended

Today was a perfect winters day, crisp with clear blue sky's. So I was pleased that I had arranged a bike ride with today's guest Big George. I had agreed to go back to one of Big George's favourite cafe stops, Rosy Lee's tearoom in Loddon.

Regular readers may have noticed that cycling with Big George normally comes with a critical deadline and today was no exception. To aide with Big George Jnr's A'level studies Mrs Big George had decided a new carpet, desk and desk lamp would help encourage the imminent demands of revision. (We had had the same thoughts for our son and recently returned his floordrobe to carpet to try and improve his revision environment. No signs that it has made a difference but we did find a lot of missing plates). Whilst they were in the carpet shop a last minute cancellation had made a carpet fitting slot available for 1 o'clock today. Big George claimed he tried to rearrange but with Mrs Big George standing beside him the words 'but I've agreed to go cycling on Friday' came out as 'that's fine' instead. We therefore had to be back by 1 o'clock to avoid putting Big George Jnr's university education in jeopardy.

With the deadline in place we rode at pace down to Loddon. Big George refused to engage in any conversation on his domestic chores as apparently I had been showing a lack of discretion. Reporting his views on cooking and cleaning in this blog was ruining his hard man image. However I did get the impression he was very pleased with his new Dyson's cleaning power and smooth ball action.

Outside Rosy Lee's Tearoom on the edge of the outdoor continental style pavement seating area

Once at Rosy Lee's Tearoom we chose to go inside rather than make use of either of the seats in the outdoor continental style pavement seating area. Rosy Lee's Tearoom is small but very popular and there have been times in the past when we haven't managed to get a seat. Today we came 'off Peak' so we were able to have a choice of tables and opted for the one by the counter and cakes. 

This was a good seat as it gave me plenty of time to look at the cake selection and award the effective cake selection rating (ECS). There was a good selection of cakes and scones so I awarded a high ECS. 

Myself and Big George both fancied the date and walnut cake which was a shame as I like as many different cakes to be tried and rated as possible in order to get a more rounded cake taste quality (CTQ) score. Fortunately Big George often panics when ordering his beverage so I easily managed to trick him into having a cheese scone. I had my normal hot chocolate and Big George a cappuccino. 

The hot chocolate was excellent and nice and chocolaty, Big George also liked his coffee so good scores for both hot chocolate and guest hot drink. The date and walnut cake was very moist and tasty but Big George's cheese scone was a little small compared with a number of the scones I have recently reviewed although it tasted good.

We also received  very good service being offered hot water bottles for our cold feet. We declined on this occasion but foot warming facilities should be encouraged in more cafes.

After our very pleasant stop we still had plenty of time to get Big George back to make his carpet fitter appoint and guarantee his son's University education. We set off at a steady pace confident nothing could go wrong. Unfortunately there was one scenario we hadn't catered for as Big George took a call from the carpet fitter, who was coming early! The race was now on, I knew I didn't want to get into Mrs Big George's bad books, again, so shot off as fast as I could go. Big George kept up to start with but soon started to flag. 'Come on' I shouted, 'we must save your sons University education'. When he caught up he was red in the face, out of breath and looking ready to collapse. He suggested that we slow down and that he could always concentrate on his other sons education instead. I agreed that sounded like a better plan and we continued home at a more leisurely pace discussing how expensive and overrated University is. 

Stop Press: Carpet fitter was still waiting when Big George finally got home so Big George Jnrs University education is back on!

Scores with Rosy Lees based on last three visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.00	7.00	7.75	8.25	8.00	7.70

Map of route.

Click here to download Loddon - Norwich loop GPX file to load on to your GPS