Checking out the scones. (Tudor Bakehouse Coffee Shop, Harleston)

Tudor Bakehouse,

Harleston,

Opening times Mon-Sat 07:00-16:30,

Recommended 

Earlier this year I went on a cafe cycle review to the Tudor Bakehouse Coffee Shop in Long Straton (see what no rain). I had a nice visit but was disappointed with the lack of Tudorness. Further research revelled that there is another and original Tudor Bakehouse coffee shop in Harleston. So I decided to head down to Harleston, with guest Big George, to check it out and hopefully have a more Tudor rich experience.

As an added bonus I had read that the Tudor Bakehouse Coffee Shop in Harleston had award winning cheese scones. They had won this award at the prestigious annual Wroxham Barns scone competition in 2012. Scone awards don't get bigger than that so I was expecting something exceptional in the cheese scone department.

This was the final day of the 1st Annual Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour June Cafe Cycle Reviewing (ANCCTJCCR) festival (see Pizza oven envy) and we were blessed with perfect weather conditions as we enjoyed an incident free trip down to the Tudor Bakehouse Coffee shop in Harleston.

Outside the Tudor Bakehouse Coffee shop. 

On arrival it was disappointing to see that from the outside there were still no obvious sign that any Tudors had ever been here or that the building had anything Tudor about it architecture wise. However once inside the Tudor bakehouse was littered with non Tudor features. One day I will solve the riddle of why the Tudor Bakehouse's are completely void of Tudorness but for now it was time to get down to cycle cafe reviewing. 

The cake display cabinet had a very respectable range of cakes and slices and I awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) rating. However myself and Big George really wanted to try the award wining cheese scones which were surprisingly tucked away behind the counter in the bread section with no reference to their award winning nature. 

A good selection of cakes in and on the cake display cabinet

We both ordered an award winning cheese scone and in order to get a more rounded view of overall cake quality I ordered a chocolate oat slice as well, which as far as I know had never won an award.

Drinks, award wining cheese scones and award free chocolate oat slice

The cheese scones lived up to the hype and we could both see why they were award winning. They had both a good texture and a good amount of cheese, something other so called cheese scones I have tried could learn from. The chocolate oat slice was also very nice. My hot chocolate was only average being rather weak and milky. Big George loved the chocolate sprinkles on his cappuccino and felt his drink was good but again a bit weak.

Being a bakers as well as a coffee shop there was not a lot of seating available with a choice between a large table or some comfy chairs and tables in the window but the Tudor Bakehouse had a lively trade. I would definitely recommend a visit especially for fans of award winning cheese scones but you will be sadly disappointed if you are including it on a tour of Tudor architecture. 

With the wind behind the ride home zoomed by. It sadly brought to an end the first ANCCTJCCR festival and hopefully next year the weather will be better so all the ANCCTJCCR festival rides can be completed.
Scores for The Tudor Bakehouse Coffee Shop

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.5	7	8.0	8.5	5.5	6.90

Map of route


Click here to down load 43 mile Norwich Harleston loop GPX file for your GPS