Zombie Alert. (Savino's cafe, Cambridge and Organic shop and Cafe,Fornham All Saints)

Savinos,

Cambridge,

Opening times Mon-Sat 07:00-20:00,

Sun 09:00-18:00

Recommended
and 

The Organic Shop,

Fornham All Saints,

Now Closed Down

Yesterday I had the opportunity to kill two proverbial birds with one metaphoric stone. First Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) had recently been to Cambridge and had been taken to a 'fantastic' Italian cafe which he recommend I review. Secondly I needed to do a long training ride as preparation for my London to Paris ride with Big George in a fortnight. I therefore decided to repeat the 80 mile Cambridge ride I did this year (see Going National) and hey presto two birds stoned to death.

As the wind was from the west we chose to get the train to Cambridge and cycle back. The journey was disappointingly uneventful as I listened to Andrew whinge and moan about the lack of investment in rail infrastructure. On arrival I asked him to take a photo capturing the drama of me alighting the train with my bike but it was the first of a serious very poor photographic efforts that were to occur on our journey throughout the day.

Successfully alighting the train ready to start our ride home

It was a short ride from the station to Savino's Italian cafe in the centre of Cambridge. It was not what I expected as it looked just like a typical cafe but with an Italian name. Andrew maybe hard to please but is a sucker for anything Italian so had been fooled by the Italian name, painted flags and false generic continental accents of the staff. 

Outside Savino's cafe which is apparently Italian as it has painted flags on its awning

Still we were here for the excellent cake so I went inside to review what was on offer and award the Effective Cake Selection rating (ECS). To my surprise there were no cakes on display so I couldn't take a photo of the choice available. I bravely asked the waitress if there was any cake and she said it was in the kitchen and they had Italian carrot cake, Italian lemon drizzle cake or Italian chocolate and almond cake. I went for Italian chocolate and almond cake.

As we had been served separately I asked Andrew if he could snap his refreshments on their arrival while I waited for my order at the counter. Without my supervision there was further camera phone confusion and it was not until later that I discovered it was not the photo I was after.

Andrew failing to photograph his drink

Andrew thought his Coffee was good, mainly because it was Italian, but my Italian hot chocolate was far too milky. I did have to admit that the Italian chocolate and almond cake was very good but I'm not sure it was worth the £16:90 train ticket and 80 mile ride home to come here.

Italian Hot Chocolate and Italian Chocolate and Almond cake successfully photographed by me

After our first stop we set off at pace, with wind behind, through the Cambridgeshire country side and sped through lots of little villages. Surprisingly all the villages were deserted. Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please and loves all things claiming to be Italian) convinced himself that the villages had all been taken over by Zombies. I quizzed him on how, if this was the case, we had not seen any living dead out and about. He said it was because they only came out at night. I explained that he was thinking of vampires and that zombies were active in the day time. I reassured him that there was therefore no need to worry unless of course it was a full moon, or was that were-wolfs.

After escaping from the horrors of Cambridgeshire unharmed we arrived at our lunch time stop; the previously reviewed Organic shop and cafe in Fornham All Saints. Not much had changed since I was here last year in terms of both look and menu but we did discover an outdoor seating garden area round the back which upped the ambiance rating. 

I asked Andrew to capture my arrival at the cafe and in a final triumphant showcasing of his photographic skills he mainly captured his finger.

Arriving at our lunch stop along with Andrew's finger

Like before the cake selection was still a bit sparse featuring both types of scone or chocolate cake as the only offerings. I could therefore only give the same ECS as last time.

Sparse cake selection

However I was looking forward to my drink as I noted that on my previous visit the hot chocolate had scored highly so I was very disappointed with today's milky offering. The chocolate cake was nice and Andrew's pot of tea produced a nice cup so not too bad overall. 

Milky hot chocolate and pot of tea, all nicely presented

Both of today's cafes were nice stops but both needed larger cake selections and to make their hot chocolate a lot stronger if they are to get my full stamp of approval.

On the way back Andrew started to fade and claimed I was only going faster because of my new wheels. I suggested maybe he should get some new Italian wheels as they would surely go faster still.

We also spotted a woman in jogging kit being pulled along by a dog who had appeared to have put a lasso round her waist and attached her to it's collar. Andrew was worried she had been captured by some sort of zombie dog and was being dragged back to the Cambridgeshire zombie village area. I told him not to be silly as it was much more likely to be were-wolfs. Just in case we decided not to intervene and got home safely.

Sunday see's the first Annual Norfolk cafe cycle tours 3 top cafe 50 mile spectacular were I will be taking a ride out to 3 of my favourite cafes from the past year. Hopefully it will be good weather and no Zombies.

Ratings for Savino's Cafe

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	8.0	6.5	8.5	6.0	7.00

Ratings for Organic shop and cafe based on 2 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.0	7.25	5.0	7.0	6.5	6.55

Route

Click here to down load 79 mile Norwich to Cambridge GPX file for your GPS