Back to basics (All Things Nice, Cawston)

All Things Nice,

Cawston,

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

Sat 07:30-14:00

Highly Recommended

Due to all my recent focus on the successful calorie neutral bike ride world record attempt (see is it a record) I have not been doing as many cafe cycle trips as normal. I have therefore built up a long list of cafes and tearooms that I need to visit. I planned to start putting this lapse right from today.

When I first started rating cafes it was just for my own benefit and I had not thought of sharing my useful research and findings on a blog. The first pre blog cafe I ever rated on a bike ride was All Things Nice in Cawston, when it set a high standard, the details of which I recorded on my phone. Then a few months later, on my next visit, it became the last cafe I went to before starting posting about cafes as well as just scoring them. Two years have since past so it seemed like it was about time I returned for a full review.

I was joined on today's trip by Chris (Mrs Crusader) as well as Barry and Helen and their tandem who would obviously be looking forward to tales of my epic world record ride. I was sure they would be very excited as they had probably never been this close to a world record holder before.

As we set off I skilfully manoeuvred the conversation on to my world record attempt and waited to receive my praise. However things didn't go to plan as first Barry, then Helen and finally their tandem launched into a ferocious attack on the credibility of my record attempt. They claimed they had been talking to people down their local pub and all had agreed that there were more than 300 calories in a hot drink and piece of cake which where the numbers my calorie neutral record had been based on. I explained I had done in depth internet research and was confident with my figure, which had been scrutinised by the boffins at calorie neutral bike ride world record attempts HQ, but they claimed that their evidence was based on the strong opinions of people down the pub so they must be right. 

As you can imagine there was now a frosty atmosphere for the rest of the ride to All Things Nice at Cawston as few further words were exchanged.

On arrival we parked our bikes and went inside. All Things Nice consists of a delicatessen type shop on one side and cafe seating area on the other. Sadly there is no outdoor seating area option but the setup has a very pleasant feel so a good Atmosphere and Ambiance score.

Outside All Things Nice
 with Helen still having foldie arms after the cake calorie counting incident

At the counter there is a good cake selection although only two sponge cakes were on offer, a lemon and ginger and a cappuccino cake. Myself and Mrs Crusdaer decided to try a slice of each. 

Cake selection featuring two good sponge cakes

Disappointingly Barry and Helen ordered a bacon sandwich and a sausage sandwich, which are not cakes, while their tandem decided it wasn't hungry so waited outside. 

Our drinks, cakes and not cakes soon arrived and we got down to business. I thought my Hot Chocolate was good and Mrs Crusader and Helen rated their Mochas highly. Barry felt his cappuccino could have been more cappuccinoie as it was a bit too milky for him but overall good drink scores.

Hot drinks

Both the cakes were very good with the coffee one being the slightly better of the two and got high marks.

Cappuccino and lemon and ginger Cakes

Barry and Helen told me they thought their fried meat sandwiches were very good but as a bacon sandwich and a sausage sandwich are clearly not cake I wasn't really interested, even after they had confidently told me their respective sandwich calorie counts (which some recent in-depth internet research later proved to be wrong. Again). 

Bacon and Sausage sandwiches
 that apparently have nearly 500 calories in each even though they don't

Overall All Things Nice had scored well across all categories, which was consistent with previous visits and I highly recommend it as a good cycling stop.

The ride back was difficult as with calories, cake and world record attempts now off the discussion topics agenda most of my normal conversation subjects were unavailable to me so after a brief discussion on the weather I had to resort to telling them all about my Ironman triathlon (again).

Ratings based on last 3 of 5 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.67	7.72	7.83	8.05	7.33	7.72

Route

Click here to download 37 mile Norwich Cawston loop GPX file for your GPS