Getting back on it. (Radleys coffee shop, Salhouse)

Radley’s,

Salhouse,

Now Closed Down

Back in September regular cycling guests Barry and Helen and their tandem were coming back from a ride when their tandems front wheel blew out. Not the inner tube but the actual rim of the wheel went bang bringing the bike to an immediate stop. Barry landed on the cross bar but Helen had not been expecting to stop at that point and continued to travel in a forward direction until being brought to a stand still by the middle of the road. This resulted in Helen getting a proper cycling injury by breaking her collar bone, their Tandem needing to spend several weeks in the local bicycle shop and Barry being able to sing soprano again.

I was pleased to hear that they were now all pretty much repaired and felt ready to join me and Chris (Mrs Crusader) as guests on today's cafe cycle ride.

Cycling Guest Cycling top tip no 37. Avoid unplanned lying down in the road when out on a ride by regularly checking your wheel rims are not worn out. (see British cycling advice on rims)

As it was their comeback we were only going to do a short ride so we met up at Barry and Helen and their Tandems house where Barry announced we would be doing a 12 mile ride out to a coffee house at Salhouse. 

Our short ride out went smoothly with no new dramas or unnecessary visits to the tarmac and we arrived successfully in Salhouse village centre where we found a Cafe/tearoom dilemma. At number 82 Lower Street was Prima Rosa Tearoom and at number 82b Lower Street was Radley's store, post office and coffee shop. As there didn't appear to be any other commercial outlets I was surprised that Salhouse (pop. 1462) could support two such establishments next to each other. But which to choose, to be fair we decided to go to Radley's today, as it had been on my cafe to do list longer, and then arrange a return visit to Salhouse asap.

Radley's is very cycle friendly and has a nice little outdoor seating area which would be lovely on a hot summers day but as today was a bit cold and wet we went inside.

Outside Radley's with Prima Rosa in the background

Here we found a long table bench to sit at with random cacti.

Indoor seating area

On the window sill was the cake selection which wasn't large but did have a chocolate cake and an unusual pina colada cake so I awarded a reasonable effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Cake selection

There was a full range of coffees available so with my hot chocolate my guests ordered Mochas and cappuccino which were all expertly prepared with a fancy froth.

Fancy froth featuring a nuclear explosion or possibly a flower

Before I had a chance to photograph the drinks Chris had drunk her Mocha saying it wasn't hot enough for her liking but there are two sides to every story and Barry liked his cappuccino as he doesn't like a very hot drink leading to a compromised Guest Hot Drink Quality (GHDQ) score. My Hot chocolate looked very impressive but I felt it needed to be a bit stronger.

Three full and one empty drink

I enjoyed my pina colada cake and Helen her lemon one but the cake taste quality rating was constrained as we all agreed the chocolate cake needed to be a bit moister for top marks.

Cakes with separate serviettes #keepcakeoffserviettes

Radley's had proved a nice friendly stop and we were now refuelled ready to completed the short return ride to firmly put Barry and Helen and their Tandem back on the cafe cycle trail. I hope to soon arrange the return trip to Salhouse to see how Prima Rosa compares in the Salhouse coffee shop battle. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.00	6.33	6.0	6.75	6.75	6.37

Route

Click here to down load 26 mile Norwich Tunstead loop GPX file for your GPS