Comfort Break. (Dunes Cafe, Winterton)

Dunes cafe,

Winterton,

Opening times Mon-Sun 09:00-17:00,

(March-Nov) and every weekend

Recommended 

After what seemed to have been the longest Winter ever it was great to wake up to blue sky's and sunshine this morning. To celebrate I decided it was the perfect day for a cafe cycle ride to the sea side. I agreed with cycling guest Big George that we would head off to our favourite beach at Winterton.

With bucket and spade packed we headed off into the wind. After a while Big George declared that he needed a comfort break. After a short while I thought I had found him an ideal spot for comfort, with some trees available for cover. He was obviously in a hurry as he dumped his bike by the side of the road and headed for the trees. I took the opportunity to check the new voice mail message on my phone (apparently I had been in a recent accident which must have effected my memory as I couldn't remember it). Just then two little old ladies pulled up in a car. I was worried that we would be in for a good telling off for Big George's anti social actions but having seen the bike laying on the side of the road and me on the phone they thought there had been an accident and wanted to know how they could help. I said there nearly was a little accident but that I thought Big George had got to the tree just in time, so with everyone relived they drove off happy.

With no more drama we arrived at Winterton and found the Dune cafe at the end of the road to the beach. 

Outside Dune cafe which was busy in the sunshine

I have sometimes found that beach and park cafes are not always the best as they don't have to try too hard because the punters have mainly come for the park or beach element rather than the cafe. I was therefore pleased to see this establishment had proper coffee and cooked fresh food.

I checked out the cake selection so as to award the effective cake selection (ECS) mark. It was a bit different with some excellent looking cream cakes and pastries but not much in the way of traditional sponge cake (only carrot) but as I like cream cakes and pastries I still found it to be quite effective and scored the ECS appropriately.

Cake selection majoring on cream based cakes

I ordered a hot chocolate and a Norfolk shortcake (which I didn't even know it was a thing) cream slice while Big George went for a filter coffee and a Belgium bun. We decided to sit in the outside seating area over looking the beach leading to a high atmosphere and ambience (AAA) score.

Lovely view of beach and sea from outdoor seating area

Our drinks were nice and solid examples of type. I enjoyed my Norfolk shortcake (which is just normal shortcake with raisins in it) cream slice and then helped Big George finish his enormous bun leading to a good cake quality taste (CTQ) mark.

Good drinks and cakes

All in all the Dunes cafe had proved you can have a decent beach cafe and was worth the long ride out there.

As i'm currently in full Ironman training I had planned the route back on some faster straight roads in order to practice going quicker. I wouldn't recommend the route back if you want some nice quiet country lanes, like you will find in most of the routes in my useful routes facility. However I was very pleased with the fast stretches we put in which ticked today's training box but it did mean I needed an afternoon kip once I got back to Crusader towers. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	6.5	5.5	7.0	8.0	6.60

route

The route went down a busy road so take care

Click here to download 50 mile Norwich Winterton GPX file for your GPS