Cycling overload. (River Kitchen, Wroxham)

The River Kitchen Cafe,

Wroxham,

Opening times Mon-Thur 9:00-16:00,

Fri-Sat 9:00-20:00, Sun 9:30-16:00

Recommended 

I might have overstretched myself in cycling based projects this summer. First, in 3 weeks time, I'm off to Italy to cycle up mountains with Big George, then in 6 weeks time I've entered a half ironman triathlon with son George and finally in October I'm cycling to St Andrews (Scotland) supporting Mrs Crusaders charity cycle ride. I foolishly promised each of them I would go cycling with them to aide in preparation for each event. This means a lot of cycling and diary juggling. Today I had managed to double book a Big George cafe ride with a son George 50 mile training ride. As a good parent I decided it would be excellent character building for son George to do a solo effort so I set him off with a route on my spare bike Sat Nav while I waited for Big George to arrive.

It was a longer wait than expected as Big George had forgotten to set the alarm and had over slept. However he did eventually get to Crusader Towers and we set off on our ride to Wroxham and the River Kitchen Cafe.

As always Big George had a puncture on the ride

Due to holidays and other cycling commitments I had not seen Big George since I complete my Ironman triathlon in June so I was sure that he could hardly wait for me to tell him all about it. Which I did, covering ever detail while he glazed over. Apart from the ubiquitous Big George puncture everything else went smoothly on the way to the River Kitchen cafe in Wroxham which we found be the river.

Outside River Kitchen, river is on other side.

The River Kitchen cafe has an outdoor patio seating area overlooking the river which was, not surprisingly, very busy on a fine day in high season. We managed to secure the last table before going inside (which was almost empty) to check out the cake selection and award the effective cake selection (ECS) mark.

Very busy outdoor seating area

It was a very good cake selection and very effective as I couldn't choose what to have. I therefore selected the cherry cake and asked if I could have two bits of the salted caramel brownie to take home for later. I have to get two pieces as history tells us that Mrs Crusader would be upset if I didn't bring her any take away cake. However my generosity was soon to cause a major takeaway cake transportation issue (MTCTI).

Excellent and very effective cake selection which attracted a high ECS mark

Big George, rather disappointingly, went for a fruit scone when there were many more exciting cake offerings available. He also went for a standard filter coffee.

We returned to our seats and enjoyed the views of the river while I got out the google map I had prepared of the routes I was proposing for our Italy trip. Big George had said he had also done some research and had some suggestions. I was keen to hear what he had found in order that I could quickly ignore his input and just get on with what I had planned. I clearly hadn't lost the team building skills that had made me such a 'successful' middle manager in my pre cake crusader days. 

While Big George wittered on and I feigned interest, our drinks and cakes arrived. My hot chocolate was fairly standard but Big George thought his coffee was a good one and awarded a good guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) mark. My cherry cake was top draw being moist, fruity and tasty so I awarded a high cake taste quality score.

Cakes and drinks

The River Kitchen was a very nice stop with a good view of Wroxham river action plus an excellent selection of cakes to enjoy so I recommend a visit.

Big George eventually finished telling me his Italy research covering all the places we should go, best roads to ride on and climbs we should do. "Excellent" I said "I will adapt the routes I have planned to incorporate your findings" (I won't) and folded up the map with team building complete and knowing he will be none the wiser once we get there.

Before we left I collected the salted caramel brownies which had been packed in separate large containers thus causing me a MTCTI as I only had cycle jersey pockets as a way of transporting. 

Rather large container (and there were two of them) causing me a MTCTI

After squeezing them into one box and with much container squashing I managed to force them into a cycle pocket. However I wont include a picture as they were in a bit of a state when I got them home, although it hadn't impacted the taste.

There won't be time for many more rides with Big George before Italy beckons but as there are not many mountains in Norfolk to practice on it probably doesn't matter. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	7.5	8.0	8.0	6.5	7.20

Route

Click here to download 41 mile Norwich Wroxham loop GPX file for your gps