I do like to be beside the seaside (Breakers Cafe, Cromer)

Breakers Cafe,

Cromer,

Opening times Everyday from 8:30

Apparently Barry and Helen and their Tandem had not been to the seaside for a long while so I felt it was about time I took them there. As the seaside is a long way from Norwich (in cycling terms) it would mean an over 60 mile ride, which is a lot further than their Tandem can normally manage but it was happy to give it a go. It was also a good opportunity to continue Chris's (Mr Crusaders) training for our sponsored ride to St Andrews in October. Finally to keep sprints high on our marathon effort I had invited Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) to join us as I recently discovered he is a big fan of the seaside (see the Sting).

So on a slightly chilly day myself and Chris set off from Crusader towers to pick up my cycling guests on route. First we met Barry and Helen and their Tandem at a convenient crossroads. However it was not a smooth transition as before we could set off again Helen decided she was too hot and faffed about taking off her jumper claiming she had been cold when she first left home. She clearly hadn't been paying attention to my cycling guests cycling top tips feature as number 9 from January 2015 says

Cycling guest cycling top tip number 9.   When you set off on a ride you should start off feeling slightly cold or you will get too hot later on.

We were now late to meet Andrew, my next cycling guest, who we found 30 mins later twiddling his thumbs on Brampton humpy back bridge. Once collected we now had a full peloton of riders as we made good progress up to Cromer and found Breakers cafe on a road down to the sea.

Outside Breakers cafe near the sea

Breakers cafe had the look and feel of a typical seaside cafe attracting both a clientele of locals and holidaymakers and on a pleasant day in August it was pretty busy. The staff were very friendly and let us wheel our bikes through the back to a micro outdoor seating area, which we were very grateful for as I had forgotten my lock.

Bikes left safely in micro outdoor seating area

I checked out the cakes in order to awarded the effective cake selection (ECS) mark, who's qualifying items today were two traditional sponge cakes (chocolate and Victoria) and some scones.

Cake Selection

I went for Victoria with my hot chocolate and Chris chocolate. On the coffee front it was mochas and cappuccino. As always Barry refused to engage in cafe cycle reviewing activities and had a can of coke.

It was now that I discovered the one thing Barry hates more than rating the quality of cake is British coastal towns and he had a good rant about them. Andrew, however, maybe notoriously hard to please but loves being by the sea and was enthusing about the cafe's atmosphere and the possibility of buying beach goods at the shop next door. It ended in a full blown seaside off with neither party prepared to give any ground. Fortunately before it turned nasty our drinks and cakes arrived.

Drinks

The general consensus was that the drinks were all a little weak but better than the instant coffee on offer at a lot of seaside establishments these days. I thought my Victoria sponge was rather good so awarded a rather good cake taste quality (CTQ) score.

Cakes which were sadly served on their napkins. Remember keep cake off serviettes

If you like the seaside and a good traditional seaside cafe then Breakers is for you. 

Much to Barry's disgust Andrew insisted that we pop to the end of the road to see the sea before we left which was harder than it seemed as Cromer was packed.

Cromer sea front looking busy

With Andrew and Barry still not speaking on the ride home I promised that we would stay inland next time this particular grouping of cycling guests got together.
Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	5.5	4.5	7.0	7.0	6.00

map of route

Click here to download 61 mile Norwich to Cromer loop gpx file for your GPS