More training less sofa. (Foyers Tea room, East Rudham)

Foyers Tearoom,

East Rudham,

Under New Management as Sue's Coffee Corner
Click here for review

I have had my busiest summer of cycling ever. So far I've cycled in the Slovenia mountains, trained for ironman Austria (did I mention I did an ironman triathlon) and I've still got to go cycling in the Italian Mountains, train for two more triathlons and do a sponsored cycle to Scotland with Mrs Crusader so my cycling miles are currently high. Sadly the same doesn't appear to be true for a number of my cycling guests

All the extra cycle training I have done has made it harder to go on so many cafe cycle rides so I hadn't been on a trip with today's cycling guest Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) for a few weeks. I had planned a long ride today from Andrews gaff, Hard to Please house, in Alysham to Foyers Tearoom in East Rudham near Fakenham. It would be a fairly long 58 mile ride but several cyclists had recommended Foyers to me and as I hadn't got too many cafes on that part of my cafe locations map it seemed to be worth the effort.

However when Andrew appeared on his drive, ready to set off, it was clear all was not well as he had not been out on his bike much recently due to a severe bout of laziness. After a few miles he complained of being stiff and tired so we had to take it easy on the way out.

Cycling guest cycling top tip No 50. To avoid being tired on your cycle rides try getting off your sofa and out on your bike more often.

We arrived in East Rudham and found Foyers tea room. It had a two table outdoor seating area although they were both in use when we got there. 

Outside Foyers tearoom

We went inside to find that there was a soft furnishings shop bit plus a standard indoor seating area section. However before I could select our seating choice for the day Andrew had spotted some comfy sofas and insisted on sitting on them as it was clearly where he now felt most at home. Even when an outdoor table became free there was no shifting him.

Andrew refusing to move from comfy sofa indoor seating area

I had to go and check out the cake selection by myself and report back to his sofa. There was a fairly small selection of scones, cakes and tarts but still quite interesting so I awarded a quite interesting effective cake selection (ECS) score.

Cake selection, note scones and bakewell tart were on a separate table

I ordered a lemon tart cake with my Hot Chocolate and Andrew a Bakewell tart with his cappuccino.  

Our drinks soon arrived and after a quick sip it was clear that they wouldn't disappoint people who like their hot drinks proper hot. As I don't have a fully asbestos mouth I needed to let it cool for a bit before I could rate mine. I have often found that when cafes concentrate on the hot part of hot chocolate then the chocolate part of the drink is a disappointment so I was very pleased that Foyers had ticked both drink boxes and it had a good chocolate taste. I was therefore able to award a high hot chocolate quality (HCQ) mark. Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) wasn't quite as happy with his coffee but still found it a reasonably good drink.

drinks with spoons but no saucers

Andrew was in a picky mood as neither of our drinks came on a saucer but they did have teaspoons so he was unclear where he should put the spoon post stirring activity. I suggested he either start a #keepcupsonsaucers campaign or just put it on the table like everyone else which due to his new found apathy he did.

Our tarts arrived and were nice offerings and scored well. I also took some flapjack away to test as part of my search for flapjack of the year 2016. I thought it was excellent and it is high on my potential lists of finalist for the flapjack off at the end of the year.

Bakewell and Lemon tarts with a splodge of cream as a nice touch

Foyers tearoom was a very pleasant stop with good refreshments so like a number of my fellow cyclist I would recommend a visit.

After sometime I managed to persuade Andrew out of his sofa and back on to his bike for the return trip, where fortunately we had the wind behind. It wasn't the fastest trip back but Andrew did promise he would make sure he had done more cycling before our next ride but then told me that he would be spending the next two weeks sitting on his sofa watching the Olympics.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.0	6.0	6.0	7.0	8.0	7.00

route

Click here to down load 56 mile Alysham East Rudham loop gpx file to your gps