Down the road. (Stephanie's Coffee House, Norwich)

Stephanie's has closed down

Today was planned to be another Friday ride with Big George. However as always seems to happen with Big George something had cropped up so he could only do a short trip. I worked out the shortest ride we could do is 0.30 miles (according to my cycle speedo) to Stephanie's Coffee House in Eaton, Norwich. We both agreed that was a bit too short so we decided on a quick 20 mile loop before returning to rate Stephanie's Coffee House in advance of a very quick ride home.

The ride itself was quite eventful as once we got into the country the roads were far icier than we had realised. After a few back wheel skids we both got very tentative and rode accordingly more slowly. This also cut down on the conversation as we had to have full concentration on not slipping over and our limited multi tasking skills couldn't cope with chat at the same time. With the slow pace, and a puncture thrown in, we arrived at Stephanie's Coffee House later than expected.

In the outside seating area on 'Eaton Common' outside Stephanie's coffee house in Eaton, Norwich.

It was good to see Stephanie's Coffee House provides an outside seating area on 'Eaton common' where one could kick back and enjoy their beverage whilst watching all the action that Eaton crossroads traffic lights can offer. There is also a wooden decking outside seating area round the back of Stephanie's Coffee House, which overlooks the car park, but this seemed to be closed today. As it was cold we decided to sit inside. 

Stephanie's Coffee House's main competition is from the nearby Waitrose which has recently started to hand out free coffee, like a sort of coffee based soup kitchen, to anyone in need of it. However Stephanie's Coffee House provides a far more relaxed location if you want to have a good natter (and there was plenty of that going on in there today). 

As always I went straight to view the cakes and award the effective cake selection rating. It was a rather sparse collection although what there was looked good.

Rather sparse cake selection. Maybe there had been a run on cake today.

The downstairs seating area is a little dark but there is a lighter area upstairs with comfy sofas. We didn't make it that far as the seat by the radiator was free and ready to warm us up.

With my Hot Chocolate I ordered a raspberry and something (can't remember what) flapjack. I thought both the Hot Chocolate and the raspberry and something flapjack were very good and both scored well. The Hot Chocolate had a nice cinnamon (I think) sprinkling on it that gave it an extra spicy taste, which I liked. 

My hot chocolate and raspberry and something flapjack. Both rated well.

Big George went for cappuccino and a Pain Aux Raisin. He felt his cappuccino was a bit weak and needed stronger coffee as it could have doubled up as a latte. The Pain Aux Raisin is clearly a leavened butter pastry and not a cake so even though Big George thought it was good he could not take part in the cake quality rating which had to be based on the raspberry and something flapjack alone.

Overall Stephanie's Coffee House rating came out as a nice middling cafe which seemed about right. A full list of all cafe ratings are at the end of the blog. 

Whilst the rest of Stephanie's Coffee house continued their nattering we had serious biking business to attend to. We needed to hold the first meeting of our working group to plan Big Georges proposed London to Paris cycle ride. This probably explains why Big George selected a Pain Aux Raisin instead of a cake in order to get him into a French mindset. The meeting went well with no decisions made other than to have another meeting on our next ride. It brought back pre retirement memories of how meetings at work used to be, except without the bikes.

On leaving I discovered I had another puncture but at least it was only a very short walk to wheel it home (0.3 miles actually).

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.5	5	5	7	6	6.10

Map of route we took

View 20 miles Norwich Wymondham loop in a larger map

Click here to download Norwich - Wymondham loop GPX file to load on to your GPS