Chocolate Cafe (Caley's Cocoa Cafe, Norwich)

Caley’s Cafe,

Norwich,

Now Closed Down

Today I was due to meet up with a guest reviewer in Norwich. I can not revel his/her name as he/she should have been at work creating share holder value rather than wasting his/her time discussing cake. As a share holder of this company I was appalled. We shall refer to this person as Mr/Ms X.

After a short cycle I arrived at today's venue Caley's Cocoa cafe in the Guildhall by Norwich market. Once there I found Mr/Ms X had been waiting for 30 mins claiming they thought we were meeting at 10:30 rather than 11:00. I got out my phone to find the text that confirmed I was correct with my arrival time and marched smugly inside.

Outside Caley's Cocoa cafe at the Guildhall in Norwich at the agreed meeting time

Disappointingly there is no outside seating area but inside there is both a downstairs and balcony seating area. Downstairs there is an eclectic mixture of seating with sofas, comfy chairs and normal chairs. We choose a comfy chair table. I found the décor tired and dull but Mr/Ms X loved it and thought it was period and interesting.

As it was waitress service I left my comfy chair to inspect the cake display cabinet so that I could award the effective cake selection score (ECS). There were some nice looking cakes, although not a huge selection, but I still awarded a good ECS.

Cakes in the cake display unit featuring some nice big sponge cakes

I ordered lemon sponge with my hot chocolate and Mr/Ms X ordered coffee cake and a fizzy water. Fizzy water doesn't qualify as a guest drink which put today's visit at risk. Fortunately I knew Chris (wife) had been here before so could provide me with a retrospective guest drink score.

Cakes and hot chocolate ready for reviewing. 

Not only did Mr/Ms X have a glass of water and liked the clearly dodgy décor but went on to say his cake was a potential 10 out of 10. At this point I decided to ignore his/her scores as he/she was clearly mad and in need of a lot more reviewer training before he/she could be taken seriously in a cafe or tearoom rating situation. However I thought the cakes were good, as was my hot chocolate. I did feel for a chocolate based cafe my drink should have been exceptional. I also expected a choice of hot chocolate type drinks that I have had at other cafes.

After I finished updating my ratings spreadsheet on my phone, Mr/Ms X foolishly asked me how I was. As I had not seen him/her since my dramatic hospital experience I told them the whole story of my emergency operation etc which took sometime, well they did ask.

Overall I was surprisingly impressed by Caley's Cocoa cafe and it could easily become Norwich's answer to Betty's tearoom. It was also quite busy but even at my age I was the youngest customer by some margin. Certainly worth a visit.

Hopefully Mr/Ms X will be working late tonight to make up for the time they wasted with me today.
Score For Caley's Cocoa Cafe

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7	8	6.5	7	6	6.90