No show. (Wortham store and teashop, Wortham).

Wortham Stores and Teashop,

Wortham,

Open Mon,Thur,Fri 09:00-17:00,

Wed,Sat, Sun 09:00-16:00

 Highly Recommended

At the end of August myself and Big George have arranged to cycle from London to Paris over 4 days. On two of those days we are going to be riding 100 miles so I thought we better do some training. Therefore today I planned a 66 mile ride down to Wortham (nr Diss) where there just happens to be a tea shop we could pop into to sneak in a cafe cycle review. Unfortunately at the last minute Big George had to cancel due to a work commitment. I still wanted to do the ride so asked Imaginary Friend if he would come instead.

We set off on a fantastic summers day and raced down to the Norfolk Suffolk boarder passing through the infamous Norfolk opium fields on the way. Due to his existence issues Imaginary Friend didn't say much.

Passing through the famous Norfolk opium fields

We arrived at Wortham store and tea shop and I locked up my bike with Alarmio. I noticed there were two old wooden chairs in the car park and assumed this was the Wortham store and tea shop's attempt at an out door seating car park area. 

Tea shop is through red door next to the stores.
Note 2 chairs making up the outdoor car park seating area.

I went inside and the nice waitress asked if I wanted to sit inside or out. I thought this strange as as far as I could make out this would mean sitting in the car park. Perhaps they don't like cyclists coming inside, I thought. I declined the offer and picked a table in the conservatory. 

I was very impresses that there were two cake selection display units and an excellent array of home made cakes. I immediately awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

One of two cake display sections, this one featuring the big cakes.

I was torn between a lemon sponge and tiffin to go with my hot chocolate but eventually picked the sponge. Because of his deep held beliefs, that he doesn't actually exist, Imaginary Friend refuses to eat or drink in public and I couldn't persuade him to have a coffee or cake. This of course means there will be no guest's drink rating in today's scores. 

Cake and hot chocolate ready for reviewing.
 Imaginary friend refused to have anything due to his non existence issues

The hot chocolate was excellent as it was a good strength and thickness (and very hot). The cake was also very pleasant and scored well. As with a lot of tea shops for some reason they insist on placing the cake on the paper serviette. This covers the paper serviette in cake and thus renders it useless. I therefore had to take great care eating the cake so as to avoid the need to wipe away and crumbs or icing leakage. I think I accomplished this task rather well.

Cake covered serviette
which was now not able to effectively perform its cleaning duties

Some other punters came in and asked for a cheese scone. I myself am partial to a cheese scone but I had taken the time to study the cake selection display areas and knew that a cheese scone was not on offer. The waitress dealt with them very politely whereas I was all for marching them back to the cake selection display areas to ask them what could possibly have made them think they could have a cheese scone. They had cheese on toast instead.

Rest of cake selection where there are clearly no cheese scones.

I paid my bill and left. However I noticed a number of people wandering off through a gap in the car park hedge. I wandered over to find that there was a proper outside seating area and they did like cyclists after all.

Hidden outdoor seating area which I missed on the way in.

I will definitely be coming back. Not only did the Wortham stores and tea shop go straight into my top 5 cafes and tearooms but it could do even better once the coffee has been rated and the outside seating area used.

The cycle home went well although until Imaginary Friend can get over his existence issues I won't be taking him again.

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.0		8.0	8.0	6.5	7.63

Route

Click on link to download 65 mile Norwich Wortham Diss Loop GPX file for your GPS