Egg hunt. (Maxims tea room, Lenwade)

Maxims has closed

Today was forecast to be the last nice day of weather before the Autumn and then the Winter kick in. It would therefore probably be the last change to go out on my summer bike so I was pleased when I persuaded Big George to join me as today's guest on a ride.

When out on cafe cycle reviewing I often notice that there are many houses and small farms selling eggs and other garden produce via an honesty table by the side of the road at the bottom of their drives.or gardens. I have often thought that this gives me the opportunity to gather and pass on useful information as to where particularly good value eggs or unusual garden produce is available. I therefore plan to include a new occasional service in the blog updating all readers on theses matters. It will be called Egg News and I'm sure it will be both useful and informative for anyone needing half a dozen eggs, a fresh courgette or home-made strawberry jam. 

I wanted to get my first Egg News in today's blog so planned a 40 mile ride out to Lenwade where I was sure we would see lots of Eggs and garden produce. It would also be an opportunity to review Maxims tea room which I have driven past many times on the Fakenham road. However to my surprise we didn't come across anything for sale all the way out to Lenwade. We saw a number of tables but no garden produce and no sign of any eggs.

Outside Maxims tearoom and gift shop

We both agreed today's route was excellent (apart from a short bit down the Fakenham road) and there had some great views so we arrived at Maxims tea room and gift shop in good spirit. We parked our bikes and went inside. There was no outside seating area and inside was a bit dark and could probably have done with a coat of paint. The tables were arranged amongst the shelves of gifts. I'm afraid it didn't tick a lot of the ambiance boxes so I couldn't award a very high Ambiance and Atmosphere rating.

Unfortunately there were no cakes on display as they were all in the kitchen so we had to choose using the cake selection blackboard to award a virtual effective cake selection (ECS) rating. They had 4 different cakes on offer, I choose the chocolate fudge and Big George the lemon drizzle. 

Cakes and drinks ready to review

We waited at our table and discussed urgent matters of the day. Big George was very pleased to report that he had completed all the hoovering before we set off this morning. Our drinks and cakes arrived and we got stuck in. My hot chocolate was fine but Big George felt his filter coffee a little weak. However our cakes were both nice and scored well. Although not part of the review we also both had a cheese sandwich which I liked but Big George wasn't happy with his as he apparently doesn't like to have his cheese grated but prefers it sliced.

After cafe cycle reviewing was completed we headed off again to find something to report about in Egg News. On several occasions I saw for sale signs in the distance but unfortunately on each occasion it was the house rather than eggs that you could buy. Sadly we completed the ride with no Egg News. I suspect I may have started this new service at the wrong time of year but hopefully I will have some useful and informative Egg News for you in future posts.

Scores for Maxims Tearoom

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.5	4.5	5.0	7.0	4.0	5.20

Route

Click here to download 40 mile Norwich Lenwade loop GPX file for your gps