Mind the gap. (The Coffee lounge, Attleborough)

The Coffee Lounge,

Attleborough,

Opening times Mon-Fri 08:00-17:00,

Sat 08:30-16:00

Recommended 

Looking at the cafe locations map there is an obvious gap to the South West of Norwich. With the wind blowing from that direction then yesterday was the day to start plugging that gap. It was also the last Friday that Big George could be a guest for a month so it was an ideal one stone, two dead birds sort of day. I therefore decided we should head to the wilds of Attleborough where we would hopefully find a cafe to review.

The weather forecast said that the remains of the weather bomb would pass over this morning but that it would still be windy and cold. 

The disadvantage of a strong headwind is that not only does it slow you down but you cant hear what your cycling guest might be saying. This headwind, combined with Big George's strong Scottish accent meant I had no idea what he was waffling on about so I just shouted yes a lot as we rode along.

Unfortunately I did not learn from my previous overheating experience and despite heading into the wind I had soon over heated again and needed a hot top stop. During the hot top stop I was able to ask Big George for today's cycling guest top cycling tip. He told me it covers riding efficiency.

Cycling guests top cycling tip No. 6. Get more from your core. Shorten your stem, relax your shoulders and engage your core for a more efficient riding position.

It was the first top tip that comes with a strap line (Get more from your core) so I'm hoping that future cycling guests will now start to include strap lines with their top tips.

We battled on into the wind until we arrived  in Attleborough where we found the Coffee Lounge on the high street.

Outside the coffee Lounge.
We parked bikes by the sign making it clear we could only leave them there two hours (or is that cars)

Outside was possible the smallest outside seating area I have found to date, 2 chairs and a table on the pavement. We decided not to use it as we would be likely to block the pavement and cause total gridlock on the street's of Attleborough.

Rather small outside seating area on the busy high street

The Coffee Lounge provides both a front and back room inside seating area which were both busy giving a good buzz to the atmosphere. We managed to find a table by the drinks fridge before studying the cake selection.

There was a very good selection of big cakes available and I found it hard to chose so gave a very high effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Good selection of cakes in photo proof display unit

With such a good cake selection I was disappointed when Big George decided to have a bacon sandwich (on white, no sauce). As a bacon sandwich (on white, no sauce) is clearly not a cake then Big George would take no further part in any cake related reviewing today. He ordered a Latte to go with his bacon sandwich (on white, no sauce).

Cakes and drinks photographed before
Big George's Bacon sandwich (white, no sauce) arrived.

My hot chocolate was a very very hot drink but when it had cooled enough for me to drink it was quite good. Big George also though his Latte was quite good. For my cake I had chosen the last slice of layer sparkle sponge but I couldn't decide if I really liked it or not. I liked the cake bit but not the sparkly bits on the icing. In the end there was only one thing to do; award a middling cake taste quality (CTQ) score to cover both options.

Overall I liked the Coffee Lounge and it has nicely filled the cafe gap on my locations map opening up more route options in a south westerly direction.

The way back was with wind behind so I could now make out what Big George was talking to me about. I decided I preferred it when we were cycling into the wind.

Ratings 

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	6.5	8.0	6.5	6.25	6.75

Map of route we took.

Click link to download 36 mile Norwich Attleborough loop GPX for your GPS