Into the storm. (Adem's Cafe, Watton)

Adem's Cafe,

Watton,

Opening times Mon-Sat 07:30-18:00

After an extended Cafe Cycle Christmas break it was good to finally get back on the bike and restart cafe cycle reviewing for 2015. As storms and winds were coming our way I decided it would be best to train into the wind and then cycle back with the wind. Therefore today I met up with cycle guest, Big George, at Norwich station to catch the train down to Thetford. I had a route planned via Watton where we planned to find a cafe stop.

About to catch train to Thetford, note saddle is a bit low

This year I have set 10 cafe cycle goals which I have been announcing on twitter (cake crusader@cafecycletour) and will be summarising on a post in the next week. A key one of these is to gather more data so I can produce lots of fascinating cafe, cycle and cake facts to share. I was therefore excited to get the chance to test out my beta version new improved data capture spreadsheet on my phone.

The ride got off to a bad start when Big George told me that Mrs Big George had not given him permission to go out riding today and instead had given him a to do list. The two key to do's were to take down the outside Christmas lights and buy toilet paper. I said that that didn't sound a too difficult a to do list and he should to be able to fit it in after we got back. However Big George said that to do the lights he had to go up on the roof (the Drifters weren't available) which had to be done in day light as he was scared of heights and the dark but only at the same time. We worked out that if we got back by 2:30 he would have time to get up on the roof in the light and still get to the shops for the toilet paper. It would mean going fast and cutting down our cafe stopping time but should be possible and Mrs Big George would then be none the wiser.

Whilst on the train I decided the saddle on my latest new bike needed raising and so I took my saddle tool bag off to retrieve the appropriate seat adjustment tool. With saddle now the right height we settled down for the rest of the trip to Thetford and Big George gave me his Cycling guests top cycling tip.
Cycling guests top cycling tip 9. When you set off on a ride you should start off feeling cold or you will get too hot later on.

After leaving the train I was about to mount my bike when I realised the seat adjustment tool was still in my pocket. I went to put it back in the saddle bag which I realised was still on the train. Unfortunately the train was not still in the station. There was nothing I could do but go back to the ticket office and reported the missing bag to a very helpful ticket lady. She tried to phone the guard and then gave me instructions of how to go through the Abello train lost property process which was not as simple as you might have expected. But that would have to wait.

We were now well behind schedule and the wind and rain might not be the only storm Big George would face today. I also now had no spare inner tubes, tyre levers etc but fortunately I hadn't had a puncture for sometime so what were the chances of getting one today.

As it turn out quite high. After just a few miles my front tyre went flat. We had no inner tubes the right size but Big George had one remaining puncture patch in his tool bag. Using the laws of market forces he was prepared to sell it to me at a vastly inflated rate. I was left with no choice but to meet his outrageous demands and using the worlds most expensive patch I successfully repaired the leak. After a few more minutes we were off again but the chance of Big George getting up on the roof today was now looking slim.

Repairing puncture with very expensive patch

We arrived in Watton and started to look for a cafe and a bike shop. There was not much choice of the first and no sign of the second but we found Adem's Cafe on the High Street.

Adem's Cafe

It was more at the cafe rather than Victorian tearoom end of the style continuum but Big George much prefers that end anyway so he was happy. We went inside to first check out the cakes. The cake selection was limited to apple pie, vanilla cheese cake and chocolate fudge cake so I could only award a poor effective cake selection (ECS) rating. Big Geroge choose a cappuccino and disappointingly a Bacon Sandwich (which is not cake). I went for the chocolate fudge cake.

Rather limited cake selection

One of my goals this year is to discourage the practice of cake being served on top of the serviette as it renders it useless for mouth wiping activity. I had even set up a column on my beta version new improved data capture spreadsheet to record napkin/cake serving status. I was looking forward to see what Adem's cafe serviette policy was and was please to see it was delivered separately to the cake so full marks there and a tick in the napkin/cake serving status spreadsheet cell.

Drinks and cakes with napkin correctly delivered to the side of the cake

My hot chocolate was a good one but Big George thought his cappuccino a bit weak. I'm afraid the chocolate fudge cake was very dry and rather poor. Overall Adem's Cafe was a decent refuelling stop but, despite the thumbs up re serviettes, not one I'm likely to make a special return trip to.

Despite cutting our coffee and cake chat to a minimum we were now well behind the clock when we left. Fortunately the weather storm was building up behind us and the wind was very strong which gave us extra speed. Fearing the wrath of Mrs Big George we went flat out stopping only once, to tweet an Egg News flash. We were too out of breath to exchange much conversation but thankfully we just got back home in time. Big George went straight home to get his ladder and I went straight home to follow step one of the Abellio train lost property process. Step 1 appears to be telling the call centre you left you bag at a journey starting from Norwich station and being told to phone a different number that turns out to be for Horwich station in Manchester. I'm looking forward to getting to step 2 in the near future.

Ratings

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.0	6.0	5.0	5.5	5.0	5.70

Route

Click here to down load 45 mile Thetford to Norwich gpx file for your gps