Road safety. (A Piece of Cake Tea room, Coltishall)

A Piece of Cake Tea room,

Coltishall,

Open Mon-Sat 9-4, Sun 9.30 -3.30,

Highly Recommended

Today saw the start of a planned schedule of 13 cafe cycle rides during March. That is assuming that the weather holds, no cycling guests wimp out and I can avoid the near death funny turn and subsequent hospitalisation experience that took me off the bike this time last year. If so it looks like being a bumper month for the Cake Crusader.

Sadly today's ride would be the only March one with Barry and Helen and their tandem as Helen is planning to pop into hospital to have her second knee made bionic. Today they were joined by Chris (Mrs Crusader) to be my cycling guest for a figure of eight shaped ride to A Piece of Cake Tea room (I see what they have done there) at Coltishall.

Barry has just up graded his cycling GPS so took charge of today's route which started from Sainsbury's car park in Thorpe. It wasn't far into the route when we reached a nice long stretch of cycle path by the side of a completely empty road. Shockingly Barry and Helen and their tandem refused to use it as they had not been directed on to the path by Barry's new cycling GPS. Chris, as a former member of the Tufty the Squirrel road safety club (and she used to have a badge to prove it), was appalled. When ever there is a potentially dangerous road traffic situation Chris always asks herself, but what would Tufty the Squirrel have done, and clearly he would have made me join her safely on the cycle path, so I did. With Barry and Helen and their tandem acting like Willy Weasel and laughing in the face of Tufty they were lucky that they didn't all end up in hospital needing more than just new knees!

Ironically we didn't actually see any cars whilst Barry and Helen and their Tandem were performing their reckless stunt but when we turned on to some smaller roads things changed when it became "national drive on the smallest lane you can find day". We repeatedly had to pull over to let numerous cars pass us on single width roads until we eventually we made it to Cotishall and A Piece of Cake Tea room. 

Outside A piece of cake tea room, note amusing letter C.

Once inside we were immediately impressed with the light and bright multi layer indoor seating system which had seats downstairs and upstairs but we choose to follow the way of Kermit the frogs nephew Robin and sit halfway up the stairs (hope you are impressed with my muppetry knowledge) with a lovely view over the Marshes.

Our table halfway up the stairs of the multi layer indoor seating area

Their is also an outside seating area which was a bit too cold to use today. We all liked what we saw and awarded a high Atmosphere and Ambiance (AAA) score.

Outdoor seating area 

I checked out the cake selection which seemed to have all the bases covered with big cakes, small cakes, slices and scones so a high effective cake selection (ECS) score too.

Part of the good cake selection

I ordered Victoria sponge cake, a mandatory cheese scone (for my cheese scone hot, fruit scone not research) and Chris Chocolate sponge cake and an unnecessary fruit scone (as she isn't currently involved in any scone based research). For drinks it was hot chocolate, two mochas and a cappuccino.

Once again Barry didn't cake and went for a sausage sandwich. Sadly his influence had spread to Helen, who had a bacon butty, and their tandem, who refused to have any food at all. As a sausage sandwich and a bacon butty are not cake then Barry and Helen would take no further part in cake reviewing today.

The drinks were all nice, hot and of a good quality although needed to be a bit stronger for really top marks. The scones (both served cold!) were nice but we both found our respective sponge cakes slightly dry although very light in texture and well iced.

Cakes and drinks

Unfortunately the sponge cakes had been served on their napkin which rendered them useless. So still more work to do in my "keep cake of serviettes" to get all cafe baristas on message.

Impact on serviette if cake is served on it rather than to the side

Overall A Piece of Cake Tea room was a very good venue in a lovely location with good cakes and drinks. Ideal for a cycle stop.

The ride home was uneventful with no more high risk traffic safety scenarios to tackle so we all got home in one piece and ready for the next of my multiple March rides.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	7.0	7.5	6.5	8.0	7.10

Route not available as Barry wont let me have it