Lets find a Cafe (or tearoom)

Lets find a Cafe (or tearoom)

Locations of reviewed cafes

For more information on the Cafes I have visited and the latest cafe cycle news go to http://www.cake-crusader.co.uk/

Cake Crusader Book

There is now a Cake Crusader book available where you can follow my journey from humble local trips to world record attempts and near-death experiences. How did a simple method of keeping track of decent cycling café pit stops turn my life upside down? Track my adventures into Europe, up mountains and right across Great Britain as I become a 'rising star' on social media. Will I prove my critics wrong? Should cheese scones be served hot or cold? Do I really have nothing better to do with his time? A must read for lovers of cycling and cake or anyone wanting to make it big in the virtual world

Available on Amazon


Friday 24 April 2015

Unfaithful. (Langley Road Bakery, Loddon)

Langley Road Bakery,
Loddon,
Open Mon-Fri 7.00-2.30, Sat 7.00-2.00

It has been a week since my last cafe cycle ride. This is mainly due to having entered an Ironman triathlon in July and realising that I need to increase the amount of cycling I'm doing if I'm going to be ready for the event. Unfortunately none of the training plans I have read suggest that stopping during your cycle training to eat cakes and scones will aide the process. However I believe any cycling must be good cycling so I will still be fitting in at least one cafe cycle ride each week where cake will form part of that day's nutrition plan.

It being a Friday meant that Big George was free to join me as today's guest as Friday is his day off. He said he needed to be back by midday but was not prepared to say why. I assume he had to get the housework complete before Mrs Big George got home and did her weekly inspection. This limited us to a 30 mile route so I decided we could go to a bakery I had spotted in Loddon that had put a big Tearoom sign in the window. 

You may remember I originally started cafe reviewing as Big George only knew of 3 cafes and we kept having to go to the same ones. One of those original three was Rosy Lee's in Loddon so when I told him of our destination Big George felt very uncomfortable going to a different Loddon cafe. He felt he was being unfaithful to Rosy Lee. I assured him his secret was safe with me and I won't tell anyone about his indiscretion, she would never know (unless she reads this blog).

As it was a fairly short ride and wind assisted we soon arrived in Loddon where we tiptoed past Rosy Lee's cafe before arriving at the Langley Road Bakery (which has the word Tearoom in large letters in the window).
Langley Road Bakery which has the word Tearoom in big letters above my head
Seating choices were limited as there was no outdoor seating area and only two tables inside. On our way to one of the tables I stopped off to check out the cake selection. It was a little sparse with only muffins or cream slices plus flapjacks, brownies and fruit scones all pre wrapped. I could only award a low effective cake selection (ECS) rating as I only really fancied the muffins.
Rather small cake selection
As it was only a small tearoom there was no frothy coffee machine but they did have a kettle and some tins of powder. I ordered my hot chocolate and Big George surprisingly went for an instant cappuccino. 
Coffee corner
My hot chocolate and muffin were both nice but Big George didn't like his cappuccino as it had been made with pre-sugared powder so was too sweet. 
Drinks and muffin
As we sat consuming our food and drinks Big George told me that he had recently appeared on Radio 5. I assumed he had phoned in for a rant but he told me he had actually been invited on as a guest in a debate on education in Norfolk. As I started to glaze over he gave me a blow by blow account of what he had said, plus what he should have said when he thought about it later, what the other debaters had said and how he believed his contribution would impact the result of the election. Up until the point when I fell asleep I felt I had done a very good job of appearing interested. Eventually Big George got to the end of his story, woke me up and we could set off again back to Norwich. 

Overall the Langley Road Bakery appeared to be a nice little bakery that would make you a hot drink but probably was not yet ready to stop Big George returning to Rosy Lee's, if she will have him back.

On the way back I made sure I kept the chat away from politics or the media as we headed home into wind. Despite this we made it back in plenty of time for Big George to don his piney and marigold gloves in order to get the house spic and span ready for inspection.

Ratings
Hot Choc Quality
Guest Hot Drink Quality
Effective Cake Selection
Cake Quality
Ambiance and Atmosphere
Café Rating
6.0
4.0
3.5
6.0
5.0
4.90
Route


Click here to download Loddon - Norwich loop GPX file to load on to your GPS

No comments:

Post a Comment