Catch up. (No. 33 Cafe Bar, Norwich)

No 33 Café Bar,

Norwich,

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

Sat 09:00-17:00, Sun 10:30-16:30

Highly Recommended 

It had been a while since I had been on a cafe visit with Mr X or added to my collection of cafes numbered one to a hundred. But today this was about to change as, with the aid of encrypted messages, I had arranged to meet Mr X at No 33 cafe bar in Norwich. It would also be the seventh numbered cafe in my collection.

You may recall that Mr X should really be at work creating shareholder value rather than out rating cake so his identity must be kept a secret at all times to 
a. stop the possibility of a run on a large insurance companies share price
and
b. stop getting Mr X into trouble.

With everything in place and the sun in the sky I set out on my 'about town bike' for the short ride to No 33. Mr X was waiting outside, in disguise, but once he had revealed himself to me we went in.

Waiting outside No 33 Cafe bar for Mr X to reveal himself

I had been warned that No 33 can be busy so I was please that we were able to secure a seat in the downstairs section, there is an upstairs area too but sadly no outdoor seating However the place had a nice vibe so we awarded a high atmosphere and ambience (AAA) score.

The cake selection was very impressive with a large number of big cakes and interesting looking slices. It was going to be hard to choose which one to have so I awarded a very high effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Impressive cake selection

It is a waitress service scenario here but when she arrived to take our order I still hadn't made my mind up as to which cake to have. In these situations I always ask the waitress to list the options and go for what ever the third one she says is (but only after she has listed them all) which I did and it was the Chocolate Orange one. Being a part of the world of big business Mr X was for more decisive with his Coffee and Walnut selection. He also decided to have a cup of fancy tea.

Cakes and drinks arrive
while Mr X shows the how to lift the cup correctly not using his little finger

My hot chocolate was very nice, with a good chocolate taste but needed to be a bit hotter for really top marks.

I explained to Mr X that as he had opted for tea I would be capping his Guest Hot Drink quality (GHDQ) score to 7 as that is the most a cup of tea could get as after all it is just a cup of tea. He looked at me as if I was mad. I put up my hands in a defensive manner 'I don't make the rules' I said before remembering that actually I did but I stuck with it before he eventually gave his tea a 6.

We both thought our cakes tasted every bit as good as they looked with good moistness and texture so awarded a high cake taste quality marks (CTQ)

Despite Mr X's GHDQ score No 33 had a very high overall rating and goes into my current cafe top 10 and I highly recommend a visit. 

On the way out I purchased some Flapjack as part of my hunt for flapjack of the year and not surprisingly it was jolly nice too. I hope to update on progress on this in the next couple of weeks.

By opting for fancy tea I was worried that Mr X had not really allowed No 33 a fair crack of the whip on the GHDQ stakes. Fortunately I knew that later that evening Mrs Crusaders book club were meeting round at Crusader towers and that several of them had had coffee at No 33 in the past.

When I got home I asked if an agenda item, presumably under AOB, could be added to that nights meeting in order that I could enquire of the group their views on the coffee at No. 33. I was somewhat taken aback to find that the book club operates without an agenda or indeed any form of documented governance. Apparently it is free format nattering and I could pop in anytime with my question. Which, after waiting for a very long time for a suitable gap in the conversations (none of which was book related), I did and was told the coffee at No 33 was excellent. So, although the rules don't allow for the GHDQ mark to be changed retrospectively, I feel it is important for you to know this when making your next cafe cycle venue choice (CCVC).

Scores from 2 visits. Last visit 04/11/2021

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.25	6.5	9.25	8.65	7.75	7.88