Rant. (Wells Deli, Wells-Next-the-Sea)

Wells Deli,

Wells-Next-the-Sea,

Opening times every day 09:00-17:00,

Recommended 

It was time for my second cafe cycle ride in two days. After yesterdays ride with my newest cycling guest reviewer (see Trainee cycling guest) then today it was out with the new and in with the old as I was accompanied by my original cycling guest Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please), and very old.

We met up for the ride at hard to please house in Alysham for a planned trip out to Wells-Next-the-Sea which is a seaside town that by a lucky coincidence is situated next to the sea. When we go from his house I normally tell Andrew what the target cafe needs to be and allocate him a miles range within which he must try (and normally fails) to deliver the route. However today, unusually, Andrew had picked both the cafe and the route.

There was much catching up to be done as since we last rode together I had cycled with Mrs Crusader all the way to St Andrews (the one in Scotland) whilst he had found lots of things to rant about. So on the way out we took it in turns of me to telling him one of my many amusing cycle trip anecdotes and for him to have a rant on a topic of his choice (and there where many to get through).

We arrived in Wells-Next-the-Sea only to find it was packed with families as apparently it was something called half term. A bit of a miscalculation seeing that as we are a couple of retired old blokes we can go to the seaside at anytime of the year (as I often do) without the need to clash with hoards of holidaymakers. It was therefore a fight through the crowds to get to the Wells Deli situated on the seafront.

Outside Wells Deli after the battle with holiday makers

Sadly there was no outdoor seating area but inside there was a choice of breakfast bar style seating or a whole room full of an eclectic mix of sofas, tables and chairs. From both rooms you could see the harbour out the window.

As always the first thing was to check out the cake selection in order to award the effective cake selection (ECS) score and it was a good one with a nice tempting selection so a high ECS mark.I went for Apple and Sultana and Andrew Coffee and Walnut.

Good cake selection

After much discussion we eventually opted to sit in the eclectic indoor seating area and waited for our cakes, hot chocolate and cappuccino to arrive.

Drinks and cakes to try

They soon turned up and we tried our drinks first, although I didn't see the tin I was pretty sure it was Cadburys hot chocolate and we all know what I think of that, while Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) felt his cappuccino was also a little disappointing and needed to be a lot more coffee tasting.

However we had no problems with the cakes which we felt were both very good indeed. I was pleased to see they had not been over iced and as a result didn't over power the cake with sweetness allowing the other flavors to come through (you can tell who has watched too much bakeoff this week).

We also had some very nice posh sandwiches for lunch so overall the Wells Deli was excellent on the food and cake front but could up its game a bit when it came to hot drinks which would then make it a really good to destination although its still worth a visit.

Despite the ride being 50 miles we were unable to complete the full lists of Andrews ranting topics (note to self, don't ever get him started on not being allowed to take food and drink into the London velodrome again) so arranged for a follow up ride next week so that he can crack on with ranting topics part two.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.0	6.0	7.5	8.1	7.0	6.72

route

Click here to download 49 mile Alysham Wells loop gpx file for your gps