Mass review. (Cadence Cafe, Old Buckenham)

Café Cadence (now OB Cafe),

Old Buckenham,

Opening times Thur 9-3, Fri-Sat 9-5, Sun 9-4.30,
Highly Recommended 

One advantage of being a self appointed cycle cafe reviewer is that fellow cyclists and cafe fans often send their recommendations or news of new establishments opening. Recently I have had several emails and tweets telling me about Cafe Cadance that has recently opened in a field. Not only is it a new cafe, but it is cycle themed and an optimum distance from my house for a 40 mile bike ride to boot. 

So today I organised a group ride down to Old Buckenham to try it out. It was a high risk approach as I normal only take groups to cafes I have already been to but sometimes you just have to live on the edge.

My large group of cycling guests ready for some group reviewing

One drawback of a large peleton is the increased likelihood of a puncture so it was no surprise when less than 5 miles in Mrs Crusader's friend Tracey (on her first Cake Crusader ride) shouted the dreaded words 'Puncture' and the group came to a stop. As Mrs Crusader is a veteran of these things she knew exactly what to do and handed me Tracey's bike, pointed to the wheel to be fixed and then returned to chatting while I got down to work.

Fixing the puncture while everyone else stood around and chatted

Once back on our way there were no further incidents as we found Cafe Cadence in a van in the middle of a field just the other side of the aptly named Cake Street in Old Buckenham.

Outside Cafe Cadence at Old Buckingham Country park

I was very impressed with the setting, the excellent bike rack facility and the fact it sold puncture repair kits, inner tubes and lube so awarded a very high atmosphere and ambiance (AAA) mark.

Our bikes part on the excellent bike rack facility

As the cafe is only van sized there was not much room for a large cake selection but what there was was excellently judged as chocolate cake, brownie and banana loaf are three of my favourites so I awarded the highest effective cake selection (ECS) score I could for a choice of 3 cake varieties.

Small but effective cake selection

On the drinks front I felt my hot chocolate was a bit weak although the other two cycling guest who had hot chocolate were far more positive. The remaining cycling guests were all over the place rating the Guest Hot Drink quality (GHDQ) but after much debate the consensus seemed to be it was good coffee and scored well. 

Cycling guests debating coffee and cake ratings

it would seem that a disadvantage of having your cafe in the middle of a field is that the drinks cool down quickly and every felt they could have been a bit hotter for really top marks.

Some of the coffee and cakes we enjoyed

The cakes were excellent with the banana loaf a real star. Once again my cycling guests started to debate the quality of their cake but as I had already updated the spreadsheet with my cake taste quality (CTQ) mark then frankly I had lost interest by now. Some of the newer cycling guests actually seeming to believe I cared about what they thought and have much to learn. 

Experienced cycling guest Big George is well aware of this and attempted to undermine things by refusing to have cake but a pain aux chocolat despite knowing full well that cake reviewing rules state that a pastry can only be rated as cake before 9.00am (see poor plans post if you want to know why). I obviously ignored his sarcastic attempts to give me a mark for it.

We all agreed the Cadence Cafe was an excellent cycle stop and I highly recommend a visit. It is definitely the best cafe in the middle of a field I have been to. 

Purchasing so lube for the ride home

I liked it so much I even bought some lube and was not only able to deal with my bikes chain but offer a good lubing to several other members of the group, who were a clearly a bit dry, for a squeak free ride home.

Note since my first visit a proper cafe building with an indoor seating area has been built.

New Cadence cafe building

Scores based on 2 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	7.875	5.45	8.5	9.05	7.38

Route

Click here to download 38 mile Norwich Old Buckenham loop GPX file to your GPS