Missing money. (Red Lion Cafe, Coltishall)

Red Lion Café,

Coltishall,

Opening times Tue-Sun 9-4

Today I took the opportunity of trying out another pub/cafe hybrid. Currently cafe cycle rules only allow a pub to be considered for a review if it has a completely separate cafe area and not just if it sells coffee and cake at the bar. The last qualifying cafe of this type I had visited was the Acorn tearooms at the Oak pub in Poringland but sadly the venture didn't last and closed earlier this year. I knew the Red Lion at Coltishall also claimed to have a separate cafe to the pub so with cycling guests Mrs Crusader, Barry and Helen and their Tandem we set off to find out if it was suitable for review.

Things didn't start well when Helen suddenly demanded we stop to buy eggs available at the end of someones drive. Whilst photographing the event, as it was the most exciting incident on the ride, I realised that I had lost the £10 that Mrs Crusader had asked me to look after. Despite tweeting a picture of a similar looking £10 no one came forward to return it so I hoped it won't be an expensive stop.

Helen buying eggs while I sure for the missing tenner

We arrived at the Red Lion Cafe in Coltishall where I was relieved to see that the cafe area was completely separate and even had it's own entrance, thus clearly qualifying it.

Outside the Red Lion Cafe special non pub entrance

It was too late in the year to make use of any outdoor seating so it was straight inside to check the cake selection which wasn't bad. It was also good to see that sausage rolls were available for #SROTY testing.

Cake selection

The drinks, cakes and sausage rolls soon arrived with sausage roll tasting causing much debate. As they were of the short crust variety, favoured by Mrs Crusader, she was keen it made the sausage roll off finalists list which is currently heavily weighted towards flakey. As I was already in her bad books I agreed that it had just crept in. 

As the discussions got more heated I completely forgot to take the cake and drinks picture so you will just have to imagine what cakes and mugs of drink look like. I can report my hot chocolate was a fairly standard example and the Mocha and cappuccino guest hot drinks were all a bit to weak for their likings. However the Banana loaf and Victoria sponge were both very good cakes and scored well.

I thought the Red Lion cafe was a good example of a pub cafe and hope it is a successful addition to the cafe scene.

In a desperate attempt to get Mrs Crusaders money back I'm now offering a £10 reward to anyone who finds it.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.8	5	6.3	7.8	7.5	6.48

Route

Click here to download 36 mile Norwich Coltishall loop gpx mile to your GPS