Security. (The Old Rock shop, Cromer)

The Old Rock Shop Cafe,

Cromer,

Everyday 8:00-6:00,

Recommended

You may recall that last week I was joined by Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) as my cycling guest when we caught up after a couple of months gap. I was worried that he had become easier to please than I had remembered and had felt uneasy ever since.

Therefore I had organised another ride for us today to see if it had just been a one off or the new way of the world. I needn't have been concerned as today he was back at his most unpleasable.

As I'm due to run a marathon on Sunday (although I don't like to talk about it) we were only going to do a short ride from Hard to Please House in Aylsham up to Cromer. I had been recommended to try the brownie at the Old Rock Shop Bistro so this looked like a good opportunity to check it out.

With reduced mileage Andrew was straight into rant mode and was on full throttle before we had even reached the end of his drive. Today's main rant concerned the TV hit series 'The Bodyguard' which he ripped to pieces for it's plot holes, stereotypes and disappointing ending. As more rants, mainly on recent world news events, continued I knew that the Old Rock Shop would be in for a hard time despite the fact neither of us had ever been there before.

On the way there I did manage to tell Andrew about my latest of a long line of security solutions I had tried out to lock my bike up with. This time it was a strong lock that you wore as a rather fashionable belt before it transformed back into a lock when your bike needs protection. Andrew only has ever used one security solution which is to rely on me to bring a lock.

New security solution which is a belt/lock hybrid

We then found the Old Rock Shop Bistro on Cromer High Street.

Outside The Old Rock Shop Bistro

I immediately implemented the belt to lock transformation process and, despite forgetting where I put the key, it went well with our bikes well protected from local crime, so we went inside.

Transforming belt to lock

There was no outside seating area but quite a bit of room inside. Despite this the only free tables all had reserved notices. Each one gave the time the reservation started and name of the reserver. There were 3 such tables available so we played table selection Russian roulette as we chose Richards table that was reserved from 11.35. As it had only just gone 11.00am it meant we had had at least 35 mins to select, order and consume our refreshments. If we cracked on we should be fine.

I checked the cakes which had a reasonable selection, partly in a display unit and partly on the counter. There was the brownie I was after while Andrew went for a mini bakewell tart and cappuccino.

Part of today's cake selection

I started with the brownie which was excellent and worth the recommendation. I entered the scores and found it had just made it into my current top 8 so is in the running to be part of the end of year brownie off (see thing of the year for details).

The excellent brownie

My hot chocolate was pretty good so it was over to Andrew. My fears that he was in his most hard to please mood were correct. He moaned about the cake selection, which I thought had been more than adequate, complained that his bakewell tart was not bakewelly enough and that his cappuccino had been too weak. It is not often that my views and my cycling guests are so far apart but I would still recommend a visit, if only to try the excellent brownie.

Today's refreshment selection

With ratings done I checked my watch and saw we still had a few minutes before Richard was due to claim his table. I did wonder what the table reservation system rules were if he had turned up early. Could he claim his table at anytime or just from the stated time on the reservation notice? It wasn't clear but with Andrew in such a ranty mood I thought it best not to find out so we finished our refreshments and headed for home before Richard turned up.

As it had been a fairly short ride Andrew had to continue ranting (about the lack of black and white European films shown in mainstream cinema chains) in the driveway of HTPH as I tried to pack my bike into the car and eventually leave.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.7	4	6.8	7.2	6.4	6.24

Route

Click here to download 29 mile Alysham Cromer loop GPX file for your GPS