What no Hall! (The Coffee House, Bury St Edmunds)

The Coffee House,

Bury St Edmunds,

Mon-Fri 7:30-5:00, Sat 8:30-4:00,

Sun 09:00-2:00

Recommended

You may recall that earlier this year Myself and Mrs Crusader cycled across India to see if I could find a cup of tea worth more than 7 out of 10 (See My special rides page). On the trip we met some new friends (Cliff and Sharon) who foolishly gave me there contact details. As a result, then yesterday, we met up for a reunion ride where they joined Mrs Crusader as my cycling guests.

We met up at Knettishall Heath near Thetford which was roughly equal distance between our homes. From here the plan was to cycle down to a Coffee shop on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds at Moreton Hall.

As I have visited about 200 cafes in Norfolk I have been running out of new places to go to so in the morning I put an appeal out for some new cafe suggestions on my Facebook page and Twitter feed. I was grateful for a lot of new ideas although they will take me sometime to work through (however don't let this put you off sending me more recommendations). One of these was the Coffee House at Morton Hall in Bury St Edmunds. As luck would have it that was where I had planned to go on this ride so I was pleased to have one ticked off already.

It was a bit windy as we left Knettishall Heath car park and headed south. Apparently the wind made it difficult to hear me recount how I got up the Tourmalet first on my trip across the Pyrenees in the summer on another of this years special rides.  

On the way to Bury St Edmunds where the wind made it hard to hear the conversations

After telling the story for the 3rd or 4th time we found The Coffee House through an underpass. Mrs Crusader was very disappointed that it wasn't in the courtyard of a stately home as it turned out that Moreton Hall was a district of Bury as the Moreton Hall Housing estate had been built on the original land and the Hall was now a school.

Outside the Coffee Shop

Despite this there was a nice warm and friendly welcome inside giving a high Atmosphere and Ambiance (AAA) mark. The cake selection was presented in an impressive cake display case and had a good range of cakes and slices so I awarded a good ECS mark.

Cake selection in a cake selection display case

I went for chocolate and caramel cake while Mrs Crusader choose carrot and walnut to have with her americano. Cliff and Sharon both had flapjack with their americanos.

The cakes and drinks turned up in record time. 

Cake and drinks

My hot chocolate was a good one but the americanos were felt to be a bit weak. This reminded me of  a cycling guest cycling top tip passed on to me by the Old Rock Shop cafe in Cromer.

Cycling guest cycling top tip no 68. To avoid having to moan to your cycling host about weak coffee ask the barista for an extra shot to make sure it's strong enough.

When Cliff decided he wanted a second cup he followed cycling guests cycling top tip no 68 and was far more impressed with his next drink upping the guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) rating.

The cakes all tasted nice but were a little on the dry side to score top marks.

Despite the lack of an actual Hall and courtyard, the Coffee House had performed well and I recommend a visit.

The ride back was much swifter as the wind was now in our favour so I was able to make sure everyone could now clearly here my Pyrenees tales. By the time I had finished we were back at the car with no time to hear about Cliff and Sharon's ride through Germany. I suggested we join up for another ride next Spring but Cliff said they were busy all next year and probably the year after but promised to give me a ring when they were next free, which I'm looking forward to already as I'm sure to have some more stories to tell them by then.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7	6	7.3	7.2	7.7	7.04

Route


Click here to download 37.5 mile Thetford Bury St Edmunds loop gpx file on your gps