Norfolk cafe cycle tour sportive 10, 50th birthday special. (28 miles via Tabnabs, Mattishall)

Sportive 10

Tabnabs,

Mattishall,

Open Mon-Sat 9-4.00,

Highly Recommended

Yesterday saw the first sportive of the year which also doubled up as Mrs Crusader's 50th birthday sportive saving me the need of organising a party. For this special occasion a bumper entry of 13 had turned up at race HQ for the ride out to a Cake Crusader favourite, Tabnabs at Mattishall. With so many riders it was important to put safety first so I stood on the wall and gave a full briefing. You could tell it was a safety brief as I had my hi-viz health and safety gilet on. 

Delivering a full safety briefing in correct safety gear

As there was such a big field it was also important that our team Doctor, Dr Hans, was amongst us today. He takes his roll very seriously so he first checked that the first aid kit was up to standard, and had gauze. Then, like any good cycling team doctor he insisted on giving everyone one of his 'special' pills, no questions asked, to help optimise our peformance. With all health and safety matters now dealt with we were ready to set off.

During the ride out to Mattishall the peleton split up with many break away attempts. The highlight was my bid to be King of the Mountains (KoM) as I shot off up the biggest climb of the day Col du Barnham Broom. To my horror George (son) went passed me half way up the hill to try and claim the polka dot jersey but then slowed down when we reached the top thinking he had won. Fortunately he had made the school boy error of not realising that I decide where the imaginary finishing line is and today it happened to be just past the point I overtook him again and I was therefore able to claim my KoM crown.

The peleton streamed out on the way to Mattishall

Still telling each member of the peleton about my fantastic KoM win we pulled into Tabnabs.
Tabnabs was very busy and another large group of cyclists had beaten us there and had filled up the downstairs indoor seating area. They appeared to be sneering at us from their seats. Probably as a result of taking Dr Hans 'special' pills some of the peleton reckoned that we should have them but before there was an unsavoury incident Mrs Tabnabs came out to save the day.

Chaos in Tabnabs car park as it was full of rival cyclists inside . 

She kindly said we could sit in the conservatory of her house which was next door, and have the birthday party there. This seemed like an excellent solution and armed with outdoor chairs we marched over and squeezed inside. 

Inside Mrs Tabnabs conservatory

Inside the conservatory we were joined by two other 'riders' who had called off from the cycling part of the sportive as they thought it was too cold for cycling and had come by car instead. They did however offer a non cycling guest top non cycling tip.

Non Cycling Guest top non cycling tip No 13. To avoid people crying off from your 50th Birthday cycling sportive party try being born in the summer.

We ordered our take away drinks which were delivered to the conservatory along with a chocolate and beetroot birthday cake that Mrs Tabnabs had made for the occasion.

Drinks in special takeaway containers

I decided that a full cafe rating was not appropriate due to: there now being 14 guests (12 on bikes, 2 not), that everyone was having the same cake and that we were in Mrs Tabnabs conservatory rather than her cafe. I did however do some random quality rating spot checks (RQRSC's) to make sure the normal high standards of Tabnabs had been maintained. All the drinks were highly rated with the hot chocolate coming in for special praise. The chocolate and beetroot birthday cake was superb and is already an early entry for Cake Crusader cake of the year 2015.

Chris showing excellent candle extinguishing skills
 by blowing out all 5 candles (each one representing 10 years) in a single breath

The RQRSC's showed that, as usual, Tabnabs had performed very well and remains in my top 3 cafes and tea rooms.

We returned home, and thanks to my safety briefing, had no further incident. Despite the potential seating shortage problems it was agreed that the sportive had been a great success. To make sure we don't have venue issues next time I'm about to book Tabnabs function room for Chris's hundredth birthday sportive in 2065.

Map of route

Download GPX file of route to load onto a GPS 28 mile Norwich - Mattishall loop

Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive 2. (28 miles via Tabnabs Tearoom Mattishall)

Sportive 2,
Tabnabs,

Mattishall,

Open Mon-Sat 9-4.00,

Highly Recommended
Last visited October 2017

Saturday saw the second Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive. This is a group ride to one of the current top 10 rated cafes or tearooms. Collectively the group act as my guest rater to help keep the scores up to date and make sure top 10 standards are being maintained. 

Today's choice was Tabnabs tearoom in Mattishall. The sportive had had an original entry of 8 but due to illness and teenager apathy this had been reduced by half. However despite the drizzly conditions the group set off in high spirits.

Setting GPS and cycle computers before setting off from race HQ.

The ride out took longer than planned as we had a high puncture count. I foolishly felt very smug when we stopped for Ali's early puncture as I had just purchased new 'bomb proof' tyres. They may have been 'bomb proof' but certainly were not puncture proof as I managed to get a front and back wheel puncture before we arrived eventually at Tabnabs tearoom.

Mending first of the 4 punctures got on the ride.

Last time I visited Tabnabs my review (Going up the league) said I was disappointed that there was no outside seating area and that there had been a lot of local chit-a-chatter in the inside seating area. Mrs Tabnabs had contacted me to kindly point out that they do have outside seating in the summer (when people actually use it) and if I wanted to then they would happily supply me with a table and chair to take outside. She also asked if I had noticed they have a more relaxed upstairs seating area available for those to use who like less natter with their refresments. I had to confess I had not noticed it which was very poor reviewing on my part. Today was an opportunity to test these things out

Outside Tabnabs holding wheel with latest puncture

On arrival I went inside and checked out the relaxed upstairs area, which looked very relaxing and also had comfy sofas. However despite my warning of potential village gossiping the rest of the group wanted to sit downstairs and it was therefore our group that generated the majority of chatter. I also checked up on the outside seating area and Mrs Tabnabs confirmed I could take a table and chair outside if I wanted. The rest of the group seemed rather keen for me to fully test this out and sit in the courtyard by myself. I appreciated their keenness to help me avoid any further reviewing errors but was happy to accept a theoretic outdoor seating possibility and decided to stay in the warmth so they could enjoy my company.

As before the cake selection was excellent and it was very difficult to make a choice. There were 3 different root vegtable based cakes alone (carrot, beetroot and chocolate, and parsnip and ginger). Collectively we went for beetroot and chocolate cake, carrot cake and a honeycomb type cheesecake thing. A very high effective cake selection (ECS) score was awarded. 

Cakes and coffees ready for rating. All were exceptional

In terms of drinks we had hot chocolate, skinny mocha and lattes. Everyone thought their drinks were very good and I can't remember having a better hot chocolate. As for the cakes they were superb and all got an unprecedented 9.5 out of 10. 

Tabnabs tearoom had not disappointed the sportive crew and improved its ratings further and I look forward to my next visit. 

Despite getting my 3rd puncture on the way home the sportive was a great success and hopefully we will have even more riders for the next one at the end of the month.

Ratings for Tabnabs tearoom based on last 3 visits of 4

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.50	8.67	8.585	8.83	7	8.32

Map of route

Download GPX file of route to load onto a GPS 28 mile Norwich - Mattishall loop

Going up the league. (Tabnabs tearoom - Mattishall)

Tabnabs,

Mattishall,

Open Mon-Sat 9:00-16:00,

Highly Recommended

****Although I first wrote the post in 2013 and Mrs Tabnabs has moved on not much has changed and it is still a great veneue (April 2022)****

I was looking through the current ratings table (see end of blog) and was surprised to see that Tabnabs tearoom in Mattishall was only halfway up the standings, as I remembered it having excellent cake. Last time my cycling guest reviewer was Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) and there were a number of crying babies at one of the tables which hadn't helped the atmosphere and ambiance (AAA) score.

Today seemed an excellent day for a revisit with Mrs Crusader as today's cycling guest.

The ride itself was uneventful and we arrived in Mattishall after about an hour. Tabnabs is in a courtyard near the church. Sadly there isn't any outside seating that all us cyclist crave. (Note: I have since been contacted by Mrs Tabnabs who pointed out that there are outside seats available in the summer or, for the hardy amongst you, you can request a chair and go and sit outside in the winter if you really want to).

Tabnabs tearoom from the courtyard.

Inside has a modern feel with a shiny wooden floor and a number of tables for two. As always I spent sometime at the cake area to award the effective cake selection (ECS) rating. Tabnabs has a large selection of tasty looking cakes so scored very well. One of the cakes on offer was chocolate and beetroot which I hoped Mrs Crusader would go for. Sadly she told me that she couldn't bring herself to have a root vegetable based cake, so imagine my surprise when she choose carrot cake instead. I decided to go down the more traditional fruit cake route and went for a bread pudding.

As always I ordered a hot chocolate before Mrs Crusader decided to act out part of Monty Pythons famous cheese shop sketch but with a coffee theme. They were waiting for a delivery of decaf coffee, milkman had forgotten to leave any skimmed milk, cat had stolen all the cream etc before they confirmed they did have the ingredients necessary for a semi skinny caffeine coffee mocha before asking the Greek balalaika player to leave. (Younger readers ask your parents)

The hot chocolate (which was only average on last visit) was superb being very thick and chocolatey and Mrs Crusader reckoned it was the best (if only) semi skinny caffeine coffee mocha she had had. The cake was also as good as I had remembered and again scored very well.

Fortunately the crying babies were not in today but the indoor seating area was full of chattering lady village folk. I realised that apart from myself (and Andrew on our last visit) I had never seen any other chaps in Tabnabs. From my personal experience it does seem to attract the gossiping ladies and mothers meeting crowd. So in terms of ambiance and atmosphere (AAA) rating it will score highly if you are a chattering mother but not so well if you are a cyclist trying to refuel both physically and mentally. Myself and Mrs Crusader, therefore, couldn't agree on the AAA rating. In these circumstances I always use the 'its my ratings spreadsheet' ruling and gave it my AAA score.

Apart from the lack of outside seating area (see previous note) and amount of non cycle based chatter it had the best drink and cakes ratings I have had at a visit. If this had been the first rating of Tabnabs (scores are averaged over last 3 see 'there must be rules post') it would have gone straight to the top of the tearooms ratings table and I would highly recommend a visit, I know I well be back again.

Note Tabnabs tearoom was also visited in sportive 2 in March 2014, on practice calorie neutral cycle in September 2014 and sportive 10 in January 2015 making it my most visited stop.

Cafe rating based on last 3 visits of many (Last visited April 2022)

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.20	8.33	8.66	8.7	7.0	8.18

Map of route

Download GPX file of route to load onto a GPS 28 mile Norwich - Mattishall loop