New Friend. (The Front Room, Bungay)

Front Room,

Bungay,

Opening times Tue- Sat 9 - 4:00,

Highly Recommended

It has certainly been a long time since I have been able to post about a new (to me) cafe so I was very excited when Howard put a comment on my Facebook page to point me in the direction of the Front Room in Bungay as I was an aware of it. 

I selected Big George to be my cycling guest on this adventure as he can normally be relied upon and so on a chilly and misty spring day we set off to cover the 40 mile round trip.

A cold and misty day in Norfolk, which was very quite.

Big George informed me that he had done a lot of baking during lockdown and asked if I would like to meet his new friends Mr and Mrs Scone-Hands. He proceeded to whip off his gloves and make me have a conversation with his hand about his latest fruit scone action, whilst he put on a “funny” Mr Scone-Hands voice (apparently Mrs Scone-Hands doesn’t speak). Note to self, find different cycling guest until after lockdown.

As it was rather cold Big George put his gloves back on so with baking based chat with Mr Scone-Hands curtailed we continued in silence until we arrived in Bungay where we found the Front Room at the Earsham end of the high street

Outside the Front Room before joining the wrong queue

It is a takeaway only establishment which of course makes no difference in these times. They seemed to be doing good business with a queue for orders and a separate one waiting for their drinks. Unfortunately we picked the wrong queue delaying our refreshments and opportunity to warm up until gently pointed in the right direction.

I checked out the window cake display which had a reasonable selection all of which I liked the look off but eventually picked the orange polenta cake to have with my hot chocolate. Big George had a flat white and a slice of frittata. Big George wasn't fooling me and even though frittata is cake shaped it isn't cake so he would play no further part in any exciting cake rating activities today.

Good Cake selection displayed in the window

We collected our stuff from the correct queue and headed to the local park behind Bungay Castle. I know the rules and insisted we continued to exercise whilst we had our drinks and cake. We did put them down on a bench between star jumps and push ups which may have been illegal but I wasn't sure.

Cakes and drinks possibly illegally sitting on a bench

My hot chocolate and cake were both excellent and worth another trip to the Front Room to try more of their cake range. Big George said his coffee was very good too. I would highly recommend a visit, especially at the moment.

Big George had taken off his gloves to consume his frittata so I was able to have a nice chat with Mr Scone-Hands who had apparently had never been to Bungay Castle before.

Bungay Castle which Mr Scone-Hand had never been to.

The return trip had wind behind so was speedier and warmer. Mr and Mrs Scone-Hands were both allowed out and told me they might be doing some baking this afternoon. I had rather warmed to them and certainly found Mr Scone-Hands more interesting and easier to understand than Big George so hopefully he will be able to come cycling with us again.

Final part of ride by which time Big George had sadly put his gloves on again

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.2	7.5	7.0	8.6	6.0	7.46

Training plan. (Three Willows cafe, Bungay)

Three Willows Cafe,

Bungay,

Opening times Every day 10:00-16:00,

Recommended 

Chris (Mrs Crusader) claims she likes to play 'a bit' of golf. If the definition of 'a bit' is at least 5 times a week then I would hate to meet someone who plays 'a lot' of golf. Not surprisingly with this amount of enthusiasm for the game she has become this years lady captain at her local golf club. Apart from giving her the opportunity to play even more golf then, being lady captain, also gives her the opportunity to raise money for her favourite charity. Obviously her favourite charity is bicycle related being world bicycle relief. The money raised provides specially designed, locally assembled bikes to students and healthcare workers in rural Africa; connecting them with education, healthcare and economic opportunities.

Pretending I was keen to offer support I said I would help in the fund raising by organising a sponsored bike ride for her but I had an additional motive. She eagerly accepted my offer so she could concentrate on golf related activities and therefore had fallen into my trap. As well as raising money for a great cause it would be an excellent opportunity for some cafe cycle reviewing activity as well. I have never reviewed any cafe, or tearoom, above the Wash and wasn't sure what the cafe culture was like up North. I therefore came up with a plan for us to ride from her Golf Club in Bawburgh to St Andrews golf club in Scotland. After some research I found it was only a 574 mile ride which I'm sure we could knock off in a week or so and visit a good 10-20 cafes for good measure.

It transpired that her idea of a sponsored cycle (100ish miles over a day) and mine were an order of magnitude out in length but after pointing out the golf theme of the ride she agreed to give it a go. Therefore in October we are going to undertake this trip doing 72 miles over 8 successive days and see how much money we can raise plus add some northern destinations to my reviewing activity.

Since she signed up to the plan I have seen plenty of golf but little cycle training so I have therefore taken on the role as self appointed personal trainer in order to get Chris ready for the trip. Yesterday was going to be our first training ride so, using the latest sports science techniques, I decided 50 miles was a nice round number for training purposes. It would also be just the right length to revisit the Three Willows cafe, which is now under different management from when I first visited it exactly two years ago (see Some like it hot) so my review needed updating.

Despite her lack of recent cycling Chris is no stranger to two wheels so we made good time down to Bungay were we found the Three Willows Cafe at the Three Willows Garden centre although I still didn't spot the three willow trees.

Outside the three Willows cafe in my world bicycle relief cycle top

There is an outdoor gazebo based seating area which looked very inviting on such a warm day and an improvement on the big umbrellas provide by the previous management. 

Add caption

However before taking our seats I went to check out the cake selection. In was competent if not spectacular with two sponge cakes, lemon drizzle slices and brownies plus both types of scone. I therefore awarded a competent if not spectacular effective cake selection (ECS) score.

Cakes on display

I went for some Victoria sponge with my hot chocolate and Chris opted for coffee and walnut cake and a Mocha. These were soon delivered to our table for us to try. The drinks were both of a good standard with a nice froth on the top so got good hot drinks marks.

Hot drinks with good size froth

Our cakes were nice too although we both felt the coffee and walnut was the better choice.

Nice cake slices

I added up the scores only to find that the three willows mark under new management was exactly the same as under old management (allow a much more consistent set of marks this time) making it very easy to update my cafe scores spreadsheet. It was a very nice stop with cheerful staff and good quality drinks and cakes so I recommend a visit if you are down that way.

Chris claimed she was still feeling good after her stop but as we approached 40 miles, her normal maximum cafe cycle ride distance, things began to slow down as her body obviously had decided we were home. However we made it back in one piece and cycle training is now officially underway. If you would like to sponsor Chris on her ride you can find her sponsorship page here http://fundraiseuk.worldbicyclerelief.org/christine-frazer

Scores 

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.0	7.5	5.5	6.5	7.0	6.70

Map of route

Click here to download 49 mile Norwich Bungay loop GPX file for your GPS

Suffolk Spring Sportive day 2. (Earsham Street Cafe, Bungay)

Earsham Street Cafe,

Bungay,

Opening times Mon-Sun 10:00-16:00,

Highly Recommended 

I was slightly worried that my cycling guests wouldn't be up bright and early for day two of the Cake Crusader Cycling Adventure (CCCA). I needn't have worried as I was met at Breakfast by a series of smiling faces and then, soon after, by a row of cyclists eager to go and right on schedule. Little did I know that the smiling happy faces would be turned upside down when we had a cafe bombshell later in the day.

Eager for day 2 to begin only delayed by me tweeting the photo

The wind that had helped us for most of yesterday had amazingly turned round overnight and now planned to push us all the way home as well. This is unheard of wind behaviour and I knew nothing could now go wrong as luck was clearly on our side. However I had forgotten my physics that says we must have balance in our universe so if you have a huge amount of wind based luck then there must be an equal amount of cafe cycling bad luck or we will be swallowed up by a crack in the fabric of space and luck time. 

To avoid a crack in the fabric of space and luck time we were first delayed by back to back punctures from Jodie and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please). Not for the first time, as I stood by the road side photographing Andrew at work, he commented on how he really must get some new tyres as his were getting a bit worn. No shit Sherlock.

Andrew examining his thread bare tyres

Now running behind me meticulously planned schedule we set off again to our first cafe stop in Eye. On arrival we were met by a sign that said the target cafe wasn't open on the 1st or 3rd Sunday of the month. As luck, that was no longer on our side, would have it today was the 1st Sunday of the month so no cafe here or anywhere in the local vicinity. Damn you Ying and Yang.

Cafe sign bombshell

I was reluctantly persuaded to go to the nearby pub so a plan b could be formulated. In protest I ordered a glass of water as a pub isn't a cafe nor does it sell cake. The happy smiling faces of this morning were now sad and morale was very low as sugar levels continued to fall.

Unhappy punters

I never carry a plan b or give my cycling guests options as they might start to get ideas and become difficult to control, so I told them to drink up, get some sweeties from the local shop and we would press on to stop two which, after all, was Earsham Street Cafe in Bungay my current number 1 rated cafe. Secretly I was worried that with luck now against us Earsham Street cafe may not live up to it's billing but I needn't have worried.

On route to Bungay

With everyone eager for proper refreshments and the wind speed picking up we raced to Bungay in record time and headed straight for Earsham Street. Things started very well with a friendly welcome and my cycling guests being impressed that we could wheel our bikes through the indoor area to the cycle storage facility at the back, which we quickly filled up

filling up the Earsham street cafe cycle storage facility

Despite me telling them that I have never had a bad visit to Earsham Street Cafe my cycling guests insisted on performing a full audit to make sure they were happy it really should be my number 1 rated cafe.

Sitting outside in the sunshine knowing that our bikes were safe and with exceptionally friendly service many of my cycling guests wanted to give a 10 for Atmosphere and Ambiance (AAA) so we were off to a good start.

As always the cake selection wasn't the biggest but everyone of them was tempting making it extremely effective and therefore a good effective cake selection (ECS) rating. I was also pleased to see flapjack on offer so I could test it as part of my search for flapjack of the year 2016.

Very effective cake selection

Despite 3 people ordering Egyptian mint tea (you could tell it was Egyptian as the tea bags were pyramid shaped) the drink and cake quality was also up to it's usual high standard.

Excellent drinks (with mini flapjack)

Great cakes

At the end of the cycling guest's audit they had rated the cafe even higher than me and thus confirmed it's place as my number one cafe. Morale was restored and I was relived that not only were the cycling guests now happy and ready for the final push home but my credentials as the self appointed number one cycle cafe reviewer (in the Norfolk area) were in tact.
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Once again we sped along incident free until returning to Norwich where we went past Dr Hans and Frau Dr Hans's house where I insisted they finished their ride rather than return to Crusader Towers. This was not because of an uncharacteristic act of kindness from me but if they had done the extra bit to the end they would have done more miles than me which would have forced me to cycle back to their house with them before returning home as I can never be in mileage deficit to cycling guests.

All in all the first CCCA was seen as a success with plans already afoot for next year although I'm not sure if I can ever pull off the wind behind both ways (WBBW) trick again.

Scores based on last 3 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.33	8.33	8.17	9.00	8.50	8.47

Route

Click here to down load 64 mile Ipswich to Norwich route gpx file for your gps

Cake Crusader Sportive 16. (Earsham hall Tea room, Bungay)

Sportive 16,

Earsham Hall Tea room,

Bungay,

Mon-Sat 09:00-17:00, Sun 10:00-16:00

Highly Recommended

It seemed like it was about time for another Cake Crusader sportive. These are group rides on which I take my family, friends and other cycling guests to a previously visited venue. As well as it being a chance to go out with a group of like minded cyclists it is also a chance to check out any changes to an already reviewed cafe. 

Unfortunately I appeared to have picked a bad weekend for the event as the majority of my regulars were taking their offspring off to various Universities or were sick or injured. I had sensibly dumped my student at University during the week to avoid a clash but it was clear others had not planned so effectively.

Therefore a disappointing field of just 4 lined up at race HQ for today's ride.

Small group for today's sportive

We were going to Earsham Hall tea rooms near Bungay as I had been told it was under new management and much improved since I last went. On that previous trip  I had upset the farming community by getting lost on the way and ending up in the middle of a pig farm (see get off my land). I was hoping for a more straight forward adventure today.

Today's group were our Dutch team doctor Dr Hans and Mrs Dr Hans plus their friend and first timer Andy (coffee 'expert'). My cycling guests had obviously been taking some of Dr Hans special pills as they set off at a lightning pace taking it in turns to sprint off up the road causing me to have to close down each attempted break away. With this continuing for sometime it wasn't surprising that we arrived at Earsham Hall in double quick time.

Myself and new boy Andy at Earsham Hall Tea rooms

Earsham Hall Tea Rooms had certainly been decorated since I was last here and the previous disappointing cake selection had been replaced by a much more effective selection of sponge cakes and scones leading to a good effective cake selection (ECS) score.

Nice selection of cakes and scones

Outside there is a lovely outdoor seating courtyard area but after trying it out we decided it was too cold today and returned inside.

Outdoor seating courtyard arae

Andy (coffee 'expert') announced that he was a bit of an espresso coffee connoisseur and wanted some hot and cold water with his drink in order to be able to adjust it to his tastes. All of these were delivered as requested. I ordered a standard hot chocolate and the others cappuccino. We also had a selection of different sponge cakes. Finally I ordered a cheese scone as part of my cheese scone temperature serving research.

wide selection of cakes and drinks to try

The cakes and drinks arrived and Andy tasted his coffee. We waited with baited breath for his judgement and to everyone's relief he thought his espresso was excellent and didn't need water adjustment after all. He liked it so much he ordered a second one and wanted to give it 9.5 out of 10. As he was a first time reviewer I had to apply first time reviewer scoring coefficient but with this and the Dutch contingents high cappuccinos mark the guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) rating was very good. I also enjoyed my hot chocolate too so good drinks scores all round.

The cakes to got everyone's approval with my only disappointment being that my cheese scone was served cold. However it was a very good cheese scone and I added it to my contenders for cheese scone of the year.

Very good, if cold, cheese scone and potential cheese scone of the year

I was now left with a Cake Crusader cafe cycle ride scoring system (CCCCRSS) dilemma. The CCCCRSS rules state that if a cafe or tea room is visited more than once then it is rated on the average mark of it's 3 most recent visits. The previous two visits to Earsham hall tearooms had not scored particularly well which would mask the obvious improvement the new management had made. However it is not an easy process to change the CCCCRSS as it involves a number of forms to be filled and committees to meet to approve any changes. Despite this, on reflection, I decide a rule change was needed and would make the effort to fill in the necessary rule change request forms in order to be fair. The proposed rule would be 

• If a previously visited cafe is under new management when being revisited then any previous ratings will be discarded and the current visit would count as the first effectively wiping the slate clean. (see there must be rules)

Earsham Hall tearoom has now become an excellent cafe cycle shop with a courtyard to safely keep your bikes and high quality cakes and drinks so I would now highly recommended it. Using the new under new management rule its ratings put it into my current cafe top 10 as well.

With this dilemma potentially resolved we set off back but as the effect of our large cakes kicked in and Dr Hans special pills wore off the way home took a bit longer. When I got back I started working my way through the mountain of paper work and blog updates required to take into account the CCCCRSS rule change but I think it is worth it to get these things right.

Scores based on last 3 of many visits. Last Visited April 2022)

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.25	6.60	7.67	7.83	8.43	7.56

Route

Click here to download 35 mile Norwich Earsham Hall loop GPX file for your GPS

Tough at the top (Earsham Street Cafe, Bungay)

Earsham Street Cafe,

Bungay,

Open 9:00-4:00 7 days a week,

 Highly Recommended

Ever since I first visited the Earsham Street Cafe it has been the Cake Crusader number 1 rated cafe (see second opinion). However I have not returned in 2014 and having now reviewed over 70 cafes and tea rooms since that first visit, I was keen to make sure that it's, and my standards, have been maintained. I imagined that the Earsham Street Cafe staff would have had a sleepless night and nervous morning waiting for my visit. That is if they actually had any idea who I was, if they had known I was coming and if they knew they were top of the Cake Crusader ratings. But they didn't, so they hadn't.

As this was such an important ride I had asked Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) to be my guest today so as to really put them to the test. As Earsham Street Cafe always seems to be busy we left a bit earlier to avoid the lunch time rush. However this turned out to be a huge mistake.

The ride down was uneventful and we arrived, as planned, at 11:30.

Outside Earsham Street Cafe just before the lunchtime rush

One of the best features at Earsham Street Cafe is that they let you wheel your bikes through to the outdoor seating area at the back. This meant I didn't need to use my Alarmio lock today knowing that the bikes would be safe.

Wheeling bikes through the cafe to the outside seating area

Although the outdoor seating area is very sheltered, being December, we decided to sit in the main indoor area today. We found a table and I got out my fruit based name smart phone device and located the cafe ratings spreadsheet ready for today's critical updating. The first category was effective cake selection (ECS) so we went to check out the cakes which were on display in the window. Although not the biggest selection there was plenty to choose from and they all looked very tempting. Therefore the cake selection was very effective and got a high ECS score consistent with previous visits.

Very effective cake selection, hard to make a choice

It was now time to order and I went for hot chocolate, chocolate and orange cake plus a cheese scone so that I could do an in depth cake taste quality (CTQ) test. Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) ordered a Cappuccino, lemon drizzle cake and decided he wanted a humus sandwich as well. It was at this point that things started to unwind as the nice waitress pointed out that Andrew couldn't have his humus sandwich as it was part of the lunchtime menu which didn't come into operation until 12 o'clock which was 25 minutes away.

She explained chef was busy preparing for lunch in order to make sure everything was ready and fresh. However Andrew could have a bacon sandwich instead as this was on the breakfast menu. As a faddy vegetarian this didn't do it for him so he declined the offer and just went with cake. 

Obviously such an incident sent Andrew off into a rant but as we are British his rant got directed at me rather than the Earsham Street Cafe staff. His main point seemed a good one; cooking bacon and make it into a sandwich was likely to distract chef from his lunchtime prep far more than slapping a bit of humus on to some bread. I had to agree with him but moaning to me about it wasn't really going to help fulfil his sandwich needs. 

After sometime, not helped by other customers ordering bacon sandwiches, I managed to calm him down and get him re focused on the matter in hand. I was worried the humus sandwich incident (HSI) would affect his rating judgement but as sandwiches form no part of my cafe cycle rating system it was important that this matter was parked for now. Andrew maybe notoriously hard to please but showed great professionalism as we returned to the discuss the atmosphere and ambiance rating.

Our drinks and cakes arrived and all looked very good. The only disappointment was that my cheese scone hadn't been warmed up like I think a cheese scone should be. I didn't like to ask if it could be heated in case it distracted chef further from any pressing lunchtime prep.

Cakes and drinks ready for tasting

The hot chocolate was excellent, nice and thick, a good temperature and very chocolaty. Andrew thought his cappuccino was very nice although could have been slightly stronger for absolute top marks.

I entered all the ratings into the spreadsheet and Earsham Street Cafe was still at the top with just the cake taste quality (CTQ) score to come. However they would still need a very high CTQ rating to hold on to top spot so it was all to play for. With some trepidation we tucked into our cakes. I knew what I thought straight away but from his face I couldn't tell which way Andrew was going to go with his lemon drizzle. I asked what he thought and after the correctly timed dramatic pause he announced that it was a fab-u-lous piece of cake. I also thought the chocolate and orange cake I had was one of the best cakes of this year and despite it not being warm the cheese scone was top draw too. The high CTQ score was entered and the final scores were in.

Despite the HSI and the cold cheese scone the Earsham Street Cafe had actually upped it's average rating by 0.03 to extend it's lead as the Cake Crusader number 1 rated cafe. Andrew, who was obviously feeling guilty about his rant, even left a tip which is unheard of. We both agreed it deserved its number 1 rating and will return next year to see if it can stay at the top for another 12 months.

As I left the cafe an old chap approached me and clearly wanted to engage me in conversation. He asked me the unexpected question of 'do I ring my bell when overtaking dog walkers?' I had to admit I didn't as if he had looked at my bike he would have seen that I didn't actually have a bell and I couldn't help but notice nor he a dog. 

He said I needed to get a bell as when cyclists ride up behind dog walkers going at 30 mph (I assume the cyclist not the dog walker) the dogs can't hear you coming and get spooked. I said that I only wished that I could cycle at 30 mph and was even less likely to be able to by adding the weight and air resistance of a bell to my bike. However I promised to take his advice on board and that I would pass on his request to other cyclists. Therefore instead of my normal guest cyclist top cycling tip a special one off feature.

Complete stranger coming up to you in the street top cycling tip no 1. When going at 30mph on your bike make sure you ring your bell when overtaking dog walkers so as not to spook the dog.

The ride home was hard work as it was into the wind and we never got close to going at 30 mph. This meant that my lack of bell was not an issue and we arrived home with no dogs unnecessarily spooked.

With the final ride of the year completed I now have everything in place for announcing the Cake Crusader 2014 award winners between Christmas and New year.

Ratings for Earsham Street Cafe based on last 3 visits (Last Visited 19th October 2021)

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.57	8.5	8.00	8.67	9	8.55

Map of route

Click here to download 40 mile Norwich Bungay loop gpx file for your gps