Race to the top. (The Tea Room @Corner House, West Runton)

The Tea Room @Corner House,

West Runton,

Opening times Tue-Sun 10:30-16:00

Recommended 

As the search for Sausage roll of the year #SROTY continues it is important I also keep up with the day job of checking out as many cycle cafes as possible for the blog. For todays ride I would be doing both along with today's cycling guest Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please).

We set off early from Hard to Please House in Alysham and headed North out to the bird spotting centre at Cley Next the Sea. I had been told that they did a mean sausage roll so wanted to collect one to check out later. It was my second visit there as Andrew had previously taken me to the centre to try and teach me the way of the twitcher (see Pink footed geese). On that trip I had discovered that bird spotting is not a sport and there are no winners so I couldn't see the point of it and have not done any bird watching since. Fortunately Sausage Roll tasting is a sport so I was happy to return today.

Collecting Sausage rolls from Cley Marshes

I put the sausage roll in my saddle bag for tasting later in my secret underground bicycle workshop underneath Crusader Towers (btw it turned out to be an excellent one). In the meantime it was time to head a long the coast road to today's cafe destination, the Tea Room @Corner House in West runton.

Outside the Tea Room @Corner House

Although out of season the Tea Room was very busy and we were lucky to get a table, which was a nice window one. We weren't far from the cakes so I was able to check them out without moving too far. It wasn't the biggest selection but it had several I liked the look of so very effective and I awarded a good Effective Cake selection (ECS) mark.

Cake Selection

I ordered Blueberry cake with my Hot Chocolate and Andrew the Lemon Drizzle cake with his cappuccino. When they brought our order the very nice staff engaged us on today's cycling exploits and correctly massaged our egos by pretending to be impressed about how far we had gone and the fact we were about to ride up the very big hill over the Cromer ridge.

Our drinks

My hot chocolate was a nice one as was Andrews cappuccino although he did say he was worried that he was getting harder to please these days. I assured him that that wasn't possible and not to worry. The cakes were excellent with the Blueberry one being one of the best so far this year. 

Excellent cakes

The Tea Room @ Corner house was a very good stop and the sandwiches we had for lunch were very nice too, so I recommend a visit.

Our next challenge was to get up the long hill which started right outside the Tea Rooms door. I was surprised when Andrew had left his change as a tip but now realised it was to lower his weight for the climb.

Halfway up the hill over the cromer ridge

Half way up I decided to take a photo of the hill and this allowed Andrew to get ahead. I didn't want him to beat me to the top but failed to catch him up as every time a car went past I had to stop them to explain that Andrew was only further ahead of me as I had stopped for a photo. Next time I will prepare some leaflets.
Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.50	6.5	6.75	8.15	7.85	7.15

route


Click here to download 40 mile Alysham Cley loop GPX file to your GPS

Closing time. (Artemis cafe, Cley Next the sea)

Artemis Cafe,

Cley Next The Sea,

Opening times Mon-Sat 10:00-17:00,

Sun 11:00-16:00  

Highly Recommended 

Looking at my cafe locations map I have noticed that the North Norfolk area appears to be a hotspot for top rated cafes. So as today was time for a ride from Hard to Please House in Alysham it seemed like a good opportunity to visit a new cafe in that vicinity. To spice things up a bit I had given today's cycling guest Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) three possible destinations to choose from and put him in charge of the route so where we would be going would be a mystery to me.

I was a little late setting off to the start point as my normal bike had developed a last minute fault and I had to get my reserve bike prepared instead. My reserve bike is the only bike I own that has a name, thanks to an ill judged naming competition I organised on my Twitter feed last year. So with Bikey Mcbikeface finally loaded in the back of the car I set off to Hard to Please House ready to find out where we would be going.

On arrival Andrew said he would like to keep me guessing as to our final destination before leaping on his bike and charging off towards the Norfolk Coast with me struggling behind as I got used to riding Bikey Mcbikeface once more. Andrew explained we would have to ride quickly as according to the cafe website it shuts at 1pm today.

I was worried that Andrew had not stuck to the brief and would be taking us to Holt, his default destination, so I was mighty relieved when we went past there and out to Cley next the Sea where we found  one of my options, Artemis Cafe.

Artemis Cafe in Cley Next the Sea

We had pedalled hard and arrived at about 12:30, well before the potential closing time. On arrival I was instantly impressed by the outdoor seating area that over looks the marshes. There were even some outdoor sofas.

Outdoor seating area

It was a bit chilly so we went inside to the cosy indoor tables. The whole set up plus the very friendly welcome gave an extremely high atmosphere and ambiance (AAA) rating.

I checked out the cake selection which had a good range but fairly small leading to a reasonable effective cake selection (ECS) score. 

Good solid selection of cakes

I ordered some zucchini and lime cake to go with my hot chocolate and Andrew had a cappuccino and millionaire style shortbread. As it was lunchtime, and although it isn't cake, I also treated myself to a sausage roll, which was super.

Our food and drinks soon arrived and we were both very impressed with our drinks especially when, as a nice touch, the chocolate sprinkles were added at the table to our personal taste, a bit like the pepper at a posh pizza restaurant. It was an excellent hot chocolate with a really good chocolate taste and Andrew thought his coffee was top draw too although he would have liked it to be slightly hotter.

Driks just after chocolate sprinkles were added

Andrew had started his biscuit early and already said it was very good. I tried my cake and which was superb and the best zucchini and lime cake I could remember having (and I have tried several). For a second opinion I asked Andrew(who is notoriously hard to please) if he would like to taste some. He wasn't sure if he would like zucchini in his cake and wondered if it would be better to make it using courgette instead. However once he had had a piece he was blown away and thought it was one of the best cakes ever.

Great cakes

All in all Artemis cafe had proved another North Norfolk winner and went straight into my current top five. With a larger cake selection it could easily have gone to number one and I highly recommend a visit and look forward to returning soon.

View from outdoor seating area over the marshes

It was now gone one o'clock so I was impressed they were still open and seemed in no hurry to throw us out. I asked the owner if he was looking forward to closing early today for Easter. He looked at me like I was an idiot with a 'why would I close early over the busy Easter period' expression. I explained that Andrew had seen they were closing early on their website. He was unaware of this and said that today was the day they switched to summer opening times. He was now worried that there would be no customers this afternoon so went off to contact the Artemis Cafe IT Director, who was also the barista, to find out what was going on. Andrew suggested he may have made a mistake so we quickly left before we started any more rumours..

Now I had re established my riding relationship with Bikey Mcbikeface we made good progress on the return ride home. Once back at Crusader Towers I checked out the Artemis cafe website where there was no sign of there ever being an early closing time today. Either the IT director had quickly corrected things or more likely, Andrew had looked at another of today's possible cafes websites and got confused, again.

Scores based on 3 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.6	8.17	6.35	8.92	8.58	8.12

route

Click here to download 37 mile Alysham Wiveton loop gpx file for your GPS

Pink Footed Geese. (Cley Marshes visitors centre, Cley)

Cley Marshes Visitors Centre Cafe,

Cley next the Sea,

Open Mon-Sun 10 - 3.30 (4.30 in summer),

Highly Recommended

I have spent each day this week on my indoor cycle turbo trainer doing a cycle training video and taking part in the tour of Sufferlandria (the greatest tour of a mythical country you can do). I was therefore very keen to get out on a real bike ride. Unfortunately the weather forecast was poor with biting winds, sleet and snow on the cards. However I was delighted when Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) agreed to host a ride from his house and promised not to take us to Holt for the 4th time running.

Andrew has recently become interested in birds (the feathered variety) which he claims is because he is old and all old people become interested in birds. I'm hoping to be old one day so I thought it was about time I found out more on the subject. Therefore we decided to take a ride to Cley Marshes visitors centre where I could see birds and rate a cafe.

You may remember that a recent cycling guest top cycling tip suggest that: When you set off on a ride you should start off feeling cold or you will get too hot later on.  Being scared of today's forecast I had foolishly not followed this tip and had over layered and was toasty warm when we set off. This meant I was soon boiling hot on the ride. It just proves what a useful feature the cycling guest cycling top tip is and that they should be followed at all times.

The way up to Cley was a real treat for all ford crossing fans with several to enjoy such as the one below which was the deepest.

Deepest of many fords crossed during the ride.

Still boiling hot we arrived at Cley Marshes visitors centre where Andrew passed on his cycling guest top cycling tip for the day.

Cycling guest top cycling tip no 12. If you are boiling hot when you arrive at your cafe destination make sure you delayer when inside or you won't appreciate your cycling jacket when you leave.

Outside visitors centre where there is currently much lottery funded building work

There is an outdoor hexagonal bench seating picnic area available overlooking the Marshes but it was far too cold for even the most hardy bird fan to be picnicking at so we opted to go inside.

Outdoor hexagonal bench seating area overlooking Cley Marshes

Inside there is a very modern building which has a huge window indoor seating area overlooking the marshes. This area was full with actual bird watchers. There where also a number of tables for the lesser dedicated observer which we opted to sit at.

Huge window indoor seating area occupied by bird watchers

While Andrew engaged in bird related chat I  went to check out the cake selection and was very pleased to see a large number of cakes, slices and scones available. I therefore awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

Good selection of cakes, slices and scones

I ordered chocolate sponge cake and a cheese scone (as part of my cheese scone serving temperature research) to have with my hot chocolate. Andrew had a cappuccino and millionaire shortbread.

Before we tried the cakes and drinks Andrew taught me a few basic bird spotting facts. I quickly got the hang of it and as things flew past the window and I was able to identify them as birds. To make it more exciting I pointed and shouted "bird" to make sure all my fellow twitchers didn't miss out on one I had spotted.

With one eye on the bird action going on outside we tasted our drinks. Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) thought his coffee had excellent flavour but was not hot enough. My hot chocolate, on the other hand was very hot but very weak so only got an average score. Andrew's millionaire shortbread was performing well so hopes were high for a good cake taste quality (CTQ) score.

Cakes and drinks ready for tasting

Just then a particularly good bird flew past, I knew it must have been a good one as some of the people in the prime bird watching seats actually stood up. I was very pleased to have seen such a good bird although I have no idea what it was.

When the excitement had died down I went back to cake tasting. Sadly the scone was served cold and it is becoming clear my cheese scone hot campaign has not yet reached North Norfolk so more work to do there. It was, however, a nice enough scone. The chocolate cake was also a good bit of cake but neither had lived up to the high standard set by the millionaire shortbread.

Overall the Cley Marshes visitors centre was a very good stop and performed well in all categories. It has the added bonus that you can play bird spotting at the same time.

By the end of our visit I had spotted 23 birds fly past. I thought this was very good so I asked at the information desk if this was likely to be a winning score for the day. I was told it didn't work like that, apparently bird watching isn't a sport it's just a thing. I didn't understand that concept but the other people at the visitors centre seemed to be enjoying themselves. I did notice that the best watchers did get to write on the bird leader board if they spotted something good so maybe I'll have another try one day.

Bird spotting leader board showing what has been seen on the Marshes recently.
I wasn't allowed to put that I had seen 23 birds

On way home Andrew said he was glad we had not reacted to the poor forecast and had come out on the ride. After such a foolish remark there was only one thing that could possibly happen and within a few minutes we were being bombarded with stinging hail followed by sleet and snow. Andrew may be old and know about birds but he still has a lot to learnt about commenting on weather conditions while out on a cycle ride.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	8.0	8.0	7.5	8.0	7.50

Route 


Click here to download 40 mile Alysham Cley loop GPX file to your GPS