This tea room won Suffolk magazine's Food and Drink Award last year for best tea or coffee shop, and I always wondered what that big teapot sign led to - we really liked the lemon cake.
Stopped for a bite to eat at lunchtime on Friday, you have to duck your head to get in this quaint tea room on the edge of Suffolk at Oulton Broad. Home made cakes are their speciality and their ginger and carrot cakes were especially good, but we had ordered a cheese and tomato quiche before we saw the board with home-made sausage and onion pie or pea and ham soup on it . You will need to be friendly with your neighbours as these tables are close together but when your coke comes on a saucer with a doily you know you are in the right place and the whole meal with a pot of tea was only £10!
WOW! Soft yeasty made-this-morning Cinnammon buns, a kind of danish pastry with not too sweet caramel topping, one the nicest home made cakes amongst many on sale at Wyverstone at the yard sale on Saturday. There was also a man with a freezer full of sausages. www.wyverstonecafe.co.uk - every two weeks in the village hall.
Home made leek and potato soup in that new tea room next to the bakery. A bit too thick and lumpy with potato and not enough salt but better than anything from a tin. Served with bread but is it from the bakery?
Lunch with two American student backpackers who are staying with me for two days, after showing them round the Abbey Gardens. Went to the Cathedral Crypt restaurant as it had to cheap and more or less English. Sure enough - Liver and Bacon - but not hungry enough today. Had really nice Root Vegetable soup that came with bread (£2.95) and they had Bacon Rolls (£2.75) as well, although the Americans didn't seem to know what a bacon roll was. We shared a lovely Gooseberry Crumble Tart (£2.95) with custard, but I can't understand why it has to be a crumble on top of a tart. One or the other would be fine wouldn't it?
Here it is - my brunch from yesterday at that little cafe in Elmswell -where Goodfellows butchers used to be next to Mace. Is it called Bumbles? I met my sister for a coffee. They do good cappucino and my flat white (I have to tell them what to do - no one in Suffolk knows what that is yet ...) was good too. I had this Welsh Rarebit which tasted much nicer than the picture looks, because the Worcester sauce has made it go a bit brown. My other sister once told me a fab recipe for Welsh Rarebit - grated cheddar and a large spoonful of mayo - under the grill. Browns and bubbles up really nicely. I think they do hot lunches here too because a very friendly couple were having casserole and mashed potatoes at another table. Now I see the picture it reminds me - I wish they would get rid of that horrible plastic Christmas table cloth!
For years I have been trying to establish the name for the coffee I like - strong espresso with hot milk, no froth and not too big. It's not a capuccino or a latte or even a machiata... at the Earls Court restaurant show they said it was a 'Bloody Akward'. But then I heard about Flat Whites and today I tried my first one in BSE! It's at Costa and costs £2.25 - more than any of the others on sale. I asked the server why? She told me it requires 3 shots of coffee and a special technique to pour it so it's ultra smooth; not because it is the newest thing on the market. Mine was delicious - but still too milky and far too big.
Been to see two plays in one day as part of the Halesworth HighTide festival; this theatre being one of our favourite venues in Suffolk for comedy, particularly when it's escaped unnoticed into a serious script. The food has always looked good here and I love the randomness of it, watching the cream being whipped for a raspberry cheesecake on the bar next to you while you wait for a glass of wine - everyone seems to volunteer here. I had pork, cashew and apricot terrine that came with three salads for £6 - new potato salad, cous cous and red cabbage coleslaw, topped with a bunch of watercress. It was delicious, fresh and tasty, and exactly what I wanted at 6.30pm between the plays. I could eat like this every day. By the time we got to the interval the cheesecake was ready and it was one of the best I have ever had out - anywhere. www.newcut.org
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Sausage Rolls – in Rickinghall or Botesdale – not sure which.
Written by Claire
What a lovely pair of villages! Had to take my son to football so wander about looking for a home-made food shop for a late breakfast snack. Found the Co Op, but then the blinds go up on the local deli so I buy two very large sausage rolls at £1.20 each. Nice pastry and local sausage meat although my son thinks the ones he makes are better. There are home-made quiches in the freezer and a couple of nice looking cakes, but not sure why a shelf full of toilet rolls haven't been hidden round the corner...?!
A second visit here to buy cakes that I ended up giving to other people. It was closing time so got two chocolate banana muffins, a piece of carrot cake (not for me - I don't like it much) and a piece of coffee and walnut. These cakes are the BEST for miles around but remember it's only every other week.
Such a quaint little tea rooom of the kind you think have long gone. Full of teapots on display and a reasonable menu of snacks and main meals. I had a cheese and ham toastie which was two slices of sliced bread toast redeemed by nice home cooked ham. They have a couple of foodie shops here in Needham, a good butchers and one of the best charity shops ever where they don't select out the junk first - you could set up house from here.
Lovely food. I had their version of Welsh Rarebit with salad and the most delicious piece of lemon cake filled with home made lemon curd with greek yoghurt on the side. Mum had a bacon sandwich in ciabatta-type bread and a piece of plum and orange cake. They say they use their own produce and it shows in the moist yellow cake made with their own eggs. We both had their own fresh apple juice. And they have some really nice plants too. Not your usual garden centre. www.harveysgardenplants.co.uk
