Reigate Hill tea room

Cake is important to us mountain bikers. Not just to ward off the possibility of a sugar bonk as Singletrack magazine describes all too vividly this month but to reward ourselves for all our hard work. Or to put it another way, if there was no cake involved we might not get out of bed!

In the past couple of months we’ve mixed up our riding a bit which has brought the Reigate Hill tea room onto our radar. Situated at the top of Reigate Hill to ensure you earn your prize, the tea room is actually pretty rudimentary, offering a limited range of cakes which tend to be of the non-homemade variety and the usual range of drinks you’d expect.

It’s fairly cheap on the plus side, a small tea and Eccles cake will set you back about £1.80 and there’s also the option of some hot pasty indulgence if you really need all the help you can get. Other points in it’s favour is it’s the only stop for miles around and has fantastic views toward the Weald and decent parking if you are starting a ride from there although I don’t know if it’s free or not.

For us, it’s about the furthest we can comfortably reach on a ride from home and marks the edge of our roaming grounds if cars are not involved. All in all, a welcome place to visit, it won’t win awards for food variety or quality but it might just get you out of a tight spot if the hunger demons pay a visit.