PICTURE a pie and what do you see in your mind’s eye?
There can be only one answer: succulent, slow cooked meat encased in rich pastry, a steaming puddle of thick gravy oozing out when the crust is broken.
At this very pleasant gastro-pub, though, the reality was different.
The beef and kidney came in a large bowl, a small square of puff pastry balanced on the top like a tiny hat on the head of a giant.
There are some things in life that are simply not right. And this was one of them.
Which is a pity because the individual components of the dish were glorious.
The meat and offal were tender and flavoursome and the beer gravy in which the chunks wallowed was rich and nutty. The pastry, too, was good.
But it wasn’t a pie and a pie was what I’d ordered. A pie was what I wanted.
Culinary innovation is all very well, but shame on anyone who seeks to reinvent the meat pie. It’s like giving a bicycle square wheels – it just doesn’t work.
I ate at this friendly joint on a Saturday night with my wife Lynn and two friends when it was doing a brisk trade and had a good buzzy atmosphere.
Happily, it avoids the identikit menus that are encountered at many other pubs – you know, wood-fired pizza and Thai spiced prawns and the like – and concentrates on good British ingredients traditionally cooked.
My starter of very pleasant black pudding came in batons wrapped in bacon that would have benefited from being crisper.
The star of the dish was a lightly creamy pea puree that added a soothing sweetness. A grilled tomato added fruitiness.
My wife and our friend Steve ate chicken liver pate, which they thoroughly enjoyed, while Steve’s wife Lynne relished a bowl of chunky minestrone in which cabbage replaced the usual pasta (one of the few excursions to foreign shores).
While I ate my non-pie, Lynn and Lynne ate excellent, flaky roasted lemon sole, cooked on the bone, as a main course and Steve enjoyed belly pork that looked good a crisp.
Chips that came as a side order were very good – crisp and tasty.
Mixed vegetables were cooked so they retained their texture, colour and flavour, but I thought they were under-seasoned.
None of us wanted desserts for the food is very filling.
The bill included a beer, a glass of wine and soft drinks – very good value, I think. Better value still if the pie had been a pie.
* The Verdict
How much?.............£88 for four
Vegetarians?..................Options
Child friendly?.......................Yes
Disabled access?....................OK
Car parking?............Got its own
Go back?........................Happily
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