St James Tavern, Winchester, 28th March 2013

A small, slightly sombre group of pie lovers met on 28th March, somewhat subdued owing to the recent hospitalisation of two of our members. One was about to have an operation on his shoulder to rectify a problem which may have developed as a result of lifting too many pints of ale. The other was waiting for heart surgery to correct a problem which may have developed as a result of eating too many pies. To make up for the missing members we were joined by a very special guest, Denis, who had come all the way from Pinner to be with us. There was an unspoken understanding that our missing members would want us to continue with the meeting as normal, so, after sparing a thought for them, that is exactly what we did.

Our venue this time was the St James_Tavern, Winchester, which we had heard was a fine traditional city pub, and therefore a bit of a change from the usual country pubs that we frequent.

We were given a very warm welcome by the two charming young ladies behind the bar, and immediately faced the difficult decision of which ales to try first.

The choice was very good. This being a Wadworths pub there was a choice of Wadworth Bishops Tipple 5%,  Wadworth 6X 4.3%, Wadworth Horizon 4%, and Wadworth Henry's IPA 3.6%. The guest ale was Two Hoots 4.2% from the Joseph Holt brewery in Manchester, whose motto is With Great Beer Comes Great Wisdom - a sentiment with which we all agree (obviously).  It was Denis who suggested that we should try them all, in turn, and we sensed then that this might turn out to be a good outing.

There was only one pie on the menu - an Irish Stew Pie served with mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes. We'd never had an Irish Stew Pie before so this sounded interesting, and we all ordered it (obviously).

The pie was an individual pie, not excessively large but large enough, filled with chunks of lean stewing steak, potatoes, carrots, and maybe some other vegetables. The pastry was short-crust pastry all around, and was very good, but was maybe a bit thin so after a while the pastry in the base became a bit soggy. The pie was accompanied by frozen peas, fresh broccoli, mashed swede, and mashed potatoes, with a small amount of gravy pre-applied, not served separately in a jug as we like. All in all, it was a very satisfactory meal, but there were some differences of opinion regarding the pie - some felt it was a bit small - others thought it was perfectly formed.

We all had room for pudding.  The Syrup  Pudding with ice cream was excellent.

The pub had a very nice ambience. It being a city pub it got quite busy around office lunch hour (remember those?), but the rest of the time it was just right. There was background music on, which we normally disapprove of, but it was actually quite pleasant. The service was very good, with fresh beers brought to the table by the delightful young ladies as soon as they were needed. The value for money was quite good as well (the beers were £3.20 - £3.70 per pint, and the pies were £8.90), so ignore any reviews you read about this pub in which there are complaints about how expensive it is. The ales were all in very good condition.

Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):

• Pastry 3.1
• Filling 3.4
• Beer 4.4
• Ambience 4.1
• Value 4.1
• Overall 19.1

This is a respectable score, but clearly means that the St James Tavern is not bin the same league as our favourites, like The Wheatsheaf.  After the meal Denis needed to be shown the way back to the railway station, but we were still a bit thirsty so we stopped on the way, at the Westgate Inn, for a few more beers. This is a fine pub, but they don't do food. We heard that Denis managed to find his way home again eventually.