Monday 11 June 2018

The Bucks Head, Meonstoke, 31st May 2018

We have had two previous visits to the Bucks Head and on both occasions had an excellent lunch. On both previous visits they had narrowly missed out on the prestigious Pie Club Pie of the Year award so we were looking forward to our return visit.
We had been planning to walk the 4 miles to Meonstoke but as the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and rain, the like of which had not been seen before, and we did not have time to build an ark, we took a taxi. As it happened the storms did not arrive and it was a lovely summers day!


On arrival we were faced with a choice of 3 beers on handpump including, unusually for our part of the world, a Scottish beer:


Belhaven 80 Shilling - 4.2%, Tim Taylors Boltmaker - 4.0% and Greene King IPA - 3.6%. The Tim Taylors was not quite ready to serve, but was later, some of us kicked off with the Belhaven which was surprisingly light, as we were expecting a black beer!

After sampling a few of the excellent beers we were ready for the pie. We were to be treated to a homemade beef and ale pie which was served up as a whole pie for us to serve.


The pie was served with mash and a selection of vegetables with the bonus of plates of chips on the side and of course separate gravy on the side which was also useful for dunking the chips in!


 
The pie was indeed excellent, a very good shortcrust pastry and generous filling. There was one slice remaining which we could not manage so one of the group literally asked for a 'doggy bag', lucky dog!

Despite being very well fed one of our group could not resist the apple strudel with custard!


So after a few more beers the taxi arrived to take us back to a rain free Bishops Waltham!

Scores(max of 5 in each category, 25 overall)
  • Pastry        4.83
  • Filling       4.90
  • Beer          4.76
  • Ambience 4.77
  • Value        4.75
  • Total       24.01
So congratulations to everyone at the Bucks Head who have inched into the lead in the race to be the Pie Club Pub of the Year 2018. It's a tough competition this year with very few points covering the top 3 and still 6 months to go! Many thanks to all at the Bucks Head for a truly excellent lunch.