The Fox and Hounds, Fair Oak, 31st October 2013

After a few outings that involved getting a taxi to far-flung places, we felt it was time to revert to tradition and try out a local pub that we could get to on the bus, so for the October outing we decided to try the Fox and Hounds at Fair Oak. We'd been past it often enough on the 69 bus, and we thought "let's give it a go", so off we went. We had quite a good turnout for this trip: there was Lord North, Stephen, Nick, Si, Tall Paul, Doug, and the whole event was very well organised by Joe. We were also joined by Eric, who is seeking to become a full member of the Pie Club, but currently has candidate status.

The weather wasn't being very kind to us, but luckily the bus stop is right outside the pub, so we didn't have far to walk. When we found our way in we were given a warm welcome, and a choice of 3 ales.  Rather a limited choice, we thought.

Unfortunately the Directors was off, so we were left with Sharp's Doombar 4%, or Purity Ales Mad Goose IPA 4.7%. The Mad Goose looked a bit strong at 4.7% so we thought we'd save it for later. As usual Tall Paul had Guinness, which was OK, and the rest of us all had a pint of Doom Bar, which most of us thought was very good, although perhaps a little overchilled, but Nick complained that his beer smelled of bleach. He got a replacement pint without any trouble, and everone else was happy, so this was  probably an isolated incident.

As we drank our pints we took stock of our surroundings, and started to worry. The place is huge. There was a big conservatory in the distance, used as a dining room, which seemed to be empty. The main bar area was large and empty, except for us, and the TV/snooker room next door was inhabited to two sad-looking gentlemen who seemed to be very interested in the bottoms of their beer glasses and not much else. The TV was on, but nobody was watching it. There was was a fruit machine there. There was background music on in the conservatory. Sadly, even though a few more customers turned up as the session continued, the ambience failed to improve.

On the Specials board there was a choice of 2  pies: Steak & Stilton, or Baked Steak, Mushroom & Stout, both at £10.95. Steak or Steak we thought.

Luckily, there were 2 more pies available on the standard menu: Chicken Ham & Leek, or Steak & Kidney Pudding with suet pastry. All at £9.95. Now you're talking!  Most of us couldn't resist the chance of having an Steak & Kidney Pudding with Suet Pastry, but Tall Paul (who always enjoys being different) opted for the Steak & Stilton Pie, and why shouldn't he?  The pies came with mixed vegetables and a choice of potatoes: new, mashed, or chipped. 

The pies looked good, and actually tasted okay, but we suspect they were mass-produced in a factory somewhere, not home-made. There was a difference of opinion about the suet pastry: it seems some people like their suet pastry crisp, and others like it soft.  This is obviously a contentious issue, and one which we need to discuss at great length.  These Steak & Kidney puddings came with crisp suet pastry. The chips probably came from frozen, and weren't cooked very well. The vegetables (cauliflower, carrots and brocolli) were cooked from fresh and were okay, although a bit tasteless. The gravy was good, and served the way it should be, in a separate jug, and there was plenty of it, which was just as well.

Several of us still had room for pudding.

Two of us wanted to have the Toffee Crunch Slice, but there was only one portion left. The lucky person who had this pudding found that it wasn't very good, and left half of it. Someone else had the Lemon Meringue Pie, and felt that that wasn't very good either. Someone else had the Cheesecake, which was okay.

By this time some of us wanted to try the Mad Goose IPA, brewed by Purity Ales, in Warwickshire. This is an ale that we hadn't come across before. It looked cloudy, but (benefit of the doubt) maybe that's the way it's supposed to look. Those who tried it said that it was okay, but nobody went back for a second pint.

The loos looked clean, but there was no paper in the towel dispenser, and no hot water in the hot water tap. The service was good - beer was brought to our table just as we like it. Whatever faults we found with this pub were not the fault of the bar staff.

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

• Pastry 3.84

• Filling 3.97

• Beer 3.84

• Ambience 2.75

• Value 3.98

• Overall 18.38

With this score the Fox and Hounds leaps straight into 8th place out of the 9 pubs that we've visited so far this year. The only pub worse that this was The Crown, which we visited in May and was really bad. Despite this poor score we all actually quite enjoyed our meal, and happily went on to consider our verdict in the lush confines of ... The Crown (the beer in The Crown is good - it was the food and service which was bad).

On reflection, perhaps it does us good to have a bad experience from time to time. After a long run of excellent pies, it helps us maintain our perspective.

The Crown, Bishops Waltham, 30th May 2013

As 2 of our members were still on the road to recovery following their recent hospitalisation we decided to keep it simple and visit the Crown Inn in Bishops Waltham.  This was our first official Pie Club visit to the Crown since its recent very expensive refurbishment, when it was transformed from a dump into a smart hotel, although obviously several members have visited it before in a private capacity. 

                             

After Nick, Trev, Stephen, Doug and Paul had stopped off at the Bunch of Grapes  to help Stuart out by moving some of the beer left over from his event at the weekend, we met up with Joe at the Crown. We were faced with a welcoming selection of ales:

Fullers London Pride, Bowman South Sea Spice, Seafarers Ale, Gales HSB, and a new beer from Fullers called Brewers Bragg.

We were not able to try all the beers - maybe due to previous consumption at the Bunch - but all beers tasted were in good condition and went down very well.

There was only one pie on the menu, the pie of the day, which was a fish pie - so we all ordered this. This was our first fish pie!  The pie had a short crust pastry bottom and sides and was topped with mash potatoes and came with a selection of vegetables and buttered new potatoes and a separate jug of a parsley sauce.

There was some discussion as to what fish was in the pie and we came to the conclusion that there was definitely salmon, a white fish and some prawns were spotted. Overall, the general feeling was that the pie was very tasty, though some thought it was a tad on the dry side, which I suppose is why it came with a separate sauce to suit all sorts. It was felt, that at £12.50, it was a bit expensive for the size of the portions, but then again, the Crown is a hotel.

As service was very slow and at times non-existent we decided not to have a pudding and some of us decided to go back to the Bunch to help Stuart out with his beer, only to find out that Stuart and Mandy had done a runner - I wonder why? So an early night was had by all!

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

• Pastry  3.5
• Filling  3.5
• Beer  3.92
• Ambience  3.04
• Value for money  2.75
• Total  16.71

The Crown immediately sinks to bottom place in our rankings, due mainly to the poor service, which is reflected in the low score for Ambience, and the poor value for money. Perhaps it is not fair to judge the Crown (which sets out to be a smart hotel) by the same standards that we use to judge pubs. Nevertheless, we won't be coming here again (not for a pie at any rate). The beers were good, though.

The Bugle Inn, Botley, 29th March 2012

The plan was for the Pie Club members to meet up at the bus stop in Bishops Waltham square at 12.00 noon. Unfortunately Joe, Si, and new member Steve (welcome) arrived early, happened to notice that the Crown Inn was open, and right next door to the bus stop. This pub has only very recently re-opened after a very expensive refit, so they decided to check it out and have a quick one in The Crown while waiting for the others to catch up. 

Unfortunately, they don't serve pies there. Otherwise we would have had this Pie Club meeting in The Crown.


Nevertheless, a well refreshed Joe, Si & Steve still managed to get to the bus stop by noon to meet up with Trev and Nick, just as they were boarding the No. 8 bus to Botley. This bus goes all around the place, seemingly visiting every little hamlet for miles around, but eventually we arrived in Botley, and headed straight for The Bugle Inn.

We were welcomed by the landlord, and noticed immediately that there was a fine selection of ales available: the excellent Bowman's Wallops Wood 4%, the always popular Sharp's Doombar 4% , and (maybe a bit strong for lunch time) Gale's HSB 4.8%.   


We settled down for our first pint, some having Wallops Wood, and others having Doombar, and surveyed our surroundings. The landlord had taken us to a table in the dining area of the pub, where there were no other customers, so we had the place to ourselves, although there were several drinkers in the other bar that we could hear.  There was no garden to sit in. We had our second pint then decided it was time to order some food. As there was only one pie on the menu it didn't take us long to decide what to order. 2 of us opted to have chips instead of new potatoes. We didn't have to wait long for the food.

  The pies had the correct short-crust pastry, a Steak & Mushroom filling, pre-applied gravy, and a selection of freshly-cooked vegetables: Cauliflower, carrots, and red cabbage.  Some of us (perhaps those who were hungriest) thought they were OK - nothing special but OK - but others were quite put off by the smell, and one of our members was actually unable to finish eating his pie*.

We'd also noticed some strange smells coming from the loos (or were they coming from the kitchens?). To be fair, this pub has a Lebanese chef, and a full menu of Lebanese food available (but no Lebanese pies, which might have been interesting). Maybe that accounted for some of the strange smells.


There was a tempting selection of puddings available, but by now we'd had enough, so we decided to skip the puddings:

As we left the pub, someone suggested walking just around the corner to The Brewery Bar to see if we could get some puddings there. This is not a bad looking pub, with a good food menu (including some pies) and a fine selection of ales:

It was a lovely sunny day so we sat outside in the garden and had a pint while we considered the pudding menu.  In the end we didn't bother with the puddings, and after a couple of pints we caught the bus back to Bishops Waltham.  We quite liked the look of the Brewery Bar, and decided that it was probably worth a proper Pie Club assessment later in the year.


As we got off the bus in Bishops Waltham, someone happened to notice that the Crown Inn was open, and right next door to the bus stop. This pub has only very recently re-opened after a very expensive refit, so we decided to check it out and have a quick one in garden at the front, in the sun.  As we were sitting there enjoying our pints, we got chatting with a young couple sitting at the next table who turned out to be JK and Lucy, presenters of Heart South Coast Breakfast Show.

Lucy got quite friendly with one of the Pie Club members, but Pieman feels honour-bound to reveal no more, and certainly won't publish any photos! The Pie Club got a mention on their show the next morning.

Scores for The Bugle, Botley (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):

• Pastry 3.3
• Filling 3.6
• Beer 3.6
• Ambience 2.7
• Value 3.4
• Overall 16.6

* On checking the Pie Club constitution, Pieman was surprised to see that there is nothing in the rules about penalties for leaving a pie half uneaten. Pieman would have thought that the offending member would at least have to buy a round.