The Bakers Arms, Droxford, 29th June 2017

We had previously visited The Bakers Arms in November 2013 so we thought it was time to visit this award winning pub again. The Bakers Arms has won Hampshire Food Pub of the year awards and also awards for it's Sunday roasts so with this impressive record we were eagerly looking forward to the pies.
Four of our group had decided to take advantage of the lovely summer weather to attempt the 8 mile round walk from Bishops Waltham with four others making their own way to the pub.
We arrived at the pub spot on opening time and the first pint of Bowman's Swift One went down very nicely, thank you!

The other beers on offer were Bowman's Wallops Wood, 4% and Ringwood Old Thumper, 5.1%.

We had really been spoilt as there were 4 pies on offer to choose from, Pulled Pork and Chorizo, Ham Hock, Leek and Mustard, Chicken and Wild Mushroom and Steak and Kidney. As you can imagine with such a fine choice this was going to take some time for us to make our choices so we had another beer to help us on our way! Amazingly, when we had finally made our decisions we had managed to cover all 4 pies across the 8 of us!
The pies were all individual pies and came with a choice of mashed potatoes or chunky chips with a selection of vegetables.

All pies had shortcrust pastry with a slightly flaky pastry top and were stuffed full with succulent fillings and everyone agreed that they were indeed excellent pies. Surprisingly, some of us still had room for puddings, but maybe that was the walkers stocking up for the return walk to Bishops Waltham!

There was a good selection of puddings including Treacle Tart, Crème Brullee and Apple and Pear Crumble.
After taking part in a photo-shoot for the pubs new website the walkers, joined by Michael, looking dressed for the part in his work suit(!), headed off on the return leg of the walk, stopping for refreshments at the Hampshire Bowman.

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

• Pastry        4.65
• Filling        4.815
• Beer           4.55
• Ambience  4.7
• Value         4.66   
• Overall      23.375

Thank you to Caroline and everyone at The Bakers Arms for an excellent lunch and congratulations on an excellent score which nudges The Bakers Arms into the lead in the race to be 2017 Pie Club Pub of the Year.

The Hunters Inn Swanmore 24th November 2016

The Hunters Inn Swanmore 24th November 2016

This was our first visit to the Hunters Inn so the walking party set off from Bishops Waltham across fields and orchards to meet up with the others at the pub.

We have used various modes of transport to arrive at our Pie Club venues but never on horseback - maybe one for the future!

On arrival it was quite busy but we managed to get ourselves to the bar to find that there was a choice of 3 real ales: Bowmans Swift One - 3.8%, Sherfield on Loddon Best Bitter - 4.2% and Theaktons Best - 3.8%. Most of us started on Swift One as it one of our favourite local beers.

We had a choice of 2 pies which we had selected in advance, Steak and kidney and Venison and they were served in the traditional way with chips and peas.

There were some initial concerns when the pies arrived as they were in dishes and appeared to have just a pastry topping. However when we delved inside there was lovely shortcrust pastry on the sides and bottom and loads of filling and no confusion on which pies were which!

The plates were cleared and everyone agreed that both pies were excellent. Despite being well fed a few of us elected to have a pudding which included homemade rum and raisin ice cream and treacle sponge and custard.

We headed back to Bishops Waltham by foot car and bus but definitely not on horseback!

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

• Pastry      4.35
• Filling       4.32
• Beer         4.15
• Ambience 3.97
• Value        4.79
• Overall    21.58

Our thanks to everyone at the Hunters Inn for an excellent lunch.

The Hinton Arms Hinton Ampner 27th October 2016

The Hinton Arms Hinton Ampner 27th October 2016

This was our first visit to the Hinton Arms so we set off from Bishops Waltham in taxi's full of  anticipation.

On arrival we found the pub to be very busy, which we should have expected due to it's proximity to the National Trust property at Hinton Ampner (well worth a visit). So we fought our way to the bar to be confronted with a good selection of 4 real Ales.

We had to choose from Hintons Own from Bowman -3.8%(we suspect this was Swift One), Hampshire Rose from from Ichen Valley - 4.2%, Old Dick from Southwick Brewery - 3.8% and Sportsman from Bowman - 4%(which could have been Wallops Wood). Over the lunchtime, between us, we managed to try all the beers on offer which were all in good condition. Unfortunately, our Guinness drinking member found that it was not to his liking so had to change to lager.

So after a couple of pints we had built up an appetite and were ready for the pies. There were two on offer, a steak and kidney and steak and stilton in suet pastry!

When the pies arrived they were huge!

Both pies had plenty of filling with very tender beef. The steak and kidney pie had a traditional shortcrust pastry and the steak and stilton had a crumbly suet pastry. Both came with with a selection of veg and new potatoes and chips.

To follow there were a good selection of desserts on offer, but only those of us who do not have watch their waistlines were able to indulge!

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

• Pastry       4.34
• Filling        4.47
• Beer          3.85
• Ambience  4.27
• Value         4.03
• Overall     20.96

Our thanks to everyone at the Hinton Arms for an excellent lunchtime visit.