Gentlemen's Pie Club of Bishops Waltham: The Robin Hood, Durley, 23rd February 2012

Joe, Nick, Trev and new member Paul (welcome) duly met at the bus stop in Bishops Waltham to catch the number 7 bus for the short ride to The Robin Hood, Durley. Doug had sent his apologies and Si was on a mission in Bali at an organic yoga retreat to find the best Balinese pie.

The bus was on time so arrived at the pub to allow plenty of time to sample the beers before tucking into the pies.

We received a friendly welcome when entering the pub and we were all highly impressed by the extremely pleasant ambience!

There were a good selection of beers : Black Sheep Bitter 3.8%, Timothy Taylor Landlord 4.3%, Old Speckled Hen 4.3%, and for Paul, Becks Vier 4%.

Joe, Nick and Trev all started off with the Black Sheep Bitter which was excellent and went down very well. Trev then switched to the Timothy Taylors Landlord which is one of his favourite beers of all time and it didn't disappoint.

After a couple of beers we decided it was time to tuck into the pies! After some excellent but tough earlier negotiations by Joe the chef had agreed to prepare a game suet pudding for us - the game was a mix of venison, rabbit and pheasant. We all ordered the same which arrived on a bed of mashed potatoes with a few green beans sprinkled on top.

Everyone agreed the pie was very good with a good portion of filling which was very tender and the suet casing was very tasty. As we are a healthy bunch of Gents and fully committed to getting our 5 a day (veg that is) a selection of veg would have been welcome - maybe we could have ordered that separately from the menu?

After a short break and another pint we shifted our attention to the excellent choice on the desserts menu. Joe and Trev both opted for the cheese plate which had a good choice of local cheeses.