The Elm Tree, Swanwick, 28th July 2016
This was a new venue for Pie Club so we set off for the short taxi ride to Swanwick.
Most of us started on the Flowerpots Bitter - 3.8% and during the course of the lunch also sampled Doom Bar - 4.0% and the delightful but deceptively strong Goodens Gold - 4.8%. All the beers were in excellent condition, as was the Guinness - to the delight of our Guinness drinking member. Whilst enjoying the beer we had to make a choice between three pies on offer - Lamb and Vegetable, Chicken Ham and Leek and Steak and Stilton. Now having already chosen our beer to have to make another decision so quickly was beyond most of us, so by the time we had decided the last Lamb and Vegetable pie had gone, but we still had two to choose from.
Both the pies on offer were individual pies with shortcrust pastry tops and came with either chips or new potatoes with an excellent selection of vegetables, thus ensuring that we all got our '5 a day' which is important to healthy eating gents like us!
The pies were also accompanied by extra gravy in jugs, just as we like it. Both pies had good fillings with plenty of meat and the overall opinion was that they were good pies. A special mention for the chips that were excellent.
All plates were cleared so it was a surprise that most of us elected to have a pudding. But the pudding selection was very tempting, so it just had to be done!
By the time we had finished the puddings most of us felt like having a snooze, but the taxi was beckoning to take us back to Bishops Waltham.
Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):
- Pastry 3.91
- Filling 4.44
- Beer 4.53
- Ambience 4.21
- Value 4.15
- Overall 21.24
A very enjoyable first visit to the Elm Tree and our thanks to Lorraine and all the staff for their service and for making us so welcome.
