The White Lion Soberton 30th March 2017
As a previous winner of the Pie of the Year award and as we had not visited for a number of years we felt it was time for a return visit to the White Lion. So three of the group set off early from Bishops Waltham to walk the 4 miles to Soberton. Walking at a good pace we arrived at the pub just on opening time!
As you can imagine we had built up quite a thirst so we were keen to sample the good selection of beers while waiting for the others to arrive. The selection included:
Bowman Swift One - 3.8%, Sharps Doombar - 4%, Cheriton Goodens Gold - 4.8%, Rosies Dry Cider and a very good Guinness for our Guinness drinking member.
The others eventually arrived so we continued to sample the beers which were all in excellent condition until being summoned for the main event, the pie! Today's offering was a Beef, Shallot and Red Wine pie served with new potatoes and a choice of garden peas or marrowfat peas ( a sort of mushy broad bean can best describe it - very tasty).
Each meal was served with individual jugs of gravy, which was a nice touch as we didn't have to fight over one gravy jug!
The banter subsided as we tucked into the pies which were truly impressive, excellent shortcrust pastry with a succulent meat filling. Plates were cleared but there was still room for some of us to cast our eyes over a very tempting dessert list and you can see why most of us could not resist the temptation!
The desserts were accompanied by a complimentary glass of port - again a very nice touch. We had a bit of time to kill before our taxi arrived so some of us chose to try Rosies Dry Cider, so it was just as well that we were taking the taxi back and not walking!
Scores for the White Lion (Max 5 in each category - total 25 overall):
Pastry - 4.70
Filling - 4.77
Beer - 4.71
Ambience - 4.74
Value - 4.41
Overall - 23.33
Many thanks to all the staff at the White Lion for an excellent lunch and their hospitality. The score of 23.33 now puts the White Lion into 1st place - congratulations!
