The Cricketers - Curdridge - 26 July 2018

On one of the hottest days of a very hot summer, the dedicated walkers set off from Bishops Waltham to walk part of the way to Curdridge, the more sensible ones took the bus or arrived by car!

 

 

On arrival there were two real ales on offer, Greene King Barmey Army - 3.7% and Greene King Yard Bird - 4%. Unfortunately, neither of the beers were in great shape, which could well have been due to the extreme weather conditions, but all was not lost as the Czech lager was tasty and refreshingly chilled as was the Guinness.



 

Originally, the chef had proposed to make one large steak and kidney pie to serve us all, but as there were 11 of us he had decided to opt for individual steak and ale pies.

This was a good decision as the pies were  excellent with good shortcrust pastry and loads of filling.

 

 



It was accompanied by a very good selection of vegetables and separate gravy on the side..........,, the cauliflower cheese being very tasty.

 

One of our group did have room for a pudding, but as he was one of the walkers this was totally understandable.

 

 

 

After moving outside to finish off our beers we headed back to Bishops Waltham,, by cars and bus!

 

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

 

• Pastry          4.75
• Filling         4.70
• Beer            3.38
• Ambience   4.11
• Value          4.33
• Total        21.27

 

Thanks to everyone at the Cricketers for their hospitality and a most enjoyable pie.

The Black Dog, Waltham Chase, 29th March 2018

We previously visited the Black Dog in March 2016 and as it has previously won the prestigious Pie Club Pub of the Year award so we felt it was due another visit. So on an extremely wet and cold March day we headed off on the short bus journey to Waltham Chase to meet the others who had been chauffeur driven!

On arrival it was too wet to get a photo of the pub but once inside we were greeted by 4 real ales on handpump.

The beers on offer were: Greene King IPA - 3.6%, Black Dog Bitter - 3.9%, Westerham Brewery British Bulldog - 4.1% and Abbot Ale - 5%. All the beers tasted were in fine condition as was the Guinness.

The pie on offer was a homemade Ox-Cheek braised in Beer. Being homemade it had been made in one large dish which caused a bit of banter amongst the group as to who should get the corner portions and the extra pastry. Those of us on a health kick of course opted for portions from the side!

The portions were very generous and were accompanied by a good selection of vegetables, chips, horseradish mash and of course separate jugs of gravy on the side.

There was a nice touch of French Bread on the table when we arrived which would have been useful for mopping up the gravy had it not all been devoured before the pies arrived!

The pie was indeed very good with lots of succulent filling and a good shortcrust pastry. Our only criticism was that it was rather over salted which meant we had to order more beer!

Some of us still had room for puddings of which there were a fine selection, see below (the puddings are on the blackboards.......).

So, after a very enjoyable lunch we headed back into the torrential rain for the short trip back to Bishops Waltham.

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

• Pastry        4.34
• Filling       4.35
• Beer          4.56
• Ambience 4.39
• Value        4.70 
• Overall   22.34

This score was an improvement of a score of 22.31 recorded at the March 2016 visit so congratulations to everyone at the Black Dog and thank you for an excellent lunch.