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 Bucks Head, Meonstoke, 31st May 2018

We have had two previous visits to the Bucks Head and on both occasions had an excellent lunch. On both previous visits they had narrowly missed out on the prestigious Pie Club Pie of the Year award so we were looking forward to our return visit.
We had been planning to walk the 4 miles to Meonstoke but as the weather forecast was for thunderstorms and rain, the like of which had not been seen before, and we did not have time to build an ark, we took a taxi. As it happened the storms did not arrive and it was a lovely summers day!

On arrival we were faced with a choice of 3 beers on handpump including, unusually for our part of the world, a Scottish beer:

Belhaven 80 Shilling - 4.2%, Tim Taylors Boltmaker - 4.0% and Greene King IPA - 3.6%. The Tim Taylors was not quite ready to serve, but was later, some of us kicked off with the Belhaven which was surprisingly light, as we were expecting a black beer!

After sampling a few of the excellent beers we were ready for the pie. We were to be treated to a homemade beef and ale pie which was served up as a whole pie for us to serve.

The pie was served with mash and a selection of vegetables with the bonus of plates of chips on the side and of course separate gravy on the side which was also useful for dunking the chips in!

 

The pie was indeed excellent, a very good shortcrust pastry and generous filling. There was one slice remaining which we could not manage so one of the group literally asked for a 'doggy bag', lucky dog!

Despite being very well fed one of our group could not resist the apple strudel with custard!

So after a few more beers the taxi arrived to take us back to a rain free Bishops Waltham!

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

• Pastry        4.83
• Filling       4.90
• Beer          4.76
• Ambience 4.77
• Value        4.75
• Total       24.01

So congratulations to everyone at the Bucks Head who have inched into the lead in the race to be the Pie Club Pub of the Year 2018. It's a tough competition this year with very few points covering the top 3 and still 6 months to go! Many thanks to all at the Bucks Head for a truly excellent lunch.

The Brushmakers Arms, Upham, 22nd August 2013

It was a hot sunny day when Lord North, Stephen, Doug, Trev & Si met up outside the Bishops Waltham Tandoori  to wait for the taxi (ordered by Lord North) to take us on our eagerly awaited trip to Brushmakers Arms in Upham.  And we waited, and we waited.  And as we waited we sniffed the pleasant spicy aromas wafting over us from the nearby kitchen window, and we got hungrier and hungrier, and more and more thirsty. Eventually Lord North phoned the taxi driver and managed to get him out of bed, and after waiting more than half an hour the taxi eventually turned up. This was not the best possible start to our trip, but we shall say no more as there is now a disciplinary proceeding pending against Lord North so the matter is sub judice. At least the taxi driver accepted that the delay was all his fault, and let us off the outbound fare to make up for it.  Meanwhile, Nick (still on a health kick after his recent heart surgery) had walked all the way to Upham to meet us at the pub, was feeling very smug, and was already on his 2nd pint by the time we caught up with him. 

The Brushmakers Arms has long had a fine reputation for good food, so our visit here was long overdue. It's also not unadjacent to the Upham Brewery, which only started up a few years ago. It's probably fair to say that this brewery got off to a shaky start, and several pie club members have expressed a dislike of Upham Ales based on their earlier tasting experiences.  

As we eventually entered the pub we were given a warm welcome by the delightful barmaid. There was a good choice of ales available - when we noticed that Upham Tipster 3.6% was available on draft several of us decided to give Upham Ales another chance, as this was an ale that we hadn't tried before.  

We found the Tipster to be a fine refreshing light summer ale, and at £3/pt, not bad at all. A bit tasteless maybe, and definitely over-chilled, but on a hot summer's day this was ok.  The other ales available included Fuller's London Pride 4.1%  (£3.55/pt),  Fuller's ESB 4.6%, and Ringwood Best 3.8% (£3.50/pt). After a couple of pints of Tipster we moved on to the Ringwood Best, which was in better condition, and had a bit more flavour.

There was only one pie on the menu, a traditional Steak and Ale Pie, so we all ordered that. It came with mixed vegetables (which turned out to be a mix of fresh baby carrots, red cabbage, and a very pleasant ratatouille of seasonal vegetables, all served in separate side-dishes).

We were offered a choice of potatoes: boiled new potatoes, chips, saute, or dauphinoise. We chose a selection of different potatoes. One brave soul, who must have been feeling adventurous, even chose the dauphinoise.

All who tasted the chips and the saute potatoes judged them to be very good. The saute, in particular, had a good taste of herbs and garlic.  The dauphinoise potatoes were ok, but probably not a very good match with the rest of the meal.

When we saw the size of the pies we could hardly believe our eyes.

We each had an individual pie, measuring approx. 20cm x 12cm x 6cm, fully encased in short crust pastry, and packed with lean tender chunks of steak in a rich tasty gravy, and with a separate jug of extra gravy for each person. This was definitely a man-sized pie. By the time we had added vegetables and potatoes to our plates, we had a really good plateful. 

The pie filling was perfect in every way. The pastry was perhaps a little dry around the edges (slightly overcooked?), but with the extra gravy the pastry was also very good. 

Altogether, the meal was excellent, and at £10.95 it was really good value for money, but the main problem was the sheer volume of everything. We all struggled manfully to finish off our pies, but a few of us left some pastry (more disciplinary proceedings pending!), and we made very little impression on the potatoes and vegetables. Nobody, not even Doug,  had any room for puddings, which was a shame as there was quite a good choice available. And worse still, we were all so stuffed that we even found it difficult to drink more beer!  Difficult, but not impossible. Actually, one pie shared between two would have been ample.

The service was generally very good. There were no unnecessary distractions in the pub like TVs or music, and there was a nice touch in that a selection of newspapers were available for people to read, but a number of us had some criticisms of the general ambience in the pub, which did let it down a bit.
  
Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall): 

• Pastry 4.083

• Filling 4.675

• Beer 3.833

• Ambience 3.958

• Value 4.667

• Overall 21.216

So by the narrowest of margins (0.024 points) The Brushmakers slips straight into 2nd place in our rankings, just behind The White Lion which we visited last month. This pie obviously scored very well on value for money, and on the pie filling, which was exceptionally good, but it was let down by the general ambience of the place, and the quality of the ale, although, to be fare, we were so staffed after the meal that we probably weren't in a very good position to judge the quality of the ale.