Having heard a number of favourable reports concerning The Bush Inn at Ovington, especially their recent Great British Pie Day event, we decided to go slightly further from home for our September outing to check it out for ourselves. Si, Nick, Trev, Tall Paul and Lord North gathered together outside the Bishops Waltham Tandoori to wait for the taxi, which (this time) arrived early and we got to the pub in good time.
We were given a warm welcome by the delightful Imogen, who we understand took over the running of the pub with her husband in March. They seem determined to make a success of it, and we wish them well for the future. Certainly the location of this pub is perfect and the interior of the pub is a delight - lots of separate rooms with oak beams and comfortable furniture, and no unnecessary distractions. The Bush Inn is a Wadworths pub, so not surprisingly the ales were limited to Wadworths Ales (nothing wrong with that).
On offer were Henry's IPA 3.6%, Horizon 4%, and 6X 4.3% - all very fine ales. Unusually, Tall Paul was disappointed to learn that this pub does not sell Guinness. He was offered Corvus Stout instead, but despite being given a free 3/4 pint taster, he would probably have preferred Guinness.
We were delighted to be offered our own private room for this meal, with a table large enough to accommodate 16 people, despite the fact that there were only 5 of us.
We had the best ever choice of pies.
These are all home-made individual pies, fully encased in short-crust pastry, and served with gravy in a separate jug just we way we like it. With such an abundance of choice it was difficult for us to decide what to have. Fortunately we had been given a copy of the menu in advance and we'd had several days in which to think it over. In the end, two of us had the Venison, Port and Stilton pie:
One had the Cockaleekie Pie:
One had the Meat and Potato Pie:
And one had the Trout and Watercress Pie:
The pies were all excellent, not too large but large enough, packed with lean meat tasty sauce, and came with perfectly cooked chips or mash, and mixed vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, and tomatoes). The little saucepans that we were each given contained a vegetable gravy.
Afterwards we all had room for pudding.
We tried the Hampshire Scrunch, the Sticky Toffee pudding, and the Bread and Butter Pudding, and found them all to be very good.
We were very well looked after by Imogen, even though the pub was quite busy and they were missing one waitress. The pies were good value for money at £9.95 each and very good quality, but the beer was a little expensive at around £3.70/pint. We loved the ambience. All in all, it was a very pleasant experience dining here, and no doubt we will be back again for more.
Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):
Surprisingly this score puts The Bush in 4th place in our rankings, just behind The Queen Inn in Winchester, and just 0.6 points behind the current leaders (The White Horse at Soberton). Standards are so good this year that all four top pubs are excellent. We might have to revisit them all.
A small, slightly sombre group of pie lovers met on 28th March, somewhat subdued owing to the recent hospitalisation of two of our members. One was about to have an operation on his shoulder to rectify a problem which may have developed as a result of lifting too many pints of ale. The other was waiting for heart surgery to correct a problem which may have developed as a result of eating too many pies. To make up for the missing members we were joined by a very special guest, Denis, who had come all the way from Pinner to be with us. There was an unspoken understanding that our missing members would want us to continue with the meeting as normal, so, after sparing a thought for them, that is exactly what we did.
Our venue this time was the St James_Tavern, Winchester, which we had heard was a fine traditional city pub, and therefore a bit of a change from the usual country pubs that we frequent.
We were given a very warm welcome by the two charming young ladies behind the bar, and immediately faced the difficult decision of which ales to try first.
The choice was very good. This being a Wadworths pub there was a choice of Wadworth Bishops Tipple 5%, Wadworth 6X 4.3%, Wadworth Horizon 4%, and Wadworth Henry's IPA 3.6%. The guest ale was Two Hoots 4.2% from the Joseph Holt brewery in Manchester, whose motto is With Great Beer Comes Great Wisdom - a sentiment with which we all agree (obviously). It was Denis who suggested that we should try them all, in turn, and we sensed then that this might turn out to be a good outing.
There was only one pie on the menu - an Irish Stew Pie served with mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes. We'd never had an Irish Stew Pie before so this sounded interesting, and we all ordered it (obviously).
The pie was an individual pie, not excessively large but large enough, filled with chunks of lean stewing steak, potatoes, carrots, and maybe some other vegetables. The pastry was short-crust pastry all around, and was very good, but was maybe a bit thin so after a while the pastry in the base became a bit soggy. The pie was accompanied by frozen peas, fresh broccoli, mashed swede, and mashed potatoes, with a small amount of gravy pre-applied, not served separately in a jug as we like. All in all, it was a very satisfactory meal, but there were some differences of opinion regarding the pie - some felt it was a bit small - others thought it was perfectly formed.
We all had room for pudding. The Syrup Pudding with ice cream was excellent.
The pub had a very nice ambience. It being a city pub it got quite busy around office lunch hour (remember those?), but the rest of the time it was just right. There was background music on, which we normally disapprove of, but it was actually quite pleasant. The service was very good, with fresh beers brought to the table by the delightful young ladies as soon as they were needed. The value for money was quite good as well (the beers were £3.20 - £3.70 per pint, and the pies were £8.90), so ignore any reviews you read about this pub in which there are complaints about how expensive it is. The ales were all in very good condition.
Scores (max. 5 in each category, 25 overall):
- Pastry 3.1
- Filling 3.4
- Beer 4.4
- Ambience 4.1
- Value 4.1
- Overall 19.1
This is a respectable score, but clearly means that the St James Tavern is not bin the same league as our favourites, like The Wheatsheaf. After the meal Denis needed to be shown the way back to the railway station, but we were still a bit thirsty so we stopped on the way, at the Westgate Inn, for a few more beers. This is a fine pub, but they don't do food. We heard that Denis managed to find his way home again eventually.
