With Pie Week almost upon us, restaurants, pubs and cafes across London will be looking to encase the best recipes they can find in pastry to satisfy hungry customers.
The week-long festival gets underway on 4th March 2024 and runs through until 10th.
My own personal favourite, the Windmill in Mayfair, will be serving up a mouth-watering selection of pies to try and you can expect similar offerings from the capital’s best pie spots.
But how do you judge the perfect pie?
According ‘Pierateer’ Rob it’s all about ‘The Seven C’s’: “We look for a pie that has golden colour, great consistency, a strong capacity, isn’t too chewy, is good value for money (cheapness), has high quality content and is in perfect condition. These criteria make up the Seven Cs – which we rate pies on”.
“British Pie Week is the ideal time for people to get together and celebrate the delicious comfort food that is a great British pie! While we certainly don’t limit ourselves to just eating pie in pie week, it acts as a particular focus point for the great British public to eat and rate pie together”.
With that in mind, here’s a run-down of where to find the best pies in London for Pie Week 2023.
1. Holborn Dining Room
A restaurant with its own dedicated pie room, the Holborn Dining Rooms produces dishes that are part food, part art.
Critically acclaimed and widely featured in the media, this place has developed quite the reputation amongst London foodies.
2. The Windmill, Mayfair
Mayfair’s much-loved after work spot The Windmill is renowned for its fantastic array of pies.
The menu includes a Dorset Lamb Shepherd’s pie, Hampshire venison & wild mushroom pie with red cabbage and a fantastic Dorset crab, Fowley scallops and Atlantic haddock fish pie for seafood lovers.
3. Ginger Pig, Borough
A story of one man on a butcher’s block with a chopper, Ginger Pig is a classicly London success story.
From humble beginnings to becoming pride of place in Borough, the butchers shop has everything a pie lover can ask for, with some of the best traditional pork pies the capital has to offer.
4. The Libertine
The Libertine will be celebrating the culinary tradition with their exquisite pie creations crafted with passion and expertise.
Located in the Grade-II listed vaults of the Royal Exchange, a building with deep history, The Libertine are offering the below specials:
- The decadent: Cornfed Chicken, Leek and Bacon Lardon Pie, accompanied by a Devonshire mash, buttered greens, glazed carrots and a Bordeaux red wine gravy.
The Libertine Fish Pie: featuring an indulgent blend of poached Loch Duart salmon, king prawns, scallops smoked haddock and a white wine sauce.
Delicia Pumpkin: Spinach and Sage Cremosa Pie – an exquisite plant-based option
5. Putney Pies, Putney
Located on the banks of the River Thames, Putney Pies is a charming restaurant with stripped floors and a vaulted basement bar serving pies, beers and ciders.
On the menu this Pie Week will be all the classics – including steak and ale, chicken and mushroom and Shepherds Pie – served with lashings of mash and gravy.
6. Bob Bob Ricard, Soho
If you fancy something a little more upmarket, Bob Bob Ricard is renowned for its chicken and champagne pie.
Well worth a look in my estimation.
7. Marksman Public House, Hackney
There’s rarely not a good pie to sample at the Marksman Public House in the East End.
From beef shin with pickled walnut and onion to chicken and girolles, these are pies to crow about.
8. Quo Vadis, Soho
A Soho icon, Quo Vadis serves some of the best gourmet pies on the market that change on a daily basis.
Rest assured, however, that the quality never deteriorates. Expect brothy, sticky fillings loaded with multiple meats (chicken, duck and bacon or beef and venison.)
9. The Quality Chop House Shop, Farringdon
The Quality Chop House Shop has proved a worthy partner to its namesake restaurant, offering casual dining in an informal setting.
Give their in-house pork pie a go, or alternatively, literally anything they have on the menu.
10. St. John Restaurant, Farringdon
A TLE favourite, St. John prides itself on nose-to-tail cooking for people who simply love food.
The Beef and Kidney Pie, to be shared between two, is simply sublime.
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