This year, as part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week, we decided to head up to Leeds Leeds Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour! One place we visited was Haley and Clifford, a lovey quaint deli in the north of Leeds, which features in the video of our adventures made by Pierateer Tim below. There we rated a Voakes Pork Pie, famed for being a top pie option in the area!



On Day One of the Leeds Pie Tour we headed to Haley and Clifford in the north of Leeds. We'd heard they stocked Voakes Pork Pies (a reasonably local pork pie producer) and thought we'd pay them a visit! It was a lovely delicatessen, selling food from a range of local stockists and with a decent selection of salads and (more importantly) pies! Both Sam and Rob went for a Voakes Pork Pie, which Rob rates below:

Wow, I have never seen a pork pie served cut up into pieces with salad! @Haley_Clifford #LeedsPieTour pic.twitter.com/LsFSMRHpAq

— Pierate (@pierateers) March 11, 2017

The deli was a lovely place to visit on our Pie Tour of Leeds - serving a few different pie options to be eaten cold. The Voakes pork pie however was what we were there for and was a pretty reasonable price for a reasonably high end establishment. It was possibly the first place we'd ever rated which offered an accompanying side salad with your pork pie - a combo Pierateer Sam relied upon during his "Pies For Every Meal" British Pie Week 2014 stunt, which rather amazingly led to Sam losing weight over the week he ate 21 pie meals!

Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford

The Voakes Pork Pie was very crispy to bite into and while - as said in the video - the first bite was pretty much all pastry, it was a very crisp and delicious pastry I'd happily eat on its own. What the deli owner told us in a chat later was that between receiving the pork pies from Voakes and cooking them, they don't actually add in the jelly which many pork pies contain. They found their customers prefer their pork pies without, which we on the Pierate Ship can understand. We too can find the jelly muddles the flavour a bit, so unless done well, it can be better not to include jelly just for the sake of it! It would however be interesting to rate a Voakes with jelly too sometime!

The colour was lovely and golden, with a reasonably even bake, though the pastry did flake and crumble into random pieces upon biting into it, therefore losing some marks for condition. This is perhaps why they offer the pork pie already cut into quarters when serving it with a side salad (see tweeted photo above!) There was a noticeable gap around the meat where the jelly would normally be, thus reducing the capacity slightly. However the meat content of the pie was pretty succulent in spite of the lack of cooking with jelly - nice and meaty. Seasoned but not too strongly, it was a pork pie I'd happily eat again.

Voakes Pork Pie at Haley and Clifford (Leeds)
Score: 5.64/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 5.75, Consistency 6, Condition 5.75, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 4.5, Content 5.75]

RAS

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This year, as part of our Pie Pledges for British Pie Week, we decided to head up to Leeds Leeds Leeds to do a #LeedsPieTour! Check out the video of our adventures made by Pierateer Tim and check back for the reviews of the pies you see in the video over the next few weeks!


In order of ap-pie-rance:

[Piebury Corner Fruit pies (from London, not Leeds) - reviewed as Pierate Recommended]
Pieminister MooDog Pie
Pieminister Cricket Pie (Limited Edition for British Pie Week)
Wilson's Pork Pie
Wilson's Meat and Potato Pie
Wilson's Pork and Apple Pie
Voakes Pork Pie in Haley and Clifford
Great North Pie Co. Classic Lancashire Cheese and Onion Pie in Haley and Clifford
Jones Steak and Ale Pie in The Hop
Jones Chicken Curry Pie in The Hop

Day One (Saturday)

Staying in Armley, we decided to walk to the local Wilson's Butchers store and they kindly allowed us to do a bit of filming. Sam tried one of their pork pies while filming outside, while Sam had a meat and potato and Tim had an apple and pork pie back at the house.

Following that, we headed to Haley and Clifford in the north of Leeds. We'd heard they stocked Voakes Pork Pies (a reasonably local pork pie producer) and thought we'd pay them a visit! It was a lovely delicatessen, selling food from a range of local stockists and with a decent selection of salads and (more importantly) pies! Both Sam and Rob went for a Voakes Pork Pie, while Tim had a Great North Pie Co "Classic Lancashire Cheese and Onion" pie (which on their website is listed as containing Dewlay’s tasty Lancashire cheese, caramelised white onion, white pepper, nutmeg & Japanese Panko breadcrumbs). You may well recognise the name Great North Pie Co and that's probably because it was the last pie company to win the British Pie Awards (back in 2015) before this year's 2017 winner was announced.

Wow, I have never seen a pork pie served cut up into pieces with salad! @Haley_Clifford #LeedsPieTour pic.twitter.com/LsFSMRHpAq

— Pierate (@pierateers) March 11, 2017

In the evening we tried the Pieminister British Pie Week special - Cricket pie! Yes, you read that right - actual crickets. You could see their dead bodies in the pie and everything! And we also had a more normal Pieminister MooDog Pie too!

Day Two (Sunday)

With so many pies consumed on day one of our #LeedsPieTour, it was always going to be a hard act to follow! But we kicked off the morning with three more fruit pies from Piebury Corner, which we had picked up in London on Friday. Having had the Apple and Blackcurrant on Saturday morning, Sunday morning consisted of Cherry Pie, Blueberry Pie and the old classic, Apple Pie! All three slipped down well, with all three Pierateers commenting on their enjoyment of the lovely crisp top pastry and decent fruit chunks inside. The condition was pretty good – a slight uneven bake but nice and golden. The pies at Piebury are quite shallow – a quite unique shape and size – but boy do they fill the hole! A fruit pie like those definitely ticked the boxes and we’ll give them all a full pie rating soon!

Sadly Leeds only have a Corn Exchange, not Pie Exchange

We then headed into Leeds centre for a brief wander round, checking out a few of the sights and spotting the Pieminister store just a stone’s throw from The Corn Exchange shopping centre. We briefly popped in to speak to the staff there – having already actually eaten a couple of Pieminister pies the previous day – and find out how British Pie Week had been for them. They had had a lot of traffic from pie fans the last week following their £5 pie and mash meal deal, which was great to hear as we generally rate the Pieminister brand highly.

Then we “hopped” over to The Hop pub under the arches of Leeds Railway Station, part of the Granary Wharf shopping area. We’d heard good things about the pies there – and in particular their “pie, mash, peas and drink for a fiver” pie meal deal! It sounded too good to be true, but as advertised online they were indeed doing this pie meal deal for just five of your English Pounds!

The pie is looking great from @JonesPiesUK @thehopleeds #LeedsPieTour pic.twitter.com/5jGxzEeYa1

— Pierate (@pierateers) March 12, 2017

We couldn’t resist and tried a few of their pie range there (making sure to avoid the pasties also on sale!) as well as taking a few home with us to try later! The pies we tried in the pub – a Steak and Ale pie and Chicken Curry pie – were both highly commended and we’ll see how well they rate on the 7 Cs of pie rating soon!

RAS

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