Fabulous Fan Fayre (at Manchester City FC) Beef Bourguignon and Chicken and Ham Pie Reviews

Chicken and Ham Pie with FA Cup Trophy!

“Are you the guy from that pie site, the one on the BBC?” was the question asked of me, as I took a photo of my chicken pie in front of Manchester City’s FA Cup trophy. “Yeah, that was me!” I replied, handing them a Pierate business card from my wallet. I had, of course, been present at the Manchester City v the Magpies (Newcastle United) game primarily to rate the pies, but it was nice to be recognised by some fellow pie fans!

The occasion was specifically to rate the Fabulous Fan Fayre pies – a company linked to chef Jamie Oliver – who have been catering at the Etihad Stadium for the last year. Having already been in the news and having won a silver award at the British Pie Awards 2014 (for which we were one of the judges), the chance to rate a pie at the home of the Premier League champions was an offer I couldn’t refuse! It had kindly been arranged by Danny Wilson (Sales Director), who I had met at the BBC Radio 5 Live Debate on the Price of Football (for which we featured as pie advisers).


"Are you the guy from that pie site, the one on the BBC?" Yep - genuinely just recognised as a Pierateerat the @MCFC match!
— Pierate(@pierateers) October 29, 2014

I met Dan Schofield (Head of Operations) on the night, who met us at half time to take us to get some pies and then chat to us about them during a visit to the trophy room. It was great to meet such a high level official at the club who clearly knew his stuff when it came to the pies, and my respect grew when having chatted to us for a good 20 minutes or so he told us he needed to go and help an 84-year old lady, who still does the half-time snacks for all the balls boys and girls, to her taxi.

Dan told me about some of the promotions on pies that they offer within the stadium, including rewarding loyalty with a free pie on occasion and deals for those who eat at the ground before kick-off. They were also trialling contactless card payments in the stadium, which they hoped would help speed up the food payment process and ensure fans got their pies quicker! No complaints from me there – as I’ve definitely got fed up of waiting for my half-time pie in many football grounds up and down the country!

So what of the pies then?!

We were delighted to get our hands on the two new summer signings of an already impressive team sheet – a Beef Bourguignon and Chicken and Ham Pie. Both were served with delicious crispy fries, but of course we all know that like us you’re mainly interested in the pie, which comes in at what I ultimately deem a fair price of £4.00 per pie. By no means the cheapest pies out there, these turn out to be some of the more expensive pies in the Premiership, as deemed by the BBC Price of Football study. But I agreed with Dan’s sentiments that actually people are generally willing to pay £4 for a top quality pie over one at just £2-£3 which is nothing special. I for one thought that £4 each for these two pies was just about right, for a meat packed pie of such quality that was produced on site.

Fabulous Fan Fayre Beef Bourguignon Pie

The Beef Bourguignon pie was filled with lean chunks of tender beef, button mushrooms, a red wine jus and delicate herbs. The pie was nice and meaty, with a pleasant gravy which wasn’t too runny (a key ingredient of a football pie). The flavours were nice and the beef lovely and tender, though it could have been a little more exciting in flavour.

The pastry was crisp and delicious to eat, though a minor criticism was that the edge crimping was just a bit too large and dry for my liking, meaning the pastry:filling ratio wasn’t quite right. The extra crimped edge does give a distinctive appearance to the pie but isn’t really necessary and off-balances the pastry:filling ratio rather too much.

The Chicken and Ham pie was filled with large pieces of chicken breast, cured local ham and a light cream sauce. While I didn’t get as noticeable a flavouring of ham within the pie as I would have liked, the taste was still delicious and there was certainly no missing the large chunks of chicken. The sauce was creamy and worked really well with the meat filling, balancing well with the light, crisp pastry. Again there could have been a little less pastry crimping to balance the filling perfectly, but the pastry was so nice and balanced the filling really well. This slightly edged it for me.

In summary, these aren't just good football pies, these are great pies full stop. Packed full of meat, nicely flavoured and with delicious crisp pastry, so £4 a pie is pretty reasonable. You can tell they have gone for quality over quantity when it comes to these pies, but still managed to make them filled with flavour and easily some of the best pies I’ve had at a football ground. They comfortably take 2nd place in our Pieremiership table.

It’s good to know that Manchester City still have a few other pies in their locker, with the Potato and Meat, Peppered Steak and Chicken Balti pies all apparently having undergone a makeover since last season to mean they taste even better than before. My thanks to Dan Schofield for being such a great host and I hope to rate even more Fabulous Fan Fayre pies in the near future. Back of the net!

Fabulous Fan Fayre (Manchester City FC) Beef Bourguignon Pie
Score: 6.15/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6, Chewiness 5.75, Cheapness 5.8, Content 6.75, Total: 6.15/7]

Fabulous Fan Fayre (Manchester City FC) Chicken and Ham Pie
Score: 6.21/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.6, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6.25, Chewiness 5.85, Cheapness 5.8, Content 6.75, Total: 6.21/7]

RAS

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A celebratory visit to pie makers Robinsons Bakery in their 150th year

Robinsons Bakery in Failsworth, Manchester

One of the pie-lights of being a Pierateer is sailing the Pierate Ship up and down the country to meet pie producers who really do care about their pies. A fine example of this is Robinson’s Bakery in Failsworth, north Manchester. They run the oldest craft bakery in Manchester, which has this year celebrated a milestone 150 years producing pies and baked goods. It’s an excePIEtional achievement for anyone, producing pies through highs and lows, recessions and booms - even 2 world wars!

So what’s the key to the sustained success of Robinson’s Bakery?

Well it’s clear from the moment you arrive that you get a friendly, local feel to the whole place. Providing baked goods to the local community and an increasing number of businesses and customers across the city via their city centre market stall, people are clearly wanting a good quality of product and service, from a bakery that buys and sells local. In the past they have sold baked products off a horse and cart (see photo below) and now they sell from two shops and a weekend market stall – with all the products baked in the Failsworth shop.
















A tour of the bakery includes a giant pie press, casing hundreds of pies a day, and ovens which can cook hundreds of pies at once if necessary!

I asked Grace, who looks after the Robinsons Bakery twitter and facebook account among other duties, what they have been doing to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Were there any more comPIEtitions in the PIEpeline? Again her answer highlighted the strong links they have with the local community in which they sell their baked goods, with many food promotions and giveaways – including their celebratory 150th anniversary bags – aimed at their regular customers. But there were promotions continuing to happen at various points online across their 150th year.

Regarding the pies, it’s hard to argue with a pie maker who’s been in the trade for well over 50 years, let alone 150 years. That’s plenty of time to PIEfect their reciPIES! So how often do they change their pies? Not often, it turns out! The manager David explained the current recipes they use are from his mother. They do have some more seasonal pies on sale, but in general most of their pies are sold all year round.

Robinsons Bakery Historic Photo

Their best-selling pies are the potato and meat pies, with their various meat and gravy pie sales totalling about 2,000 a week and around 500 pork pies sold a week on top of that. We bought and rated three Robinsons meat pies - the Steak and Guinness, Steak and Kidney and Apple Topped Pork Pie. Two of them received Pierate Recommended status and you can read about that in their full pie review.

Interestingly their mince pies sales continue all year round, with a minimum 60 sold a week all year round, peaking at around 2,000 mince pies sold a week around Christmas! Of course we’ve already been to Robinson’s Bakery before, picking up these delightful mince pies which were one of the highest scoring pies in our '12 Pies of Christmas' music video!

Robinson’s Bakery can be found at 69/71 Ashton Rd East, Failsworth, Manchester, M35 9PW, with a second store at 164 Nuthurst Rd, New Moston, Manchester, M40 3WG plus a weekend stall at Piccadilly Market in the city centre. They sell a range of pies, bread and other baked goods.

Robinsons Bakery Market Stall

RAS

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Bakerie Pie and Ale Rabbit And Cider Pie Review

It comes as no surprise that the savoury pie range on offer at most pubs and restaurants focuses on steak, chicken and pork pies. They are of course the staple of the British pie scene and make up the majority of our rated pies. But at Pierate we are always on the lookout for something a bit different. It doesn’t always have to be an exotic meat such as zebra or crocodile – we’d settle for rating the more unusual domestic meat flavours like rabbit or venison. But to our delight, Pie and Ale from Bakerie, situated in the centre of Manchester, combines them all. Be it traditional, unusual or exotic (on a rotated specials board) – Pie and Ale cover them all! They therefore clearly talk a good pie game, but the big question is how do they rate?

Bakerie Pie & Ale Rabbit Pie

On a recent trip to Manchester, as part of a Manchester #PieTour, Pierateeer RAS decided to give Pie and Ale a rating. If possible, we like to rate more than one pie from a producer before submitting our review, to ensure consistency in the provision of pies, so having previously eaten a horse pie in Pie and Ale, you will see that review soon too. But first things first…

How did the rabbit and cider pie rate?

It’s worth noting that the presentation of this pie is very good, with a delightful rabbit figurine on top of the pie and mash to highlight the pie you’re eating (in case you can’t remember!) A delightful touch, although as we are pie raters rather than pie and mash raters (it’s pierate – not pieandmashrate!) we do feel the addition of mash potato on top – rather than at the side – of a pie does detract from the pie a bit. Similar to pouring additional gravy on top of the pie (a no-no in our opinion – as the pie should firstly not need additional gravy and secondly we are very capable of adding our own!), the mash on top of the pie does mean the lid of the pie is not as crisp as it might well have been and you don’t get full sight of the beauty that is the pie!

Fortunately, having scraped the mash off the top of the pie to analyse the lid of the pie too, I can confirm it is fully encased and the lid was reasonably golden. Not as golden as the crisp outer crimped pie edge, which was crisp but a tad dry as a result, however it was important to be fully encased in pastry. The base of the pie was a little soft, still holding its structure when a slice of the pie was picked up but rather too soft for my liking. Again this probably wasn’t helped by the ample gravy provided with the pie. In all, I felt there was a bit too much pastry with this pie, so the pie:filling ratio could be improved slightly.

Bakerie Pie & Ale Rabbit Pie

The pie contents itself was on the whole very nice and flavoursome. It was not clearly noticeable to me that it was a cider sauce, however the filling was moist and enjoyable. Needed when the pastry was a bit crisp in places and complimenting the lovely, tender meat and soft vegetable and fruit filling.

The black pudding was rather focused in one corner of the pie and therefore the consistency of this pie was not ideal, with some mouthfuls of meat and others just of black pudding, but in general the rest of the flavours worked. The apple and parsnips added some mix to the flavour without being over burdening. The bacon was clearly evident, without being a rival to the main meaty chunks of rabbit. I would have preferred a content of slightly more rabbit, but it was still a decent proportion of the pie content. The capacity was strong, though a little bit more rabbit would certainly improve it.

At £9.95 for rabbit pie, mash and gravy, served in a restaurant in the heart of Manchester, I feel this is a very reasonable price for a decent sized pie. It was certainly filling and the flavours were good. I would certainly happily eat pie at Pie and Ale again, and look forward to trying some more unusual pies again in the future. This pie achieves Pierate Recommended status for scoring over 5/7.

Bakerie Pie and Ale Rabbit And Cider Pie
Score: 5.68/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 5.75, Consistency 5.5, Condition 5.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 5.75, Total: 5.68/7]
RAS

Interestingly the Pie and Ale menu also includes a number of “Summer Gourmet Dishes” which are marketed as a “bottom crust dish for a lighter dining option”. While obviously we are biased to pies and would prefer just pies on the menu, we understand the business logic of a ‘lighter’ food option during the summer months. However we respect the fact that Pie and Ale haven’t gone for the sadly all too common approach of labelling a non-pie a pie on their menu. “Bottom crust dish” is a much more apt name for these pastry light options. Sadly many pubs fall foul of calling similar pastry-light dishes – in effect casseroles with a pastry lid – a pie. They are not a pie and there is currently an e-petition calling for criminal charges against such false labelling. Respect to Pie and Ale for not falling for this poor food labelling.

Thanks also to Pie and Ale for their free "Pi-fi" which allowed this review to be written and posted while still in the restaurant!

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Robinsons Bakery Hand Crafted Mince Pie Review

It’s not often you find a craft bakery – let alone one as old as 1864! But that’s exactly what you get with Robinsons – the Master Bakers in Manchester. For almost 150 years – yes, that’s almost one hundred and fifty years – the Robinsons bakery has been producing the goods and so we thought it well worth a little detour out of Manchester city centre to Failsworth (in the north of the city) for a taste of their mince pies. And boy, were we in for a treat!!!



On the sixth day of Christmas the Pierateers ate for tea...

The bakery contains a huge selection of bread, cakes and most importantly pies! They have a whole range to choose from – pork pies, steak pies etc – but for my visit, I had my eyes on the mince pies! So with a couple of boxes of pies, a few short video clips taken for the ’12 Pies of Christmas’ video and a nice little chat with the staff there (with my big suitcase getting rather in the way I had to mention I’d just eaten some Italian pies When in Rome...), I set back home and eagerly awaited the right opportunity to eat them!

So here’s what I thought:

The mince pie was firm to the bite but the pastry crumbled delightfully and wasn’t crunchy, revealing a dark, fruit filled centre to the pie. The capacity was strong and you could see the pieces of fruit bursting out. The content was rich and full of flavour, without being overpowering. It was a little chewy due to the strong fruity concentration in the centre, but not in a bad way. I certainly came away with a nice fruity taste still in my mouth, unlike some mince pies I’ve had which had an after taste of quite dry, overly thick pastry.



Robinsons Mince Pies

Speaking of the pastry, it was quite light pastry and a lovely short crust flavour. It was a bit softer and more buttery than I have often tasted with mince pies and blended with the filling delightfully. My main issue with this pie, which I can’t let go without saying, is that in my mind it was a slightly shallow pie and also a bit pricey (at nearly 50p a pie, £2.99 for 6). I would have liked a bit more depth to the pie really. That said, it was a bit wider than your average supermarket mince pie. And there was no air in this pie! Oh no! Some pies we’ve reviewed have certainly been guilty of airing the gaps, but not Robinsons!

In summary, I would definitely recommend getting some of these hand crafted mince pies – they are a real treat in comparison to the far more standard supermarket bought pies. A tad expensive but well worth the effort of visiting a local craft bakers for! Thanks Robinsons!

Oh and I have an admission to make... when I bought the pies, I thought they were boxes of 3! You can only see three through the plastic window and nowhere on the box does it actually say how many pies you get... so while I thought I was buying 2 boxes of 3 (for the sixth day of Christmas...) I actually ended up buying 12 pies! Oh well... more pies for me!!!

Robinsons Bakery Hand Crafted Mince Pie
Score: 6.18/7
[Colour 6.25, Capacity 6, Consistency 6.75, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5, Content 6.75, Total: 6.18/7]
RAS

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