Sweeney and Todd Christmas (Turkey) Pie Review

There are some places that you visit where you just know you'll be back again soon. And Sweeney and Todd pie shop in Reading is certainly in that category! Sure, I was there specifically to try the Christmas Pie this time but with around sixty different pies on the menu that they rotate round - yes, I did just type SIXTY DIFFERENT PIES!!! - this is simply an incredible handmade pie superstore - and restaurant to!

So at £7 to eat in (or just £3.50 to eat out), I chose their Christmas Turkey Pie - and ordered two for the sake of the '12 pies of Christmas' music video. (It must be noted we were planning on having a few between 3 Pierateers but it ended up being just me eating 2 to myself!)



Sweeney and Todd Christmas Pie

But did it bring me yuletide joy?! Well, let's start by telling you what was in the Christmas Pie (or maybe it would be easier to note down the few things it didn't have!!!) The traditional turkey was combined with no less than bacon, sausage, stuffing, cranberry, carrots, swede and gravy. Quite epic, I think you'll agree! The content was all very fresh and the meat was delicious - all from the family's butcher down the road. The whole place had a family feel to it in fact - with the owner Craig taking a bit of time out of the kitchen to speak to me, his wife looking after the twitter feed @sweeneyandtodds and his mum working there and serving me the pies!


Having started to dig in, the content was very good quality and filling. The capacity was very strong and the range of content was very impressive (only the roast potatoes were missing, which I noted you could have ordered in addition to the pie). However the slight drawback to this was that you weren't guaranteed turkey with every bite, as the other ingredients took up a lot of pie room!

However this was clearly a pie that aimed to provide a whole Christmas dinner flavour - not just turkey - so you can hardly hold that against them! It was sold as a "Christmas" - not "Turkey" - pie after all. And the quality of sausage and bacon meant I hardly felt hard done by even if there wasn't turkey in every single mouthful! Also the cranberry was not overpowering, as it has been in some Christmas pies I've eaten.



Sweeney and Todd Christmas Pie

The pastry was quite light and not too thick. The lid puffed up ever so lightly on top. The sides and base were quite pale and not that crisp, so there was room for a bit of improvement there. Yet there need not be a massive change to cooking time, as they still tasted nice! You could also have picked this pie up and eaten it with your hands - a true sign of pie pastry quality!

At £7 per pie to eat in the restaurant that's a pretty fair price, though at £3.50 to eat out, that's an absolute steal! No wonder people apparently travel from miles around to mass order 50-100 Sweeney & Todd pies for them and their friends! I certainly would!

All in all, a quite wonderful Christmas Pie! The content was filling and varied and the capacity top notch. With just a little more turkey and a slightly longer cooking time for the sides and base pastry, these pies would be phenominal. As it is, they would certainly put sparkle into anyone's Christmas! Thanks so much!

p.s. I challenge anyone to eat 2 of their Christmas Pies in one sitting! I wasn't even close, they were that packed with content! But I enjoyed trying!!!

Sweeney and Todd Christmas (Turkey) Pie
Score: 6.21/7
Colour 6/7, Consistency 6.25/7, Cheapness 6.25/7, Chewiness 6.25/7, Condition 6/7, Content 6/7, Capacity 6.75/7
RAS

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Sweeney and Todd - Vicar's Pie Review

In the pie reviewing business you always have to be on the look out for where the best pies can be found. There are just too many pies out there to review them all, no matter how hard we try. This can involve reading about pies, attending gourmet pie shows but most important of all, following up recommendations (see 'Suggest A Pie').

Sweeney and Todd Pie Counter

This leads me on to a place in Reading which I have had recommended to me by a few people. The fact that it has such a formidable reputation gave me high hopes for something special. The place in question is called Sweeney and Todd and what a brave name that is to give a pie establishment. It is take away or eat in with some roasts and casseroles available but the main focus is always on pies. My first impression was... where is it? The outside of the establishment was fairly nondescript. In fact it looks pretty run down and quite unappealing. Despite this there was a queue out the door, which hinted there must be something pretty good inside. Too many of the modern pie shops which have sprung up recently look fantastic but do nothing special with their pies. Sweeney and Todd certainly do something special to their pies (but hopefully not that...). Once I got into the shop and surveyed the magnificent selection I could tell they had a special cooking method. These seem to be pies cooked inside a pie mould, which stops the pies drying out and gives the pastry a fantastically gooey texture.

I opted for a Vicar's Pie. Vicars is the name of the butcher's in Reading which provides the meat for the pies. I deduced that the pie contained lamb, pork, carrot, potato, leek, mint and potentially some other ingredients as well. The combination was a bit unusual and the gravy had a delicious thickness to it, almost like jelly. The only slight criticism I might have is that there was a lot of mint, verging on too much. This certainly didn't stop this being one of my favourite ever pies. The meat was great quality and at £3 this pie was cheaper than many other pie establishments. I would note that one of my pie eating companions had a pork and apple pie which had far too much apple in it. It was like eating a sweet apple pie with pork in. So Sweeney and Todd are not perfect but for a pie lover it would be barbarous not to murder one of their demon pies.

Sweeney and Todd Vicar's Pie

Vicar's Pie (Sweeney and Todd)
Score: 6.30/7
SJL

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