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Pierate comes highly rated by Google for Vegetarian Pie Reviews!

You may not realise but this week (15th-21st May) is National Vegetarian Week, so to celebrate we’ve collated our top savoury vegetarian pies so that you know where to go if you don’t want to eat meat! Below are our top 5 vegetarian pies as of today and links to the reviews, or you can view all our vegetarian pies here!

Our #1 - Piglet's Pantry Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie

We've rated a number of top vegetarian pies over the past couple of years and are glad to see vegetarian pies being taken more seriously recently, with a great standard of vegetarian pies at the British Pie Awards in March this year. As you can read about in our review of the Awards, our current number 3 veggie pie from MyPie London won the Vegetarian pie class, which was sponsored by the Vegetarian Society.

Chris (in the MyPie van) creates our current #3, while Piebury Corner owners Paul and Nicky (outside the van) create our current #4!

Here's our current top 5 savoury pies - though you can see plenty more vegetarian fruit pies by looking out for the "V" in our main pie rankings list of almost 600 pies!!!

Rank	Pie Producer	Pie Flavour	Score	By	Info
1	Piglet's Pantry	Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta	6.04	RAS	V
2	Sainsbury's Taste the Difference	Roasted Butternut Squash and Feta Cheese with Filo Pastry	6.03	TJP	V
3	MyPie London	Sweet Potato and Goats Cheese	5.93	ARL	V
4	Piebury Corner [N7 8DL]	Goats Cheese, Spinach, Sweet Potato and Mushroom [Reg Lewis]	5.90	RAS	V
4	Pieminister	Pea, Paneer, Spinach, Potato, Chilli and Mango	5.90	ARL	V

You'll also find that when you google "Vegetarian Pie Review" we're not just the first and second but also the third results! Clearly Google think we really are the home of the Vegetarian Pie Review!

The results when you Google "Vegetarian Pie Review"

RAS

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Pieminister were kind enough to send me a box of six of their veggie pies, including their new Saag-Pie-neer.


I was rather excited to try this pie, as when I have a curry I often opt for a paneer dish. It's rather tasty stuff.  If you don't know what it is, its essentially cheese, though I personally think it is more similar to tofu, but creamier. It has a bland flavour which makes it perfect with curry spices as it absorbs the flavours nicely, just like tofu.

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Plenty Pies - Pie Reviews

Since moving to Gloucestershire a couple of years ago I have been trying to build up my knowledge of where the best local pies can be found. It has been a bit remiss of me to only just review Plenty Pies now. The company, based near Nailsworth, have done well at the British Pie Awards the last couple of years including winning the award for best chicken pie in 2014. Now, having tried a few of their pies I am going to summarise my thoughts with help from our vegetarian Pierateer ARL who will give the veggie version a fair review.

Plenty was started by Marc and Kate Birch in 2010 and they have adopted a policy of baking six different flavours each week from a repertoire which is said to have include 150 different recipes. It allows them to tailor their fillings based on the seasons with creamier, lighter fillings for the summer and stock based recipes for the winter. This method of varying the pie fillings has been adopted by a few top pie producers recently (MyPie and Great North Pie Company spring to mind) and works well. It keeps the pies interesting for their regular customers as well as allowing them to use the tasty, seasonal produce available. They are also committed to making things themselves by hand. All this adds up to a unique pie experience.

Their pies are popular locally and are widely available in markets and farm shops. I have picked up their pies in various places in Gloucestershire including Gloucester Christmas Market, Over Farm Market and Burford Garden Centre.

All of these pies came in the same kind of pastry case. They were all very well presented with sprinklings of herbs or seeds which signified the flavours. The appearance was subtle but effective. I thought that the size of each pie was good for an individual pie but it is about the size you would expect in this price range (approx £3.99). Whilst in general I enjoyed the flavour of the pastry, it was a bit more crumbly that I would ideally like, some of them did start to break after a trip home in a bag but perhaps I should have been more careful! The Squab pie in particular suffered from the journey home on my bike (sorry about that Plenty). The crumbly texture of the pastry certainly helped prevent it from being stodgy.

Gloucestershire Squab Pie

First up I am going to review the interesting Gloucestershire Squab pie I picked up at Over Farm Market (who incidentally have a great range of Plenty pies as well as their own). It is nice to see this traditional local flavour being used. Although a squab is a baby pigeon, in the South West this pie usually contains mutton and apple. It is thought that this unusual combination may recreate the flavour of the baby pigeon which is said to be slightly fruity. I was very pleased that Plenty were willing to try something a bit different with this pie as I really enjoyed it. It was delightfully different with a wonderful spicy/fruity taste complementing the rich meaty flavours very well. I was surprised that I enjoyed this pie so much as I am normally not so keen on mixing my sweet and savoury flavours, but the balance in this pie worked so well. Given that I eat a lot of regular pie flavours, such as steak and ale, it was really nice to have something different. The pie was well filled with plenty of meat. Overall it does enough to gain a Pierate 'Highly Recommended' award by scoring over 6 out of 7. It was £3.99 which is around the upper end I think I would want to pay for a gourmet pie but it justified the price.

Gloucestershire Squab (Plenty)
Score: 6.04/7
[Condition 6.25, Colour 6.50, Cheapness 5.50, Capacity 6.00, Chewiness 5.75, Content 6.25, Consistency 6.00]

SJL

Next up, I got 3 pies for £10 from Gloucester Christmas Market. It was a great market, with plenty of pies on offer (including Brockleby's who we have previously reviewed) but the display of pies on the Plenty stall stood out to me. I got a Wild Boar pie, a Venison pie and a vegetarian 'Veggiestan' pie. The Wild Boar was my favourite. It had a meaty flavour but also the addition of vegetables made it a little different to most wild boar pies. Something was adding nicely to the flavour of the boar and I wasn't sure what it was, I thought the pepper helped and also I wondered if there was a bit of a tomato. There seemed to be a fair bit of tasty onion. Whatever they had added, the flavour was distinctive and worked really well for me. The wild boar was minced but there was still enough to get your teeth into. The potato was quite firm rather than mushy (as it often is in a pie). One downside was that the pastry was a bit overly thick at the base of this pie but it didn't stop it scoring highly and just about edging it over the Squab pie as my favourite of all the Plenty pies that I have tried.

Wild Boar (Plenty)
Score: 6.15/7
[Condition 6.25, Colour 6.50, Cheapness 5.50, Capacity 6.00, Chewiness 5.80, Content 6.60, Consistency 6.40]

SJL

Despite looking superficially similar when I cut these pies open, for me the venison didn't work anywhere near as well as the wild boar. It went down more of the standard route you would expect for a pie containing game meat. It had a really rich, meaty sauce. I am not sure what it was but the flavours were a little too strong for me. There was quite a powerful onion-type taste which I thought was shallot. It also seemed to have a slightly fruity flavour competing with everything else. I also got a very slight sour note to the filling, somewhat like vinegar or alcohol. Overall none of these were bad flavours and I did enjoy the pie, but it didn't quite do it for me for some reason. It contained big chunks of tasty meat which gave it some bite. In that respect it was probably better than the wild boar. It was a shame for this pie that I was eating it at the same time as the wild boar which slightly overshadowed it. On it's own it is still a great pie.

Venison (Plenty)
Score: 5.52/7
[Condition 6.25, Colour 6.50, Cheapness 5.50, Capacity 6.00, Chewiness 5.80, Content 4.20, Consistency 4.40]

SJL

Venison (left) and Boar (right) pies

Just to demonstrate the full breadth of their repertoire, plenty have also got a Salmon pie which I picked up from Burford Garden Centre (another place that tends to have an excellent range of pies, sometimes stocking our number 1 ranked pie by Paul's pies). The colour on this pie looks a bit paler but I think this was primarily down to the lighting, it still had an attractive appearance and I managed to squash this one less than the others! Again this was a well filled pie with no air gap. As is usual for a fish pie there was plenty of filler in there as well as the fish. As you might expect, there was some potato but I was pleased to see the interesting addition of beans. It was nice to find that the filling was moist and slipped down very well. If anything, it slipped down a little too well. As is common with fish pies they don't have as much bite. The flavours were quite delicate, especially compared to the other Plenty pies. On balance I think it could have used a bit more salmon to give it enough of a fishy taste. Overall though this was a tasty pie and it can be tricky to get a 'proper' fish pie to work (by proper I mean encased in pastry rather than topped with mash). I commend Plenty for trying and this is a nice, lighter pie to have in the summer. Another high score.

Salmon (Plenty)
Score: 5.44/7
[Condition 6.25, Colour 6.25, Cheapness 5.50, Capacity 6.00, Chewiness 4.80, Content 4.80, Consistency 4.50]

SJL

Salmon pie

Last but not least we have the 'Veggiestan' pie review by vegetarian Pierateer ARL;

I overcooked this pie a little which created a dry pastry, but it still had a good colour. It was completely packed full of filling (chickpea and vegetable), with a slightly spicy flavour- almost a sweet and sour tang. It was a very nice blend. The content was unusual- it was sort of like a fajita in pie form or some other Mexican inspired dish, which I really liked. Many vegetarian pies can be a bit bland so this was a great plus point for it. As for its condition, early in the oven the pastry slit open, however no content spilled out, luckily. This could have been because I was cooking it in an aga so the temperature was too hot, or because it came all the way from Gloucester Christmas Market (I live in Buckinghamshire!), but regardless, it loses points for this. Although the gravy/sauce was nice, it was quite thick so didn’t soften up the pastry. Despite it’s prolonged time in the oven the carrot was still crunchy. This was fab as I HATE soggy carrot, and I don’t know anyone who does. It is one of the things that makes the traditional cottage/shepherds ‘pie’ a disappointment. The chickpeas were also on the crunchier side, which while ok, were a little bit too hard for my taste. Overall, the pie contained a good selection of vegetables including peas, onion, green pepper, carrot and tomato.


Veggiestan (Plenty)
Score: 4.86/7
[Condition 4.00, Colour 6.00, Cheapness 4.00, Capacity 5.00, Chewiness 3.00, Content 6.00, Consistency 6.00]

ARL

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MyPie - Pie Reviews

If you have been reading Pierate recently you will realise that our favourite pies of 2015 were those made by "MyPie", a business set up by entreprenuer Chris Brumby who we first met back in 2014. In 2015 he started selling his excellent pies in London food markets from a refurbished Bedford van. The Steak & Ale has gone in at number 3 in our all time pie rankings and Chris was good enough to bring joy to our recent Pie Party by doing the catering! We had so many good comments we know it is not just the Pierateers that have fallen in love with these pies!

We do like to think that pies are quintessentially British and that we do the best pies. Hence it is perhaps a bit controversial that Chris is Austrialian and bringing a bit of Aussie pie magic to the streets of London. The Aussies are in fact more obsessed with pie that us Brits. Whilst we have an abundance of hot Cornish pasty outlets and Greggs (who sell hardly any pies) the Australians have a number of shops specialising in hot pies. We found this out first hand in our special investigation when Pierateer TJP was dispatched to warmer climes. Having tasted how good Chris' pies are I can now understand The Kinks song 'Australia'. It has the line 'everyone walks around with a perpetual smile across their face' which is not surprising when the pies are this good.

It is a bit of a treasure hunt tracking down Chris and his Bedford van. Wandering around the South Bank it took me a while to find him, you don't get the same problem with a pie shop, once you know where it is it tends to stay in the same place (if you ignore the effects of plate tectonics). But MyPie is transient and somewhat mysterious. I am now quite familiar with MyPie but I don't really know where I will find the MyPie van each day of the week. It is also uncertain what pies will be served. Then, once you have found him, before you know it he is gone again, such a tease. MyPie is much like the transient and mysterious nature of the pie itself. You never quite know what is going to be contained within the golden pastry case and if you are anything like me, once you do find out, it doesn't hang about for long. I think this all adds to the suspense and theater of the pie eating experience.

When I did track Chris down on London's South Bank, I was surprised to find what seemed like a London pie makers meeting, Paul and Nicky from Piebury Corner were busy chatting to Chris. Paul seemed quite taken with MyPie, which is a massive complement when they have been so successful with their own pie business.



All of the pies had the same fantastic pastry we enjoyed with the Steak & Ale and the Chicken, Ham & Tarragon where it was crisp on the outside and softer in the middle. They look terrific and very close to my vision of the quintessential, ultimate pie.

Firstly the Venison, Chili & Cheese. The pie was packed with chunks of great tasting meat which had a bit more flavour than your average meat pie. The chunks of meat were soft and satisfying to get your teeth into. The small amount of cheese at the base of the pie also added an interesting texture. It was a little like mozzarella in texture and didn't have a strong flavour. This kind of cheese in a pie seems to be a bit of an Aussie trait with the now defunct Jumbucks using cheese in a similar way. It is less common in British pies where Stilton seems to be the cheese of choice. The pie was full of rich gravy which had the perfect consistency in that it didn't just ooze out when the pie was cut open. It was perfectly seasoned but what made the flavour stand out was the heat from the chili. There wasn't too much of a kick but it was enough to give a good kicking to the com-pie-tition and make this pie enter into our top 10 all of all time in the number 4 spot!

Venison & Chili

Venison, Chili & Cheese (MyPie)
Score: 6.57/7
[Condition 6.50, Colour 6.75, Cheapness 6.50, Capacity 6.75, Chewiness 6.75, Content 6.25, Consistency 6.50]

SJL

Beef & Horseradish

Beef, Vegetable & Horseradish (MyPie)
Score: 6.11/7
[Condition 6.50, Colour 6.75, Cheapness 6.50, Capacity 6.75, Chewiness 6.75, Content 5.00, Consistency 4.50]

SJL

Now onto the Mince, Bacon & Cheese. This pie was somewhat different but no less special that the others. It is the closest I have ever come to eating a cheese burger in a pie. If that sounds appealing then you should really try this pie because it really nailed it. It had a full, smokey flavour, perhaps from the use of bacon.  Unlike an actual cheese burger, the meat could be very moist which was the most beautiful thing about this pie; whilst it was like a cheese burger it was even better due to being fully encased in pastry. There was no liquid gravy as such but it didn't need it. There was a layer of classic burger cheese at the top which added variety to the flavour. In some ways it captured all the aspects that I love about Scotch pies. Despite having no big meaty chunks, it felt like the texture wasn't lacking, there was plenty to get your teeth into. Another standout effort from MyPie although scores slightly less than the venison as I think I would more often choose a pie with big chunks of meat. Also, the pastry was slightly too thick in places.

Mince & Cheese

Mince, Bacon & Cheese (MyPie)
Score: 6.46/7
[Condition 6.50, Colour 6.75, Cheapness 6.50, Capacity 6.75, Chewiness 6.00, Content 6.25, Consistency 6.50]

SJL

Onto the Sweet Potato & Goat's Cheese vegetarian pie review by Pierateer ARL.

I didn’t know what flavour this was so it was a surprise. Or a sup-pies. Given the taste I guess that it was sweet potato, pea and some sort of cheese or cream. It was really tasty regardless of what flavour it was. The sauce was thick and creamy and the unidentified orange vegetable was soft and tender. The pastry was utterly perfect. It was crisp and buttery and I don’t know what else to say- it was so good. Generally, the pie lacked a depth of flavour. It was sweet (but nicely so!) and creamy, but that was all I really got from it.


Sweet Potato & Goat's Cheese (MyPie)
Score: 5.93/7
[Condition 6.00, Colour 7.00, Cheapness 6.5, Capacity 5.00, Chewiness 7.00, Content 4.00, Consistency 6.00]

ARL

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Piglets Pantry Steak, Chicken and Vegetarian Pie Reviews



Piglets Pantry Football Pie Reviews

We were delighted to be offered the chance by Stephen Miller (Food and Beverage Operations Manager) to head to Stadium mk to sample some of their pies, which included the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale pie which has been exclusively produced for MK Dons. This – as I found out talking to Jo Hunter from Piglets Pantry, who kindly came up from the south coast to meet us and talk us through the pies – was one of many things that help Piglets Pantry stand out from the crowd. They regularly talk to the clubs/businesses they supply and the supporters who are buying the pies to get their feedback and aid them in developing new products.

For me, this is one of the distinct advantages of having a small, personable pie business supplying the pies in a football ground, as opposed to the more homogenised mass producers sold within many UK stadiums. You get pies that the local fan base can connect with, support and recommend. Indeed, the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie had been developed with a group of MK Dons supporters and using a local ale, a personal touch that seemed to be going down well with the fans there!

Sales of Piglets Pantry pies at their local football club, Brighton and Hove Albion, seem to back this up. Since taking over the pie supplying their ground sales have rocketed from 1,500 to 10,000 pies a match, which is quite phenomenal! It certainly shows that if the quality pies are there, people will pay a bit more for a premium product. It’s therefore no surprise to see the pies being sold in more grounds, including hospitality at Chelsea and West Brom, plus recently in Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium for their Rugby World Cup fixtures.

Back to MK Dons and the pies to rate were the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie, the Chicken, Gammon and Leek Pie and the Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie. They also had a special on that game – the Chicken Balti Pie – which Pierateer Sam has his eye on when he visits, as our resident Chicken Balti football pie expert! I was impressed with this range of pies available to home and away fans, with MK Dons putting on a special pie for away fans dependant on where they were from. It’s one of the few clubs I’ve found where they are actively looking out for the needs of their fans, rather than just giving a very generic catering experience to all.

Onto the pies and my overall thoughts are that these are premium pies being sold at a very reasonable price, especially for a football ground, at just £3.50. The pastry is shortcrust around the sides and base, with a puff pastry lid. It is noted that these pies do not contain lard or suet, giving them a paler colour but also a lighter, crisper pastry. This means the pastry is less moist and can hold the filling in thinner, crisper pastry. While this different pastry did take a little getting used to, having primarily eaten and enjoyed butter-rich pastry which is more golden and softer, I enjoyed the firmer crunch this pastry had and it did feel a lot lighter and less stodgy as a result. The main downside was the outer rim of overhang pastry which was a bit too dry, but the rest of the pastry when eaten with the filling was well balanced.

All the pies held together brilliantly when eaten by hand, with generally a great consistency to the fillings, which is ideal for a football pie. The capacity was very strong in all of them, with the meat pies particularly standing out against most other football pies in terms of the strong meaty content and packed filling.



Piglets Pantry Chicken, Gammon and Leak Pie Review

Chicken, Gammon and Leak
First up to rate was the Chicken, Gammon and Leak which is a regular on the menu at MK Dons. The pie was packed with a nice blend of chicken and gammon in a light béchamel sauce, spread well throughout the pie filling. The chicken was lovely and tender, the gammon not too chewy and the leak complemented the flavour well with the white sauce. The consistency of the filling was good for a hand held pie and balanced the crisp pastry well. Overall a top quality filling and while the rim, side and base pastry was a little too dry and crisp for my liking, I’m sure many would love this pastry and it well deserving of Pierate Highly Recommended status.

Piglets Pantry Chicken, Gammon and Leek Pie
Score: 6.11/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6.5]


Steak and Concrete Cow Ale
There’s no denying we love a good steak pie on the Pierate Ship, so it has to be a top, top flavour to challenge for the top spots in our pie rankings. We very much appreciated the lengths Piglets Pantry had gone to in order to create this pie with a local ale to the MK Dons, creating this pie exclusively for the team after meeting with local fans on a taster day. The meat was good quality and the gravy had a good viscosity to it for a football pie. Another good pie but we felt it didn’t quite match the Chicken pie in terms of the mix of flavours. No doubt it would however still be very popular amongst the steak pie fans at the game!

Piglets Pantry Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie
Score: 5.96/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 6, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 5.75, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6]


Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie
It’s worth saying from the start that this was one of the best vegetarian pies I’ve had! I’m never normally one to go for the vegetarian option if there is a meat alternative (especially if they are sold at the same price), but this Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta pie had such a rich flavour, with a delicious light runny cheese sauce and complementary spinach and mushroom content that I didn’t really miss the meat! In fact my friend Martyn was tempted to convert to veggie pies after eating this one! The filling was nicely balanced and while the consistency of the sauce was a little too runny to easily eat with your hands, it complemented the pastry well. This pie was second in the Vegetarian pie category of the British Pie Awards 2015 and you could easily see why!

Piglets Pantry Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie
Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.25]


Overall then a great selection of football pies at MK Dons, with one of the best vegetarian pies we’ve rated to boot! It means Piglets Pantry have achieved what only two other clubs have – a Pierate Highly Recommended football pie – and puts them comfortably into third place in the PIEremiership. My thanks once again to Stephen and Jo for their hos-pie-tality at the game and, of course, the very good pies. We look forward to trying some more of the Piglets Pantry range soon!

RAS

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Pieminister Tipsy Chick and Scrumpea Pie Reviews

Many of you will have enjoyed a pie from top Bristol pie makers Pieminister before. We've already rated 12 of them! With quality crisp pastry and delicious fillings, the Bristol based pie firm have done us proud many a time. However last summer something odd happened. Having produced some of the finest quality pies we've rated on the Seven Cs of pie rating, last summer they inexcusably decided to get rid of the pastry lid to their pies in making a 'lighter' summer range of... well, "pies".

Pieminister Pie Reviews

Apart from, of course, if you remove the pastry lid, they are no longer pies!!!

It bamboozled us so much that we even did some research on the comparison between these 'lighter' "pies" and the normal Pieminister pies, and found that actually the main reason they were less calories was because they were a bit lower in weight and had no pastry lid! But as you know we on the Pierate Ship are pie purists, so the lack of pastry lid hit their 'lighter' pastry products hard on the 7 Cs of pie rating. In fact it left them being some of the lowest scoring pies in our Pieminister leader board, despite the taste being quite good. You just can't ditch a pastry lid in our eyes!!!

However, the good news is that Pieminister have seemingly learnt from their error and this summer their two summer pies are fully encased in pastry! Good work Pieminister!

The two pies in their summer range are the Tipsy Chick Pie and the vegetarian Scrumpea Pie, both containing some dry cider to give them a summery but quirky flavour. So with normal pastry service resumed, how would these pies rate?


Both pies looked in great condition and at £3.50 for a cold pie from their website it is reasonably priced for a quality British pie made using British meat and quality ingredients. Golden in colour, the pie pastry was nice and crispy on top, really nice and melt in your mouth upon eating. It certainly added a good crunch to the pie experience, and the side and base pastry were lovely and crisp too.

Tipsy Chick Pieminister Pie Review

Scrumpea Pieminister Pie Review

The content of the Scrumpea pie - a pea, asparagus, parsley and fennel pie with west country cheddar and orchard pig cider - was also very good in general but let down by some overly solid fennel (or some other vegetable). It was hard to ignore, as unfortunately the vegetable was so solid that I couldn't even get my knife to cut it or my teeth to bite through it. That aside, however, the pie was fine, with the cheese a nice addition and adding some flavour to the creamy potato and pea filling. I did email Pieminister about the crunch and it appears it was probably just an unusually tough bit of fennel, as other pie eaters haven't had a problem with it. But of course I can only rate based on what I ate!

Overall I would say both pies were nice, but didn't quite blow me away like some Pieminister pies have recently. However I'm always pleased to see that Pieminister are not happy to just stick with what they have got, but regularly try out new pies and their pastry is some of the best around. Still worth buying!

Pieminister Tipsy Chick Pie
Score: 4.89/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 4.5, Consistency 4.75, Condition 5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 4.5, Content 5, Total: 4.89/7]


Pieminister Scrumpea Pie
Score: 4.43/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 4.5, Consistency 4.5, Condition 5, Chewiness 3.5, Cheapness 4, Content 4, Total: 4.43/7]

RAS

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Dee's Pies Reviews - Chicken, Peppered Steak, English Breakfast and Mushroom and Asparagus Pies

It was the second week of the Wimbledon tennis championships and while it’s still early in the morning, you can sense the hustle and bustle as fans of one of the most iconic sporting events in the world start to gather for a (potentially rain interrupted) day of quality tennis.

I, however, am just in Wimbledon to talk pie. Yep – no strawberries and cream for me! I’m meeting with the owner of Dee's pies to hear how the pie world is treating them and – very importantly – get my hands on some of these apparently “Dee-licious” pies (see what they’ve done there?!)

Dee's Pies Champagne Chicken Pie Review

With a background as a chef, company owner Dee has been running the pie business as a full on business for the last 18 months or so. With the demand growing and growing (his pies have recently been in the newspapers for being well received by none-other than self-confessed pie fan and Top Gear presenter Chris Evans!), Dee finds himself in the kitchen nearly every day, with deliveries around London every few days. It was therefore great to get a good half hour chat in with the man himself! And a real pleasure it was to, talking pie and… well, more pie! This will form the basis of a future article, but for now, let’s get on with some pie rating!

See below which pies are!

To start off with, these pies have some of the nicest pastry around! It was great shortcrust pastry! A really good sign of a quality pie is that you can even enjoy the pastry on its own – and you definitely could with these Dee’s pies! The pie-fectionist in me would say the pastry did crumble slightly too easily in parts (especially the one we rated from frozen – but that was to be expected) but all in all it was delicious pastry and complimented the fillings well. You’ll also be pleased to know the pies all passed the “hand-held” test, impressive with the amount of filling packed inside! The only other thing to briefly mention about the pastry was that the colour – while far from being pale and anaemic like some pies I’ve rated – isn’t quite as golden coloured as I would demand for the perfect pie. Still, colour doesn’t affect the taste, so it certainly shouldn’t put you off purchasing!

Dees Pies have gone for the one-price-fits-all policy of £3.50 per meat pie (with vegetarian pies all being just £3). It certainly makes it easier at the market stall, though I imagine it would leave some customers thinking they are getting a better deal if they go for a lamb pie over a chicken pie, for example. All the meat pies I had were definitely packed with a lot of meat and there was pretty much no air gaps to be seen, which is great. I’d say they are a tad small compared to what I would prefer – so while one was filling I would (in part because they are so tasty!) normally prefer one and a half to two pies. This does slightly impinge on their “cheapness” score but I would still definitely buy more! They certainly are very good pies and they have a great range of pies too, so with these being the general thoughts, let’s get some individual detail!

Champagne chicken – This was a very nice chicken pie, filled to near capacity with lovely tender pieces of chicken (see photo above). While the sauce did add something to the chicken, I have preferred some other white sauces more. But the fact it is champagne will add sparkle to your dinner table and conversations if you serve it at a dinner party! A little something to compliment the chicken pieces would probably add to this pie, perhaps a little bit of carrot or similar, even though I would recommend focusing on the chicken element. A little small for £3.50 but generally very good and would eat again.

Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.75, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6, Chewiness 6.5, Cheapness 5.5, Content 5.75, Total: 6.04/7]

Dee's Pies English Breakfast Pie Review

English Breakfast – The breakfast pie contained a great range of ingredients, including quite a bit of meat and egg, though the pie did taste a bit sweet – I presume as a result of the inclusion of baked beans, which are known to contain sugar. Personally I’m not a fan of baked beans anyway, but the sweetness of them had infiltrated the whole of the pie, so pie fans should be aware of this ingredient before purchasing. However capacity was very strong and it is a great idea to put a full English breakfast into pastry as a breakfast option!

Score: 5.79/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5.5, Content 5.5, Total: 5.79/7]

Dee's Pies Peppered Steak Pie Review

Peppered Steak – Very nice pie, packed with meat. A little more gravy would be ideal but meat was moist and tender. Held together quite well, though a little flaky. Few bits of fat on the meat in the pie, which was a little disappointing and stopped the pie scoring quite as highly as its’ pie-tential, but in general very good. Significant pepper, but in general one I would eat again (even if I would prefer a steak and ale!)

Score: 6.15/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.75, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6.2, Chewiness 6.5, Cheapness 5.6, Content 6.25, Total: 6.15/7]

Dee's Pies Mushroom and Asparagus Pie Review

Mushroom and Asparagus (v) – While the pastry was good as in all the pies and the capacity was strong, this combo didn’t really excite me. I am by admission a meat lover but the combo of quite chewy mushroom and crisp asparagus – while pleasant – did not really wow me. Certainly not a bad pie but I wouldn’t personally want to pay £3 for that veggie combo again. However I realise vegetarians may love this unique combo, which I don’t think I have ever heard of before!

Score: 4.86/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 5.5, Consistency 5, Condition 6, Chewiness 4, Cheapness 4, Content 4, Total: 4.86/7]


Overall, these really are quality pies from Dee’s Pies, made from great quality, fresh ingredients and I can certainly see why they have celebrity appeal! Two Pierate Highly Recommended offerings without even a steak and ale pie in sight! We’ll be rating two more Dee’s Pies soon, including my favourite one of the lot!

RAS

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Fry’s Vegetarian and Vegan Pepper Steak Style Pie Review

Fry’s Pepper Steak Style Pie Review

Doesn't really look like the pie image on the box

Colour - 3







Fry’s Pepper Steak Style Pies (Vegetarian and Vegan)

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