Birmingham City Centre Pie Reviews

Pierateer Rob in the Birmingham Pieminister Pie Shop

Are you wondering what the best pie in Birmingham is? Well then, you've come to the right place - Pierate, the Pie Review Blog! Like any big city, Birmingham has had its fair share of pie providers come and go over the years and so with it having been over three years since we last updated you on what pies to eat in Birmingham, we thought it worth updating you!

With Pierateer Rob based in Birmingham for over 14 years now, we've reviewed quite a few pies in England's second city. And while we admit there's still a number of the little beige delights still tucked away in various shops, stalls and pubs around the city that we haven't got our hands on yet, we've rated loads of top Birmingham pies and our mission is to try and pie rate them all!

So without further ado, here are our top 3 recommended pies in Birmingham, as well as a number of honourable mentions:

1) Pieminister - Waterloo Street

Pieminister Steak Pie Review

Opening on Waterloo Street by Victoria Square in Summer 2017, it has been great to have a new addition to the pie scene in Birmingham in the form of the very successful Pieminister pie shop chain. We have had many a great pie in the shop in Birmingham since it opened, enjoyed a Birmingham pie night there last British Pie Week and look forward to returning in British Pie Week 2019! We have reviewed almost 20 pies from Pieminister and they have nearly all been Pierate Recommended or Pierate Highly Recommended, with scores of 5/7 or higher for most of them and a top score of 6.42/7 for their Beef and Brandy pie! The most consistent and highly rated pie shop in Birmingham.

2) The Stable - John Bright Street

The Stable Beef Pie Review Cross-Section

The marketing of The Stable near New Street Station focuses on three things - pizza, pies and cider! While friends of mine have thoroughly enjoyed their pizza and cider, I can confirm that the pies there pie rate very well indeed! Scoring a fantastic 5.96/7 the "Steak Out" beef pie was packed with great content, with a nice flavoursome filling mixing steak and vegetables. The pastry was crisp but not overly thick. Definitely worth an outing!

3) The Botanist - Temple Street

The Botanist Chicken and Chorizo Pie Review

Tucked away on a side street just off New Street, the Botanist has a great relaxed vibe to it and some top pies to match! There are some quirky elements to the restaurant, such as food served on trowels and drinks from mini watering cans, but the important thing for us is that the pies are packed to capacity with good content. The highest rated was their Chicken and Chorizo pie, which pie rated at 5.5/7!

Best of the Rest

It's also worth noting that we have had some top pies at the Old Joint Stock by Birmingham Cathedral, which is a Fullers Pie and Ale House, as well as some quirky pies at The Pie Factory pub in Tipton.

Honourable Mentions

It's also worth noting a few comings and goings in the Birmingham pie scene since we last updated you on the top pies in Birmingham.

Firstly, it is with great sadness that we found out the Jekyll and Hyde Pub on Steelhouse Lane stopped serving food around this time last year. Having served us some amazing pies at our Birmingham Pie Night in 2017 and our top rated pie in Birmingham (6.45/7 for a Steak pie in 2013), they have sadly now stopped serving food (and thus pies).

Also in this time we've seen the coming and going of Square Pie, who we were very excited to see open in Grand Central but sadly the company went into Administration in February 2018.

We also can't write an article about pies in Birmingham without reference to the sad closure of Urban Pie in the Bullring a few years back, who once referred to us on their blog saying "Pie bloggers the Pierateers have been hit with Urban Pie fever - even the pie experts love our pies!"

Of course, we'll keep our eyes on the pies in Birmingham and look forward to rating some more pies in the city soon!

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Judges at the British Pie Awards, including Pierateer Sam

Back for their 11th year - and in British Pie Week no less - the British Pie Awards returns as a highlight of the year in pie. Held in the heart of Pork Pie country, pie makers, pie enthusiasts and - most importantly - the pies themselves head to Melton Mowbray every year for the judging of up to 1,000 pies in just one day and to crown their supreme champion. Having returned last year to the beautiful St Mary’s Church, located in the heart of Melton Mowbray, the judging will take place on Wednesday 6th March and the Award's Lunch will be on Friday 8th March.

The British Pie Awards will again be in St Mary's Church in 2019!

This year will see Pierateer Rob return to provide media coverage of the Awards, where last year 962 pies were sent in from across Britain and beyond. With over 625 pies rated on our pie blog we've had no shortage of pie judging both at and outside the Awards, so this year we will let others have the pie-leasure and instead focus on insightful media analysis of the day with yet another "British Pie Awards - Live!" blog.

So following our "British Pie Awards 2018 - Live!" article, on Wednesday 6th March we'll again be providing a pie-filled day of photos, interviews and behind the scenes info!

With previous years judges including Food and Drink TV producer Andy Clarke, Channel 4's Felicity Spector and pie judging regular Xanthe Clay from the Daily Telegraph, in addition to pie author Martin Tarbuck - who you may recall wrote pie review book "Life of Pies" - and fellow football pie pundit Jonny Smith, we look forward to finding out who will be judging this year. And we will also be recognising newly crowned Queen of Pies AND our latest Honorary Pierateer Katie Peal at the Awards!

And while the British Pie Awards use a significantly different set of criteria to us, rather than the 7 Cs of pie rating that we have used to rate over 625 pies on Pierate, there are very few pie experts they could call on with more ex-pie-rience than us when it comes to judging the pie-fect pie!

Pierateer Rob on Rip Off Britain

Last year was another exciting year for Pierate at the British Pie Awards, with over 5,000 of you viewing our live blogging from the pie event of the year, our post-event review and preview articles.

This year providing the media analysis once again will be Pierateer Rob, who you may recognise from TV shows "The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice" and "Rip Off Britain: Food".

So what have we got to look forward to at the British Pie Awards 2019?

Well... first of all you need to know how long it is until British Pie Awards 2019, which is happening on Wednesday 6th March at 11am:

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Celebrating the Great British Chippy in 2019

The amazing Speciality Class "Bridal Pies" at British Pie Awards 2015

We're looking forward to once again seeing what pie producers come up with in the Speciality Class, following an amazing selection of entries in the 2015 Speciality Class of Bridal Pies, some royally good pies in the "Pies Fit for the Queen" Speciality Class in 2016 and some fantastic pies available in the public services in 2018.

For the 2019 Awards, the Speciality Class will celebrate pies sold in the Great British Chip Shops up and down the country!

This year there are expected to be more pies than ever following the announcement of another new category - the Vegan pie class. Unsurprising following the rise of Vegan food in the past few years, including a number of vegan pies and even exclusively vegan pie shops, this is a welcome addition to the classes at the Awards in 2019. Plus there will also be a new award for the Best Young Piemaker!

All that remains to be said is you won't be surprised to hear we will once again be covering the event and providing regular tweet updates from Melton Mowbray as we once again get involved in the greatest pie show on Earth, so check back on Wednesday 6th March for more pies than you can possibly imagine!

RAS

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The countdown to British Pie Week has begun!

British Pie Week 2019 - which runs from Monday 4th March to Sunday 10th March - is now just one month away and we're busy at Pierate HQ making our final pre-pie-rations for the big event! We're planning another Birmingham Pie Night (like the Pie Night we had in 2018) and once again we'll be attending the British Pie Awards, which will be happening in British Pie Week too!

British Pie Week 2019 is from 4th to 10th March!

Those of you on Twitter may have noticed #NationalPieDay trending recently, for on 23rd January it was America's National Pie Day - where Americans spend a whole day celebrating the pastry beauties.

But in Britain this is simply not enough! We can't compress all our pie-excitement into one day! Oh no! We need a whole week to celebrate and enjoy the wonder of pie, which is why we are proud backers and - some would argue - the strongest advocates of British Pie Week! Yes, it's a week dedicated to pie!

It's official! The British Pie Week 2019 Logo has been launched! Check it out in our "British Pie Week 2019 Logo Launch" article!

Some of you may well have come across British Pie Week before, which has in fact been around since 2007 as the ingenious marketing spin off of pastry company "Jus-Rol" - and they managed to bag the lucrative web domain www.britishpieweek.co.uk to encourage pie makers up and down the land to get involved. However in an obscure turn of events, it appears they have ditched this lucrative web domain again this year to re-direct straight to the generic Jus-Rol website and no real mention of pies or pie week! With the @BritPieWeek twitter account having not tweeted since March 2016 it appears Jus-Rol may have had their pie and eaten it, meaning we may be defaulted to be the premier resource for pie advice this British Pie Week!!!

And while others may have used British Pie Week to just promote some pastry, as good as it is, we at Pierate are dedicated to promoting THE PIE!

That's why on Pierate you won't just find an encouragement for you to make a pie this British Pie Week - though we certainly do encourage you do! We don't just suggest a reci-pie or two - though we plan to do that as well! We don't even just encourage you to go out and eat a pie (or two) during British Pie Week. We go above and beyond!

The Pierate Logo Pie made for us in British Pie Week 2014! Find out more about this Nice Pie here.

We aim to be the pie experts you turn to for all your pie rating and eating needs during British Pie Week and beyond! With over 625 pies rated and reviewed on our unique 7 Cs pie rating system, we commend pies to you, tell you which ones to avoid, and give you the low down on what we think makes the perfect pie!



Also on 6th March we'll once again be involved in the British Pie Awards, where we have helped judge the pies for many years, and we'll be previewing those awards later this week! So whatever pie (or pies!) you enjoy in British Pie Week, we hope it's a good one that rates well on the 7 Cs of pie rating! If you need any ins-pie-ration, you can of course see the hundreds of pies we've rated on our pie blog via our Pie Rankings or our Pies Categorised!

Why not watch our short video clip to find out how you can get involved in British Pie Week too! For more ins-pie-ration see our #PiePledge article!

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At times like this, when you sit back and actually reflect on the pie-oneering work that we have done, as writers of the world's leading pie review blog, it can sometimes blow you away! Never in a million years would we have thought back in November 2009, when www.pierate.co.uk turned from a "funny idea" into a registered domain, that today we would be celebrating 1,000,000 page views! I'll pause there and say it again - ONE MILLION page views... to a website that pretty much only talks about pies!!!

#QueenOfPies Katie Peel Photo Credit: Fabio @KazooPR @PukkaPies

But that is exactly what has happened! And it's only due to the loyal support of friends and family and the wider community of pie fanatics out there across the world! While most of our views have been from the UK and USA, there have been views from all over the world, including Australia, China, Canada and much of mainland Europe! Pies really are a world cuisine!

Of course you know how highly we regard the pie here on Pierate, having rated over 625 in the past nine years, but along the way it has been great to meet so many pie makers and other pie fans, whether via twitter or in person. And one of the biggest fans we’ve had the honour of meeting is Katie Peel aka @AwayDayPieGirl, who is a fellow pie blogger and has also judged with us at the British Pie Awards in Melton Mowbray. Katie even made the time to come down to one of our Pierate Pie Nights in Birmingham a few years ago and regularly joins us in a twitter conversation (or should we say pie debate!!)

#QueenOfPies Katie Peel Photo Credit: Fabio @KazooPR @PukkaPies

Katie’s football pie blog #AwayDayPieGirl has traced the pies and lows of the National League North as she follows her team Telford United (a team we admittedly still need to get in our Pieremiership Table!) And get this, she even has her own branded pie fork!!! But her recent crowning moment was when she was crowned by Pukka Pies (who were celebrating their birthday) with the title Queen of Pies, after winning a social media vote for most passionate pie fan! It’s been great getting to know her, seeing her great voluntary work both with the football club she supports and beyond, and we look forward to seeing her again at the British Pie Awards this March, where we will officially bestow on her a new accolade – that of being an Honorary Pierateer! She joins an illustrious list of pie fans and pie makers who really do show their passion for pies and Katie has certainly demonstrated that! Well done Katie!!

Katie's Pie Fork!!!

It seems crazy to think that on the 4th July 2016 we were celebrating another impressive milestone being reached - that of us having had 500,000 pageviews! Less than three years on, we've had twice that number, and are delighted so many pie fans have been able to enjoy and benefit from our pie research! Our slogan has always been "We rate all the pies so you don't have to" and 1,000,000 page views down the line, it appears many of you enjoy our musings aboard the Pierate Ship and on twitter @pierateers! So... here's to the million pie views! So long, and thanks for all the pie views!!

RAS

Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised. Make sure you Follow @pierateers and let us know your thoughts!

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With British Pie Week just a few weeks away and Pierate - Pie Reviews becoming the leading promoter of the pie in British Pie Week, we thought that the week long celebration of pie needed a new logo!

British Pie Week 2019 Logo

With the pastry company behind British Pie Week seemingly not promoting the week long event any more, there is no designated British Pie Week logo for 2019, so we at Pierate Pie Reviews have stepped in and can officially announce the new logo to the world!

Featuring a pie design, knife, fork and the date, we've kept the logo simple but effective and we are happy for any websites, companies or other sources to use the logo for free. Unlike the previous commercial logo, we're not looking to promote our brand or product, but simply want a logo that focuses on the pie and puts the pie back into the centre of British Pie Week!

For those that don't know, we at Pierate Pie Reviews are a few friends who love pies and want to see them recognised for what they are - the piefect heart warming meal or snack in a pastry parcel! It just so happens that we've rated well over 625 pies in the process! And we once again plan to be at the heart of British Pie Week 2019 - which is this year from Monday 4th to Sunday 10th March - and you can follow our adventures on Twitter and this blog throughout the week, as we once again do our daily Pie Week Diary.

For more information about British Pie Week, join the thousands of readers of our "British Pie Week - Everything you should know!" article from a year ago!

British Pie Week 2019 is from 4th to 10th March!

If you’re a pie maker or pie seller we hope you'll find the new logo helpful - you're free to use it! Also if you have any special promotions for British Pie Week, get in touch with us and we can celebrate your British Pie Week offers! Either send us an email to pierateship@yahoo.co.uk or tweet us @pierateers to let us promote your pie week plans!

Whatever you’re going to be up to this British Pie Week - and it's never too early to start planning - we hope you have pie and enjoy it! For more ideas, why not check out our #PiePledge video below?

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Blairmains Farm Shop Pie Reviews

A walking trip in the Ochils near to Stirling was a great excuse for a bit of a treat. Nearby Blairmains Farm Shop was the ideal location. We headed into the cafe which had the wonderfully Scottish name 'Coffee Bothy' an advertised a Sweet Pie of the Day. The farm shop also had a good range of meat pies so how could I resist? I grabbed an Apple pie and a Steak & Ale Pie, both timeless classics.

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We Pierateers of pie review website www.pierate.co.uk are today celebrating our 9th Birthday, and we'd love you to join us by simply eating a pie and rating it!

Our ninth birthday pie from Turner's Pies!

It follows in the footsteps of the very first International Pierate Day in 2013, which has been celebrated on 12th November every year since! But we don’t want you – pie lovers worldwide – to just sit at home and watch as we eat all the pies! Oh no! Pie eating and pie rating is something we can all enjoy. Something that can bring friends, family and communities together. Pies are celebrated and eaten in so many countries worldwide and so today – marking our ninth birthday – we would love you to join us in eating and rating pies this week to celebrate!

This year our main highlight was the birthday pie night we had, to celebrate with a number of friends of the blog, where we finally got to pie rate the British Pie Awards 2018 winners Turner's Pies! We rated their Steak and Ale pie recently, which was the pie that won the British Pie Awards this year, and will be writing up our reviews of some of their other pie flavours soon!

Our pie eating friends enjoyed using the illustrated guide below on how to rate a pie, based on our 7 Cs of pie rating, which we commissioned fellow food blogger and amazing illustrator Emily from www.recipesandreviews.co.uk to create for us for our 6th birthday! And in a slightly surreal moment, people spontaneously started singing hap-pie birthday to our pie blog when they saw the pie with the "9" candle in (pictured above!) Possibly the first time anyone has ever sung happy birthday to a pie blog before!!

An illustrated guide on how to rate a pie by @emily_etc

So here’s the deal... in six simple words: Eat a pie and rate it!

It doesn’t matter whether it’s savoury or sweet, or whether you prefer your pies without the wheat or meat! We really do rate anything and everything that is a true pie and sometimes a number of interesting things that try to be pies to! But the important thing is we love to eat pie and rate it – for we are, after all, the Pierateers!

So once you’ve found a pie to eat – whether in the local bakery, butchers, supermarket or your favourite pie shop or one you have made in the luxury of your own home – why not rate your pie using the Seven Cs of pie rating in our lovely illustrated guide above?

So what do you need to do now?

Well, first things first - you need a pie (or two!) For insPIEration you might find our Pie Rankings helpful, with over 650 pies we've rated and reviewed over the past 9 years! Or perhaps you want to make one of the pies our Ship's Cook has made, following her reci-pies here.

You can even watch us on the BBC website advising what to look for in a pie!

Most of all, we hope you enjoy eating and rating pies this week! We sure will and will be posting about more of the pies we ate for our birthday Pie Night this week!!!

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Celebrating our 9th birthday with a Turner's Pie or two!!

Turner's Pies Steak and Ale Pie Review

You may recall that back in March of this year the British Pie Awards Supreme Champion 2018 was none other than Turner's Pies, who had done very well previously and even been sold in Harrods food market, but had never previously scooped the big prize! Well as with all the pie winners since we started helping at the British Pie Awards in 2014, we wanted to get our hands on the Supreme Champion, and what better place to pie rate it that at the birthday pie-rty to celebrate our 9th anniversary?!

The company are a traditional bakers based down on the South coast in West Sussex. Starting out making pies for a hotel in Bognor Regis in 1933, Turner's Pies have a long history down three generations as a family run business and it is great to see they have expanded in recent years to having a pie shop in Bognor Regis, Rustington, Chichester and now Worthing too! But having won the British Pie Awards back in March 2018, perhaps the most exciting addition is the availability to now order their pies online, with their "Pies by Post" service!

The "Pies by Post" service really is as simple and obvious as it sounds, with orders placed on their website getting delivered by courier a few days after ordering. Simple really! And there are a selection of pie boxes you can get delivered too, with free delivery on your first order, so what are you waiting for?! Ah yes - why not read our review below first of the Steak and Ale pie!!!

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If you missed it, here's the tweet they sent out when they won the British Pie Awards back in March!

🏆‼️ WE DID IT ‼️🏆

Absolutely honoured to be named the SUPREME CHAMPION 2018 at this years #britishpieawards #BritishPieWeek

Our Steak & Ale Pie overcame stiff competition from 963 other pies to be crowned #1 In the UK.

More news to follow soon...MR T@BritishPies pic.twitter.com/0yTfZvMDUJ

— Award Winning Pies (@TurnersPies) March 10, 2018

And after their win, Turner's Pies immediately set their eyes on another award - this time becoming the number 1 pie on Pierate!

Thanks guys, we were waiting for the official press release before we told the world but it seems that’s not coming today. We’re chuffed! Only accolade we need now is no1 pierated!!

— Award Winning Pies (@TurnersPies) March 9, 2018

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Turner's Steak and Ale Pie

So onto the pie review itself! The pastry was golden on top, slightly more pale on the sides, but it held together well even when cut in half. It was crisp on the outside and slightly gooey on the inside, a real art form in pastry circles! While the pastry did crumble a bit upon cutting, the fact you could enjoy the pastry so much even on its own was a great testament to this pie, even if there was no need to do so with such a meaty filling to the pie itself! And when cut into halves, you could still pick up this pie, which is a good sign of a firm, well baked pastry.

A cut-through of the Turner's Steak and Ale Pie

The pie was well filled, with a good capacity of meaty chunks. Overall they were generally very nice, even if a few pieces in several of the pies were a little chewy. The filling was moist but could have had a little more gravy in it, but the ale gravy was a nice compliment to the meaty pieces. At £3.50 per pie this was about the price I would be happy to pay for this sized pie if it was well filled and flavoursome, as this pie was.

Overall, I can certainly see why the Turner's Pies Steak and Ale got a glowing report from the British Pie Awards, and it comfortably enters our "Pierate Highly Recommended" category! I look forward to rating some more of their pies soon!

Turner's Pies Steak and Ale Pie
Score: 6.39/7
[Colour 6.5, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 6.5, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 6, Content 6.5]
RAS and SJL

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If you are a regular reader of Pierate, you may remember our review of the pies produced by Billy's Bakehouse. They particularly stick in the mind because these are classic Australian pies but they are produced in the Netherlands. They are also unusual because, despite being frozen and at a low market price point, these pies are genuinely tasty. The mastermind behind these pies is Darren Handley, a Aussie ex-pat who missed the pies he used to be able to get back home so decided to make them himself.

During my honeymoon in the Netherlands this Summer I happened to visit Leiden, the home city of Billy's Bakehouse. Pierateer ALE and myself met up with Darren at one of the many canal side bars and got an update with how he is getting on.

Pierateer SJL and Darren Handley

We discussed how Darren has built a new production bakery which they have moved into this year. This has increased their pie making capacity. They recently took 12,000 pies to the Lowlands Festival. Now that is a lot of pies! Darren enjoys doing the festivals and the fact the pies are frozen is perfect because they can meet whatever demand there is without wastage. With the extra capacity they are now looking to supply more supermarkets, restaurants and sporting events. With the pie being frozen it is very flexible for meeting demand. Darren says the UK market is still one that he would like to break into which, once established, would ideally see Billy's Bakehouse set up in some form in the UK. This is something we would love to see happen, despite there being a lot of pies on the market, Billy's Bakehouse could certainly fill a gap. As we said in our review, because these pies cook quickly from frozen, they are perfect for organisations which will see strong peaks in demand, such as during half time at a football match. We are often disappointed by the pies on offer at football matches. This would be much improved if Billy's Bakehouse pies were adopted by some football clubs in the UK.

We also discussed the article about Billy's Bakehouse which featured in the Discover Benelux in-flight magazine (see page 56). The article in entitled 'Taking on the big boys of pie production'.  Darren kindly include a mention of Pierate saying that we 'wrote the review Billy's Bakehouse had been waiting for, leading the way to export to the UK'! We certainly do hope that our favourable review helps Darren in this mission.

Fortunately, all the hard work hasn't put Darren off, he still enjoys his pies, with the Meat Pie in particular what he will eat away at festivals. There are a couple of new flavours in development including a Mexican-style flavour. We will be keeping an eye on progress and hope to try some more Billy's Bakehouse pies in the future.

SJL

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They say nothing comes easy in this life – and you get your reward from hard graft and what you put into it. That epitomises the hard work that chef Chris Brumby has put into his pie making business “MyPie” – which has taken the London street food markets and the Pierate Pie Rankings by storm! And we were delighted to attend the media opening of his new pop up restaurant last night on the roof terrace of John Lewis, Oxford Street (one of the most famous roads in the world!)

The MyPie Restaurant on the rooftop of John Lewis, Oxford Street

Welcome to the MyPie Restaurant!

We first met Chris in March 2014, when Pierateer Tim met him for a chat and of course a pie down in South London. Chris had recently just won the Red Lion Barnes Great Sausage Roll Off a few months earlier, but we were glad his passion lied more in pies than just sausage rolls. And despite a little boil out, we could tell that Chris was on a winning trail when he let us pie rate his Beef and Red wine pie, which was Pierate Highly Recommended at 6/7 on the seven Cs of pie rating. Not bad for a first effort!!

It didn’t take Chris long to get a pie near the top of our pie rankings, with his Chicken, Smoked Ham and Tarragon pie rating in at a whopping 6.39/7 in July 2015, swiftly followed by several other MyPie offerings making the top 10 of the rankings. But the most im-pie-ressive of them all was the Steak and Ale pie, which rated at a phenomenal 6.61/7.

There's even a skating rink!

While at the time this score ranked at number 3 on the pie rankings list, the sad demise of a fellow pie maker meant that in October 2016 the pie rankings were updated and the Steak and Ale pie became our number 1 rated pie on Pierate, a position it has held on to for over two years now!

Since then, the Steak and Ale pie has been joined in the top ten by MyPie’s Venison, Chilli and Cheese (6.57/7 in 2nd place) and Mince, Bacon and Cheese (6.46/7 in 7th place). MyPie really do set the bar high for pie making in London and the rest of the country! And we’re delighted to see the company providing the food at the skyline rooftop terrace for John Lewis’ winter wonderland!

One of the lovely hideaways you can book up to eat your pie in!

During our visit last night we were treated to a number of starters from the MyPie range, including scotch eggs and sausage rolls, but what we were there for was of course the pies! Being a launch event we were served some smaller pies than will be available when the restaurant opens on Saturday but believe me, these were still delicious and up to the usual MyPie standard! And being smaller, it meant we felt less guilty trying a couple each!!

The Hampshire Steak, Mushroom and Truffle Oil pie Click here to view all the MyPie pies we have reviewed.

Pierateer Tim went for the Sweet Potato, Green Chilli and Feta pie (which interestingly was flavoured really well with the chilli but not spicy – something that again highlights Chris’ chef background!) and the Free Range Chicken, Ownton’s Butchers bacon and sweetcorn pie. Pierateer Rob went for the Hampshire Steak, Mushroom and Truffle Oil pie, followed by the Venison, Chestnut Mushrooms and Juniper pie (which is in collaboration with Sipsmith Gin London, who are running the bar on the roof terrace).

Pierateer Tim, MyPie owner Chris and Pierateer Rob

Unsurprisingly all the pies were well filled, flavoursome and left us wanting more! We can see this being a great success for the three month residency MyPie have on the rooftop terrace and hope that customers to John Lewis from near and far will very much enjoy the best pies in London as they have pie in the sky!

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To book your seat at the rooftop terrace restaurant just click here: https://www.resdiary.com/restaurant/mypie

RAS

Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised. Make sure you Follow @pierateers and let us know your thoughts!

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Pieminister “Moodog” British Beef Steak, Dry Cured Bacon and Brewdog Ale Pie Review

Pieminister Sunday Best Pie Review

You could be forgiven for thinking that top pie maker Pieminister – from whom we have rated nineteen pies previously, the majority of whom have been Pierate Recommended or Pierate Highly Recommended – must be running out of new inventions for the humble pie! After all, it wasn’t that long ago that they dug deep into the reci-pie book to create a Cricket, Chipotle Chilli and Black Bean pie (yes, that’s crickets the insect!) to spice up British Pie Week 2017! But even though we have eaten through the majority of the menu, we still keep going back for more, especially now they have opened a pie shop in Birmingham City Centre that is not far from Pierateer Rob’s humble abode!

We did however still manage to find a new pie flavour we hadn’t rated before in the form of the Moodog pie, a British Beef Steak, Dry Cured Bacon and Brewdog Ale pie.

However, that wasn’t exactly the reason we were there this time round! For while our pie blog naturally focuses on the pie itself, it can’t be ignored that the sides you get with your pie contribute significantly to the enjoyment of said pie. Serve it with cold mash, overcooked chips or a thin, water-like gravy and you’re certainly not going to please pie connoisseurs like us! Which is why we couldn’t turn down an invite to try the new “Sunday Best” option from Pieminister, which hit their pie shops recently, for a new meal ex-pie-rience!



The idea is simple – take all that is good about the trimmings of a classic Sunday Roast, add them on top of or around a top rated Pieminister pie, and *poof* you have a magical Sunday lunchtime treat for the whole family to enjoy! It’s a wonder no-one thought of this before!!! As you can see from the graphic, the “Sunday Best” option is any of Pieminister's award winning pies on a pile of delicious mash, topped with a Yorkshire Pudding filled with swede mash, roast garlic & rosemary potatoes and finished with free range British Pork crackling and a pig-in-blanket. All served-up with a brimming boat of gravy on the side. And all this for less than 10 of your English Pounds at £9.95!

The crackling was crisp and delicious, the swede mash, potato mash and roast garlic and rosemary potatoes (though sounding perhaps a little carb heavy) complimented the pie and other sides well and there was even a pig in blanket for a little more meatilicious content! All sat in a Yorkshire Pudding, the bedrock of a classic Sunday Roast!

And for the main course, there was the pie, naturally! The beauty of this meal option was that you could have any of their Pieminister pies on sale in the middle of this Sunday trimmings sandwich! So whether you preferred a pie with vegetables, meat or without the wheat, Pieminister could provide you a Sunday dinner experience for all taste buds. You could even go Vegan with “Kevin”, their new vegan pie, if you so desired! As mentioned, I went for the Moodog pie, which was one of the few meat pies on the menu yet to be rated on the Pierate Ship!

Pieminister Sunday Best Pie Review

As you can see from the pictures, the pie came stacked with all the “Sunday Best” trimmings, but this didn’t detract from the quality of the pie itself. It was lovely and golden on top, though certainly a lot more pale and gravy-stained on the sides. However the sides and base were quite crisp too, alongside the golden top. The lovely Pieminister pastry one again surrounded a well filled content, with a definite focus on meaty steak chunks with a few tasters of bacon to vary the flavour. The balance between crisp pastry and a moist, meaty filling was delightful and I’ll definitely look to have another one soon!

Looking at the pie alone, Pieminister have once again produced a Pierate Highly Recommended pie. And I for one am delighted they’ve decided to sell it as part of a delicious roast trimming dinner in my local Pieminister pie shop! It’s a great idea to offer the additional trimmings while keeping the pie choice flexible, and I will certainly bear it in mind when I next want the best pie meal possible on a Sunday afternoon!

Pieminister “Moodog” British Beef Steak, Dry Cured Bacon and Brewdog Ale Pie
Score: 6.07/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.5]
RAS

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Dubs Pie Review - Steak and Ale in Brooklyn, New York

Pierateer Rob in the Dubs Pies shop in Brooklyn

For a city that never sleeps, there is one main draw back to life in the Big Apple. Sure, they have plenty of fruit pies on the market, but where are the meat pies??? As a Briton looking for an ex-pie-rience in what American pie can offer, I took a subway into Brooklyn to try out the pie shop at Windsor Terrace, next to Prospect Park, called Dub Pies.

You may well have a vague memory of the name Dub Pies if you read our live blog of the British Pie Awards 2018, as we actually met the owner Gareth at the Awards! He had come over to the UK and timed his trip to include a visit to the awards and to sample some pies. His background is the meat pies of New Zealand, but you can never sample too many pies now, can you!!

Dubs Pies Shop in Brooklyn, New York

The store itself is a bit out of Downtown Brooklyn but still very accessible, just a minutes walk from the subway line on the west side of Prospect Park. While it was a shame they didn't do sides to go with the pie in store, I was there for the pie and this allowed me to focus on it! (To note: They do sometimes do sides when selling from their pie truck or at catered events, just no longer in the shop.)

You could choose to have your pie hot or take it away cold, but I was in the market for a hot pie for lunch! As you can see from the menu board in the photo they have quite an extensive range of pies, from the traditional beef mince and cheese pies common in New Zealand and Australia, to Chicken and Veggie options.

Dubs Pies - Steak and Ale Pie

However my eyes were set when I saw they had a steak and ale pie on the menu, which I felt would be a good benchmark to compare to the regular UK pies I regularly have. The content was pieces of steak in Fifth Hammer/Rockaways Blockaway Barleywine. At $6 this seemed very reasonable for a hot pie in such a location as central New York. The pie was reasonably flat, reminding me a bit of the Piebury Corner pies that aren't the deepest but are full to the brim of filling. These were the same.

The pie wasn't the most golden I have ever seen, but the colour and condition was pretty good. The lid of the pie undulated slightly, teasing the large chunks of steak below. However when bitten into it held together very well. As you can see from the cross-section you could hold the half-eaten pie without it crumbling everywhere. It seems it would be the ideal pie for a sports event!

Dubs Pies - Steak and Ale Pie

The capacity was very strong, filled to the brim with meaty chunks. The meat itself was nicely cooked and tender, with the main criticism of this pie being that it was rather dry inside. I do come from a land of gravy filled pies - legend has it I would bleed gravy, not blood - but even so, the dry pastry and dry filling did take the edge off this pie.

However the filling was very nice and I would certainly suggest that with a little more moisture inside this would really be challenging for a top pie rating! All in all I would certainly recommend giving Dub pies a look in and trying their traditional flavours - the Steak Mince and Cheese pie and the Thai Chicken Curry pie.

Score: 5.57/7
[Colour 5.5, Capacity 6.5, Consistency 5, Condition 6, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 4.5, Content 5.5]
RAS

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It's as if they could read my thoughts or something! Just days after I had visited their Brooklyn shop, the owner Gareth messaged me on twitter to say that the low gravy content in their steak and ale pie had been noted before, and that they had now in fact created a new version which addressed the lack of moisture! You can check out the photo of their new steak and ale pie below and I for one would love to give this new version a pie rating! I wouldn't be surprised if it got Pierate Highly Recommended! Next time!!!

The new Dubs Pies Steak and Ale Pie! Photo provided by Dubs Pies

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