Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Beefing up the Aston student meals

Beef and Mushroom Pie Review at Aston University, Birmingham

With Pie once again on the menu at Aston University’s main cafe (CafeTierra), there was no need to persuade the Pierateers to pay another visit following their reviews of the Beef and Onion and Chicken and Mushroom Pies. And with strong 2:1s in the previous two markings, all eyes were on the Pie Satisfaction Survey this time as the latest pie was under assessment. The pie on offer was a Beef and Mushroom Pie.

Beef and Mushroom Pie
With the golden pastry back on this pie (surprisingly lacking in a paler pastry topping to the Chicken and Mushroom Pie), the Pierateer dug into his pie and thoroughly enjoyed the tender pieces of beef on offer. The pie had plenty of beef pieces, which certainly beefed up the flavour and provided a nice compliment to the tomato, herb and beef gravy within the pie. You may recall the tomato flavour to the Beef and Onion pie previously eaten a few years back at Aston University (almost a tomato-based Bolognese within a pie). While this Beef and Mushroom pie was certainly not at that level of tomato-icity, I have to say that once again the Aston chefs get top marks for delightfully blending some tomato into the pie filling. The mushrooms were also very soft and tasty. While I would say they had been slightly heavy handed with the herbs, it did add a nice flavour to the gravy and with a little less seasoning this gravy would be spot on.

However once again the pie fell down slightly due to being a top crust and therefore lacking on the pastry front. While a very nice meal, I was quite quickly left wanting more pastry to complement my pie filling and having to “ration” my ever diminishing pastry with the large amount of filling left. I’d certainly like to try a fully encased pie at Aston University one day and hope that, if a pie taster is needed, they will know who to turn to!

Once again I’d give this pie a strong 2:1 in our pie rankings system, with the main feedback being a delicious tender beef pie with intriguing tomato-ey gravy, but a significant lack of pastry. I’d certainly have another though!

Aston University Beef & Mushroom Pie
Score: 5.45/7

RAS


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Thanks for getting in touch with the Pierateers!