The countdown to British Pie Week continues with our most exciting announcement yet! Pierate are going to rummage and pillage the pies at Pieminister Birmingham once again as we host a Pierateer Takeover in British Pie Week 2020 - just like we did last year and in 2018!

Pierateer Rob visiting Pieminister Birmingham

Being held from 5:30-7:30pm on Tuesday 3rd March, the night will be a chance for pie fans across the Midlands and friends of the Pierateers to catch up on what's been going down on the Pierate Ship, and most importantly to eat and rate some delicious pies! It's sure to be a great way to kick off British Pie Week 2020!

Pieminister Birmingham at 16 Waterloo Street

For those who don't know, Bristol pie giant Pieminister opened up a shop in Birmingham city centre in mid-2017 and we've frequented it a number of times already. However we certainly hadn't waited until they opened a shop in Birmingham before rating one of their pies, for we have rated 19 Pieminister pies in total and one of our very first reviews over 10 years ago was from Pieminister!

Since then we've tried some of their "Pie Election" winners (when pie fans got to choose which old favourites to bring back to the menu for British Pie Week 2015) and we were even crazy enough to try their Cricket pie in 2017! Yes, that's right - it had actual whole insects in it!!

So here's the details of the pie night and how you can get involved:

Kick off 5:30pm

Delicious pies on offer at Pieminister - we've rated 19!

We'll be arriving at the Pieminister Birmingham store at about 5:30pm, where we'll have some dedicated Pierateer Takeover tables set aside for us! (We advise you book up to avoid disappointment!)

Pick your pie!
While there are a whole host of pies to choose from on their menu, as it will be British Pie Week we're sure there will be some special sur-pie-ses! While we await the big reveal from Pieminister soon, they are promising some cracking pie-rizes for pie fans in store!!

Who rate all the Pies?!
During the two hours Pierateer Rob will be around to chat pies, give you a bit of info about how to rate a pie on the 7 Cs of pie rating, as well as a brief update on what we've been up to recently! And if he can, he'll try to answer your pie-related questions (like when is a pie not a pie?!) Just look out for him in his black Pierate t-shirt and don't be afraid to come up and say hi!

And while we'd be delighted to see a few of you there on the Tuesday, if that date or time doesn't suit you then don't forget that British Pie Week lasts all week and the Pieminister restaurants up and down the country will have a fab pie-motions on!




In the meantime, you can find out more about The Pierateers or about what we've been up to in previous British Pie Weeks on the world's leading pie review blog! But for now why not watch our short video clip to find out how you can get involved in British Pie Week too?

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We're now just a couple of weeks away from our blog's tenth birthday (which we've named International Pierate Day), and with that in mind we have some very exciting news to share:

Some tickets are still available for our Birmingham Pie Party with a "star baker" and top rated pies on 16th Nov!

The motley crew from our Pie Contest 2013

Yes, on Saturday 16th November from 5:30-7:30pm we'll be welcoming Great British Bake Off Series 6 star Sandy Docherty and the pies from our number 1 pie maker (out of over 625 pies rated on our blog) - MyPie!

Sandy, for those who don't follow GBBO (or whose memory is a little hazy!), was the contestant who referred to her home baking in episode one with words to the effect of "everything I bake at home seems to turn into a pie!" And for some reason, that seemed to really strike a cord with us on the Pierate Ship!!!

Sandy and the Pierateers!

No surprise then that Sandy immediately became our favourite of that series, despite some real competition from man of many homemade cooking aids Ian, the king of the jungle Paul and series winner Nadiya (who you may remember had the privilege of then cooking the Queen's birthday cake!) You can reminisce on all the bakers from Series 6 here in their pre-show BBC Bios or read up on Series 6 on Wikipedia!

Back to Sandy and she said back in her pre-show bio that "she bakes to show her family, friends and colleagues that she cares about them" - which is a great outlook on baking and we look forward to her bringing some of her baking magic with her when she brings some pies to our pie party for our charity raffle and chats a bit about life in the tent and what she's up to these days. We were gutted that Sandy was eliminated before the week when the bakers all had to make a game pie, but can't wait to try her pies for real - not just drool over our TV screens!

Just take a look at some of the pie pictures Sandy has tweeted in the past:

The journey of @Theakston1827 ale and @FodderHarrogate steak pies @pierateers pic.twitter.com/hu8LWeWJyE

— SANDY DOCHERTY (@SANDYDbakes) 12 March 2017

Short crust lamb shoulder and veg pies, just need gravy. Happy Sunday everyone. X pic.twitter.com/LPpJepzNOD

— SANDY DOCHERTY (@SANDYDbakes) 26 February 2017

Of course us Pierateers are no stranger to the Great British Bake Off either, as our first TV appearance came on The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice when we made a Crocodile Pie rated by none other than celebrity chef Michel Roux Jnr!

So while we had a break last year, we're delighted to once again be following the tradition of 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 in having a Pierate Birthday Pie-rty with friends and colleagues in just a few weeks time! For those wondering what it will be like, here's our review from our 8th Birthday Pie-rty two years ago, which Sandy also attended.

Pie maker Chris with Pierateers Sam, Tim and Rob

Yes, like in 2017, we've once again gone straight to the top of the Pie Rankings to find a Pierate Highly Recommended pie maker to supply the pies at our tenth Birthday Pie Party, with Chris' Steak and Ale Pie our current number 1 at 6.61/7! And we'll have a top vegetarian pie option too from Chris, who has recently celebrated 5 years of his MyPie business and has spent most of those 5 years at the top of our pie rankings!

Plus our charity for the night will once again be Action Against Hunger, who we supported with over £300 raised at our Charity pie night in 2017!

We've still got a few tickets available, so to enquire about ticket availability to book your place at our Birmingham Pie Night in South Birmingham, please email pierateship@yahoo.co.uk with your order (Steak and Ale or Vegetarian pie). Your £6 ticket, paid on the door, will cover your MyPie, mash and veg, plus a selection of homemade fruit pies people bring along. And if you bring a homemade pie with you - which will be judged by our star baker and the Pierateers - you will get a £2.00 discount on your ticket! Let us know if you're planning to bring a homemade pudding pie when you enquire about your ticket!

As you can imagine, we can't wait for our next Pie Party on Saturday 16th November and we hope to see some of you there!!

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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The countdown to British Pie Week continues with our most exciting announcement yet! Pierate are going to rummage and pillage the pies at Pieminister Birmingham once again as we host a Pierateer Takeover in British Pie Week 2019 - just like we did last year!

Pierateer Rob visiting Pieminister Birmingham

Being held from 5:30-7:30pm on Monday 4th March, the night will be a chance for pie fans across the Midlands and friends of the Pierateers to catch up on what's been going down on the Pierate Ship, and most importantly to eat and rate some delicious pies! It's going to be a great way to kick off British Pie Week 2019 and comes just days before we go to the 11th annual British Pie Awards to provide our live feed of all the pie action!

Pieminister Birmingham at 16 Waterloo Street

For those who don't know, Bristol pie giant Pieminister opened up a shop in Birmingham city centre in mid-2017 and we've frequented it a number of times already. However we certainly hadn't waited until they opened a shop in Birmingham before rating one of their pies, for we have rated 19 Pieminister pies in total and one of our very first reviews over 8 years ago was from Pieminister!

Since then we've tried some of their "Pie Election" winners (when pie fans got to choose which old favourites to bring back to the menu for British Pie Week 2015) and we were even crazy enough to try their Cricket pie in 2017! Yes, that's right - it had actual whole insects in it!!

So here's the details of the pie night and how you can get involved:

Kick off 5:30pm

Delicious pies on offer at Pieminister - we've rated 19!

We'll be arriving at the Pieminister Birmingham store at about 5:30pm, where we'll have some dedicated Pierateer Takeover tables set aside for us! (We advise you book up to avoid disappointment!)

Pick your pie!
While there are a whole host of pies to choose from on their menu, as it will be British Pie Week the shop has a special Mothership offer on Monday. For those who don't know, a Mothership is your favourite pie with mash, peas, crispy shallots, Cheddar cheese and gravy - all for just a fiver! And that includes their British Pie Week 2019 special - Lady Baa Baa (yes, you guessed it - a lamb pie!!)

Who rate all the Pies?!
During the two hours Pierateer Rob will be around to chat pies, give you a bit of info about how to rate a pie on the 7 Cs of pie rating, as well as a brief update on what we've been up to recently! And if he can, he'll try to answer your pie-related questions (like when is a pie not a pie?!) Just look out for him in his black Pierate t-shirt and don't be afraid to come up and say hi!

And while we'd be delighted to see a few of you there on the Monday, if that date or time doesn't suit you then don't forget that British Pie Week lasts all week and the Pieminister restaurants up and down the country have a fab pie-motions on, a different one each day. More info at https://www.pieminister.co.uk/pie-week-19/




In the meantime, you can find out more about The Pierateers or about what we've been up to in previous British Pie Weeks on the world's leading pie review blog! Plus we'll soon be posting our British Pie Week #PiePledge article - with our full plans for British Pie Week - but for now why not watch our short video clip to find out how you can get involved in British Pie Week too?

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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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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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For those who missed the news, on Day Two of British Pie Week the Pierateers rummaged and pillaged the pies at Pieminister Birmingham as we hosted a Pierateer Takeover!

Pierateer Rob at the Pieminister Pie Night

You can read more about the plans we had in our preview article but from 5:30-7:30pm on Tuesday 6th March, Pierateer Rob and friends of the Pierateers enjoyed eating and rating some delicious pies!

For those who don't know, Bristol pie giant Pieminister opened up a shop in Birmingham city centre in mid-2017 and we've frequented it a number of times already. However we certainly hadn't waited until they opened a shop in Birmingham before rating one of their pies, for we have rated 19 Pieminister pies in total and one of our very first reviews over 8 years ago was from Pieminister!

Since then we've tried some of their "Pie Election" winners (when pie fans got to choose which old favourites to bring back to the menu for British Pie Week 2015) and we were even crazy enough to try their Cricket pie last year! Yes, that's right - it had actual whole insects in it!!

This year Pieminister decided to do a special offer each day of British Pie Week and it was a veggie pie-motion on the Tuesday - whereby meat free pies were only £2 when you bought a side. Lots of Pierateer Rob's friends chose a meat free pie, including their new vegan pie "Kevin" - but even a cheaper pie couldn't stop Pierateer Rob going for the meaty Moodog Pie! Here's what he thought, followed by a number of pie ratings from the guests at the Birmingham Pie Night!

The Moodog is British Beef Steak, Bacon and Brewdog 5am Red Ale (though with the recent news of a new "pink ale" from Brewdog, who knows if there will be a new "pink ale" pie in future?!) The pie was classic Pieminister, with a delicious crisp outer pastry and a well filled and meaty filling. The steak and bacon combined well and the gravy was a nice consistency - runny but not too runny! A little bigger and a bit more steak would have made this even higher rated, but in all I very much enjoyed the Moodog and hope to have another soon! (Remember, a pie - and thus a pie night - is not just for British Pie Week, as our "7 ways to survive post British Pie Week" article reminds us!!)

Pieminister “Moodog” British Beef Steak, Bacon and Brewdog 5am Red Ale Pie
Score: 6.11/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6.25, Condition 6.25, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.25]



During the two hours Pierateer Rob chatted pies with his friends, including giving info about how to rate a pie on the 7 Cs of pie rating. This led to a number of guests completing a Pierate scoring card, the scores of which are as follows:

Moo and Blue (by Miranda) - 6.71/7 (Colour 6, Capacity 7, Consistency 7, Condition 7, Chewiness 7, Cheapness 6, Content 7)

Wild Shroom (by Aradhana) - 6.14/7 (Colour 5, Capacity 6, Consistency 6, Condition 7, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 7, Content 6)

"Kevin" Vegan (by Claire) - 5.86/7 (Colour 6, Capacity 7, Consistency 6, Condition 6, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 7, Content 4)

Wild Shroom (by Joel) - 5.86/7 (Colour 7, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 6, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 6, Content 6)

Saag Pie-neer (by Hajra) - 5.57/7 (Colour 5, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5, Chewiness 5, Cheapness 6, Content 7)

Heidi (by Shereen) - 5/7 (Colour 4, Capacity 6, Consistency 5, Condition 5, Chewiness 4, Cheapness 6, Content 5)


Thanks to Pieminister Birmingham for hosting our Pierateer Takeover and we hope to organise another next British Pie Week! As you can see from the scores, everyone thought the pies were Pierate Recommended or better (5/7 or above) so I'm sure there will be plenty of guests again next British Pie Week!!

RAS

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The countdown to British Pie Week continues with our most exciting announcement yet! Pierate are going to rummage and pillage the pies at Pieminister Birmingham as we host a Pierateer Takeover in British Pie Week 2018!

Pierateer Rob visiting Pieminister Birmingham

Being held from 5:30-7:30pm on Tuesday 6th March, the night will be a chance for pie fans across the Midlands and friends of the Pierateers to catch up on what's been going down on the Pierate Ship, and most importantly to eat and rate some delicious pies! It's going to be a great way to kick off British Pie Week 2018 and comes just a day before we go to the 10th annual British Pie Awards to provide our live feed of all the pie action!

Pieminister Birmingham at 16 Waterloo Street

For those who don't know, Bristol pie giant Pieminister opened up a shop in Birmingham city centre in mid-2017 and we've frequented it a number of times already. However we certainly hadn't waited until they opened a shop in Birmingham before rating one of their pies, for we have rated 19 Pieminister pies in total and one of our very first reviews over 8 years ago was from Pieminister!

Since then we've tried some of their "Pie Election" winners (when pie fans got to choose which old favourites to bring back to the menu for British Pie Week 2015) and we were even crazy enough to try their Cricket pie last year! Yes, that's right - it had actual whole insects in it!!

So here's the details of the pie night and how you can get involved:

Kick off 5:30pm

Delicious pies on offer at Pieminister - we've rated 19!

We'll be arriving at the Pieminister Birmingham store at about 5:30pm, where we'll have some dedicated Pierateer Takeover tables set aside for us! (We advise you book up to avoid disappointment!)

Pick your pie!
While there are a whole host of pies to choose from on their menu, as it will be British Pie Week the shop has a special veggie pie-motion on the Tuesday - whereby meat free pies are only £2 when you buy a side. This includes their new vegan pie, called "Kevin!"

Who rate all the Pies?!
During the two hours Pierateer Rob will be around to chat pies, give you a bit of info about how to rate a pie on the 7 Cs of pie rating, as well as a brief update on what we've been up to recently! And if he can, he'll try to answer your pie-related questions (like when is a pie not a pie?!) Just look out for him in his black Pierate t-shirt and don't be afraid to come up and say hi!

And while we'd be delighted to see a few of you there on the Tuesday, if that date or time doesn't suit you then don't forget that British Pie Week lasts all week and the Pieminister restaurants up and down the country have the following fab pie-motions on, a different one each day. See the graphic below (click on it to make it bigger!) and there's more info at www.pieminister.co.uk/pieweek/





In the meantime, you can find out more about The Pierateers or about what we've been up to in previous British Pie Weeks on the world's leading pie review blog! Plus we'll soon be posting our British Pie Week #PiePledge article - with our full plans for British Pie Week - but for now why not watch our short video clip to find out how you can get involved in British Pie Week too?

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Falling trade and rising rents, food and staffing costs have sadly seen Pierate Recommended pie maker Square Pie go into administration, and with that the sad loss of 50 pie jobs in its five restaurants in London and Birmingham.

While it has to be admitted that the Birmingham store was never regularly frequented by Pierateer RAS, the loss of yet another pie shop in the city (following the closure of Urban Pie a few years ago) is hard to swallow. It has to be asked "What is happening to all our pie shops?", with these closures following on from a fall in the number of traditional London Pie and Mash shops over the last few years as highlighted by fellow pie fanatics and friends of the blog the Pie n Mash Club, who have documented all the closed pie and mash shops.

The last we'll see of the Square Pie box

It was only 18 months ago that the new Square Pie shop opened in Birmingham to great fanfare, with over 1,000 of you reading our live blogging of the opening in Grand Central. Based above the main New Street train station in the heart of Birmingham, it was great to have an established and Pierate Recommended pie brand such as Square Pie in the centre of the city. Now it appears all will be left is the wholesale business, which sells pies to a number of major supermarkets. You can read more about Square Pie going into administration on the Big Hospitality website.

However all we can really be glad of is that since Square Pie opened their last store, the pie scene has improved in Birmingham with a number of top pies available in local pubs and a new Pieminister store opening. And with 4 London stores closing, we hardly need to remind you that some of our top 10 pies in our 600+ pie rankings are available in London, with MyPie London and Piebury Corner accounting for half of our top 10! Here's hoping we don't hear of any more pie shop closures any time soon, especially with British Pie Week only a few short weeks away!

Grand Central in Birmingham City Centre, which was home to Birmingham's Square Pie shop

For a trip down memory lane, you may want to read when we rated Square Pie as Pierate Recommended as we celebrated eating our 100th rated pie there down in London back in 2012, and in 2013 when we rated their Chicken, Leak and Wiltshire Ham pie at 5.58/7, which was another Pierate Recommended effort.

RAS

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Pieminister “Kate and Sidney” British Beef Steak, Kidney and Craft Ale Pie Review

Pieminister Steak and Kidney Pie Review

It hasn’t escaped my attention as a pie connoisseur in England’s second city Birmingham that there has been a bit of a lack of pie shops in the city, especially following the closure of “Urban Pie” a few years back. It was therefore encouraging to see that top pie maker Pieminister – from whom we have rated sixteen pies previously, the majority of whom have been Pierate Recommended or Pierate Highly Recommended – have changed all that with a new shop opening a few months ago in the heart of the city centre.

While some of you may have noticed on Twitter that we visited early on in their first week of trading in the city a few months back, we decided to visit again more recently once they had properly settled in to their new location to get a proper reflection of the new store. Of course we weren’t disappointed, with another top rated and highly recommended pie! The store itself is decorated in standard Pieminister fashion – quite simple brick façade with neon lights. It’s great to have another pie option right in the heart of the city, just off Victoria Square at 16 Waterloo Street.



So onto the pie I had, which when I looked at the menu was becoming a struggle to find a new option we hadn’t already rated!! I went for the “Kate and Sidney” pie, which was British Beef Steak, Kidney and Craft Ale. I went for the classic meal with a super side upgrade of skin on fries, which meant my meal cost £8.50. This is a little pricey for a meal of pie, mash and gravy, but being in a new city centre store and comparing this to pie meals in pubs and shops in the city centre, I don’t think this is too unreasonable a price.

Pieminister Steak and Kidney Pie Review

As you can see from the pictures, the pie was lovely and golden on top, though certainly a lot more pale 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 rather than the kidney. I was appreciative of this decent blend, as many steak and kidney pies can use the kidney as a cheap filler for a pie, but this was certainly not the case here! The balance between crisp pastry and a moist, meaty filling was delightful and I’ll definitely look to have another one soon!

Once again Pieminister have produced a Pierate Highly Recommended pie and I for one am delighted they’ve decided to sell it – alongside their other top range of pies - in the heart of England’s second city, Birmingham!

Pieminister “Kate and Sidney” British Beef Steak, Kidney and Craft Ale Pie
Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6.25, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6]
RAS

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We're now just a couple of weeks away from our blog's eighth birthday (which we've named International Pierate Day), and with that in mind we have some very exciting news to share:

Some tickets are still available for our Birmingham Pie Party with a "star baker" and top rated pies on 11th Nov!

The motley crew from our Pie Contest 2013

Yes, on Saturday 11th November from 4:30-7pm we'll be welcoming Great British Bake Off Series 6 star Sandy Docherty and the pies from our number 1 pie maker (out of over 625 pies rated on our blog) - MyPie!

Sandy, for those who don't follow GBBO (or whose memory is a little hazy!), was the contestant who referred to her home baking in episode one with words to the effect of "everything I bake at home seems to turn into a pie!" And for some reason, that seemed to really strike a cord with us on the Pierate Ship!!!

MyPie pies at the 2015 Pie-rty

No surprise then that Sandy immediately became our favourite of that series, despite some real competition from man of many homemade cooking aids Ian, the king of the jungle Paul and series winner Nadiya (who you may remember had the privilege of then cooking the Queen's birthday cake!) You can reminisce on all the bakers from Series 6 here in their pre-show BBC Bios or read up on Series 6 on Wikipedia!

Back to Sandy and she said back in her pre-show bio that "she bakes to show her family, friends and colleagues that she cares about them" - which is a great outlook on baking and we look forward to her bringing some of her baking magic with her when she brings some pies to our pie party and chats a bit about life in the tent and what she's up to these days. We were gutted that Sandy was eliminated before the week when the bakers all had to make a game pie, but can't wait to try her pies for real - not just drool over our TV screens!

Just take a look at some of the pie pictures Sandy has tweeted us:

The journey of @Theakston1827 ale and @FodderHarrogate steak pies @pierateers pic.twitter.com/hu8LWeWJyE

— SANDY DOCHERTY (@SANDYDbakes) 12 March 2017

Short crust lamb shoulder and veg pies, just need gravy. Happy Sunday everyone. X pic.twitter.com/LPpJepzNOD

— SANDY DOCHERTY (@SANDYDbakes) 26 February 2017

Of course us Pierateers are no stranger to the Great British Bake Off either, as our first TV appearance came on The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice when we made a Crocodile Pie rated by none other than celebrity chef Michel Roux Jnr!

So while we had a break last year, we're delighted to once again be following the tradition of 2013, 2014 and 2015 in having a Pierate Birthday Pie-rty with friends and colleagues in just a few weeks time! For those wondering what it will be like, here's our review from our 5th Birthday Pie-rty three years ago.

Pie maker Chris with Pierateers Sam, Tim and Rob

Yes, like in 2015, we've once again gone straight to the top of the Pie Rankings to find a Pierate Highly Recommended pie maker to supply the pies at our eighth Birthday Pie Party, with Chris' Steak and Ale Pie our current number 1 at 6.61/7! And we'll have a top vegetarian pie option too.

And what's more, Chris has kindly agreed to donate the pies to us for a charitable donation, with £10 of the £12.50 ticket price going to charity Action Against Hunger. It'll be a busy week for Chris, as alongside baking the pies for our pie party, he's also opening up a pop up on the Southbank in London that week!!

We've still got a few tickets available, so to enquire about ticket availability to book your place at our Birmingham Pie Night in South Birmingham, please email pierateship@yahoo.co.uk with your order (Steak and Ale or Vegetarian pie). For your £12.50 ticket, you'll get to attend the Q&A with Sandy from GBBO (from 4:30-5:15) followed by your MyPie, mash and veg, plus a selection of homemade fruit pies people bring along (5:15-7:00). And if you bring a homemade pie with you - which will be judged by our star baker and the Pierateers - you will get a £2.50 discount on your ticket! Let us know if you're planning to bring a homemade fruit pie!

As you can imagine, we can't wait for our next Pie Party on Saturday 11th November and we hope to see some of you there!!

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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One of the pie-lights of British Pie Week as soon as we confirmed it was always going to be our first March Pierate Pie Night! We've had a number of pie nights in November as part of our Birthday Pie-rty celebrations. But being British Pie Week, we thought it rude not to throw another pie-rty and decided to rummage and pillage the pies at the Jekyll n Hyde pub in Birmingham for our Pie Night takeover!

They have a few gins in their Gin Parlour!

And so on Monday 6th March, to kick off British Pie Week in style, we joined with a group of friends and fellow pie fans to enjoy a selection of pies from the Jekyll and Hyde menu. These included Beef and Ale, Rabbit and Seasonal Vegetables, Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Cheese and Potato. With people - myself included - sampling a bit of a few pies, I didn't have enough of any one pie to review it. But I did very much enjoy the samples I had and look forward to rating some more pies there soon!

For those who don't know, the Jekyll and Hyde pub has provided the highest rated pie in Birmingham so far, when we enjoyed a Steak Pie there back in 2013 and a number of Pierate Recommended pies since! You can read all about it in our "Best Pies in Birmingham" article.

Rob was filmed in the Jekyll n Hyde by BBC TV!

And you may also recognise the upstairs Gin Parlour because that is actually the backdrop for when Pierateer Rob filmed with hit BBC show "Rip Off Britain" in February 2015!

On the night itself, Pierateer Rob went through a bit of info on how to rate a pie on the 7 Cs of pie rating, as well as a brief update on what we've been up to recently! It included mention of the interview on BBC Radio Leeds Rob had done literally that morning, as well as some of the "pie stunts" that the Pierateers had done in previous British Pie Weeks, such as Tim's Pie-thon (Python meat pie) and Sam eating 21 pie meals and losing weight!

All in all, it was a great night and we hope to do another Pierate Pie Night there again! Thanks to everyone who came along, as well as to Manager Matt, Chef Tom and the other staff at the Jekyll and Hyde for being such great hosts and for our special £10 a head pie and wine offer! We look forward to coming back to rate more pies there again soon!

Why not check out what else we got up to on Day One of British Pie Week or join the thousands of people reading our "Everything you need to know about British Pie Week" article!

RAS

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