The Raven of Bath (Bath)

Aah, the Raven of Bath. The best pub in Bath and the inspiration for this very blog. It seemed wrong to have written so many posts on this blog without a visit to it's spiritual home, and so this Thursday seemed the perfect opportunity to rectify that situation.

I can still remember the first time I went to the Raven. It was 3 years ago and was persuaded to try out this great new pub that Steve had heard about which served nothing but pie and real ale - so far so godd, right?! The only problem, was that prior to turning into the Raven, it was a somewhat more salubrious establishment known as 'Hatchetts', and was a real spit and sawdust biker pub that correctly reflected it's name by being the kind of place you would expect to get knifed more than you would expect to get a good feed. Thank goodness I chose to believe Steve's recommendation (well, he has to be right some of the time), and I have not looked back since. In fact, that first trip was so influential, that I managed to even overcome my aversion to kidney (and other meat that looks like organs), so it must be good.

What makes the Raven so great is that there is only two options on the menu - pies or sausages. (although these days they do offer some other options for those fusspots who don't fancy a pie!) Fortunately the array of pies on offer is second-to-none as they are supplied by the wonderful Pieminster Pie Company from Bristol. Whether you go for a 'Mr Porky', a 'Chicken of Aragon', a 'The Matador' or just a good old fashioned 'Moo pie' (steak ale for the uninitiated), then you are guaranteed a pie of superior quality - they even have seasonal pies with equally pun-filled names like the Ho, Ho, Pie. It even has a vegetarian option (The Heidi Pie), if you fancy avoiding meat - although why you would do that, I do not know!

Today's choice was the Matador, which contains beef, chorizo, olives and butter beans. (It must be a good pie as I normally hate olives!). It has well seasoned pastry - not your plain old shortcrust - and was served with a red wine and thyme gravy and classic chips. (As well as the fantastic choice of pie, the only other major choice you have to make when ordering is which gravy and chips and mash, however a safe bet is always chips and red wine gravy!) Uncluttered by such luxuries as vegetables, the only thing that you find on your plate which isn't a pie or a chip is a little bit of parsley and a tomato, which I am sure 90% of people leave on the side (however, for some reason it just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't there as it adds a delicate splash of colour to your plate of brown.)

As well as serving fantastic food, the Raven has a great old-school pub feel (with the tiniest pub door in the world) and serves a great collection of real ale. Although the Raven's Gold is always a safe bet, you can always be guaranteed to play the 'Real Ale Lottery' game where you chose your drink based on the relative comedic value of it's name. It was also one of the first non smoking pubs in Bath, is deaf-friendly and regularly has poetry nights and spoken word nights which help give the place the kind of character which makes a pub truly something special. (Just make sure you arrive nice and early in the winter or on match day as the place fills up and is standing room only these days).

Pros: Great array of Pieminster pies, great selection of ales, great location
Cons: Not cheap, limited menu if you don't like pie, no longer a well-kept secret - can be busy!

OVERALL VERDICT: 9/10

The Pasty Shop (Bristol Templemeads)

One of the keys to a good pasty shop, is location. With the emergance of the 'urban pasty shop', such as Pasty Presto or the West Cornwall Pasty Co., then you find them popping up in the most curious of locations. For years, you were only ever likely to find a dedicated pasty shops in a small Cornish fishing village that was run by some crazy backward local from Mevigissy who had been up since dawn crimping her offerings with the traditional technique that had been handed down over generations. However, with these shops popping up in most unlikely locations (from Bath Abbey Square to Reading station), then anyone with an NVQ in Food and Hygiene can now be handed the responsibility of making a 'Cornish pasty'.

However the 'urban pasty shop' that taunts me most right now is the Pasty Shop that lurks in the subway at Bristol Templemeads station. With it's aroma that is more enticing than a KFC on a Friday night, the Pasty Shop is perfectly placed to lure travellers in to sample it's fine wares. Like a pastry siren, it tempts you with the smell of meat and pastry because when it comes to satsifying a hunger on that long journey are you really going to chose a visit to Dash Sushi, or a pasty?! I think not!

With 15 minutes to wait until my train to Bath, I was suckered in by just such a sensory ploy this weekend and though perhaps it should be documented in blog form. Now, unlike the previously mentioned KFC that offers much and fails to deliver on it's promise, the Pasty Shop actually makes some rather nice pasties. But I guess that should be expected seeing as Templemeads is the transport hub that acts like a gateway to the west. In this case I decided to sample their 'Big One' and was charged a very reasonable £3.49 for the privilege. The pastry of my big one, was firm and crunchy and inside a nice mix of well seasoned potato and meat was soon filling my hunger. Although a little mushy, and with not much in the way of solid chunks of meat, the claims on the bag that this was '100% Pure' seemd slightly misleading as it was hard to tell just what you were eating that was 100% of anything. The other problem, was that the contents were hotter than the sun in parts, and with only a few minutes to go unilt the 14:40 to Weymouth was set to arrive and ferry me home, I was the victim of several severe burns to the roof of my mouth as I attempted to finish it before the train arrived. Fortunately, the train was running late and I was gifted an extra few minutes to finish off the offending crust. People may complain constantly about the state of the railways and the decline of public trasnport, however they are never grateful when the lateness of a train actually makes their life better, on this occassion and I have never appreciated signal failure at Cardiff more.

Pros: Good pastry, great location, Reasonable price.
Cons: Mushy potato, Hotter than hell, tempts me to buy one every time I am at the station,

OVERALL VERDICT: 8/10

Wetherspoons (Dorchester)

Wetherspoon's pubs are famous for many things; cheap bear; a tendancy for drunk old men to frequent them on a Saturday afternoon; and an right wing owner with the finest mullet this side of the 1980s. So it was, with a little trepidation, and a considerable hunger, that I decided to not go for the chicken roast, or the beef and burger this past Sunday, but instead chose to sample the Beef and Abbott Ale pie of the Royal Oak in Dorchester. I assure you, it was all in the name of continuing this, my semi-regular over analysis of the great pies of the UK and not just a way to fight off the cider induced hangover from the night before, (which was still nagging away at me like an over-exuberant mother.)

First impressions can often be some what deceiving, and so like meeting a new girlfriend only to find out she is actually a man, the pie arrived on my table with quite the fanfare (not to mention a little pot of extra gravy). But as the old adage goes, size is not everything, and in the case of a good pie, never has that phrase been more apt. With more pastrie than a pastie shop bin, I set about finding one of the pieces of 'locally sourced British Beef' that the menu had promised with zeal. However it was quite the search before I found anything even slightly resembling some meat! All of a sudden the extra pot of gravy did not look like a nice little extra, rather a taunting reminder of how little filling their actually was among my pastrie (I knew I should have gone for the roast!).

Fortunately there was a good supply of oven chips that seemed to have at least seen something resembling a fryer (rather than coming straight out of the microwave) as well as a mountain of carrott sticks to help fill out the plate. However, what on earth made them feel like polluting my plate with a big pile of stinking cabbage I don't know?! OK, so it's good British fair and is healthy, with plenty of iron, but that doesn't mean I need it cluttering up my plate and contaminating my pie!

In conclusion, although not the best of pies I have had in recent memory, it certainly helped to combat the thick head and tent-induced fatugue that was wracking my body at the time. And on a day where we visited both the Cerne Giant and Corfe Castle, this was far from the biggest disappointment of the weekend.

The Old Butter Market (Canterbury)

Over the past few months I have developed a bit of a obsession with the good old fashioned British pie (as my waistline will probably attest). It may be something to do with the fine array of pies which I often enjoy at the Raven here in Bath (I mean, who can argue with a Mr Porky or Matador?!) and so, armed with this high water mark of pie-dom, I couldn't help but begin to compare any future pies with those fine offerings from the Raven and decided to keep a little record of my findings. For many weeks, even months, I have been found wanting in this department (and many others, but that is a whole other blog post), that was until I visited my old university stomping ground of the Canterbury and visited the Old Butter Market with Carter and Neil for a quick bite to eat on a Sunday afternoon.

Now, when I was a student back in the late 90s (which makes me sound very old, but not nearly as old as Neil!), the Old Butter Market was a grotty little Fleece and Firkin pub which was only of any worth knwoing about if you were a tourist whoe wanted to get ratted on Dogbolter on a weekday afternoon after visiting the scary Jesus at the cathedral gate (Or, if like me, were going out with someone who lived in the vicinity). So it was, that we found ourselves in the cathedral square on our return to Canterbury and decided to check out just what had happened to the former Firkin. Finding the need to fight off a free-champagne induced hangover caused by the wedding of our good friend Katie Price (no, not that one!) I chose to forego the toad in a hole option that tempted Neil and Cart's instead opted for the beef and ale pie. After all, we are in the county of Shepherd Neame, so surely it should at least have a good ale in it?!

And what a great choice it was though! So good, I felt the need to photograph it and place it here as the first entry on Al's World of Pies! For starters, it had a wonderful square design that made it look like a little castle as it towered over my chips and seasonal veg, guarding them from a marauding army or gravy, like a benevolent pastry duchy. Then, lurking inside the pastry ramparts of my meat castle, was a warm rich gravy with good solid chunks of meat and plenty of them. Some mediocre chips and some passable seasonable vegetables lurked on the boundaries of the plate, like peasants on market day, but overall this was a very fine pie and a worthy debut entry to this new food-based blog of mine.

Pros: Castle design, good contents, nice location.
Cons: Too much pastry, poor chips, strange veg

OVERALL VERDICT: 7/10