I can’t really remember now how I found out about Mother Mash initially, but being a great pie lover I put it straight on the list and on discovering that you can choose from six different types of mash I made sure it went to the top!
Now I’ll be honest, my first experience at Mother Mash was a bit of a disaster: we were asked to re order twice as the pies we had asked for had sold out and the waiting staff didn’t seem very well informed of what was and wasn’t still available on the menu. It was only 6:30pm so it was not as if we’d turned up at the end of service and eventually I ended up eating elsewhere. I’ll give them a break, it was probably an off day and maybe a supplier had let them down. I resolved to re visit Mother Mash another time.
I went back later in the week and my experience was vastly improved. One of the things that really drew me to Mother Mash in the first place was their menu and ordering system….
Step one: choose your mash. There are six different options including mustard mash and mash with horseradish. You can even choose whether you’d like it smooth or lumpy. I couldn’t resist the cheesy option.
Step two: choose your pie or sausages. Despite the very tempting variety of sausages on the menu I had to go for a pie, and with all the classics to choose from, including the day’s special of lamb hot pot pie, I went for the Aberdeen Angus steak. You just can’t go wrong with a steak pie.
Step three: choose your gravy. There are five different options here as well! I went for the onion gravy because it’s my favourite.
There’s also a nice selection of side dishes and I love peas with my mash so I had to get them on the side.
My Aberdeen Angus steak pie with cheesy mash, onion gravy and garden peas.
My boyfriend’s lamb hot pot pie with cheesy mustard mash and liquor. He also had french beans with bacon as a side.
There was a really decent amount of meat in my pie and the chunks tore apart so easily, they weren’t tough at all. The pie was nice and juicy and there was plenty of gravy on the plate to get the pastry nice and soggy, I’m not a fan of dry pastry so I like a lot of gravy that I can soak up with it. The main event: the mash, was creamy and smooth, it could have been a bit cheesier but that’s just a personal preference. I loved all my choices but I’m keen to go back and try out some of the other options. Lamb and rosemary is a particular temptation.
As regular readers will know, I don’t normally stick around for dessert, but since Mother Mash had such a great selection of classic British puds it would have been silly not to. I went for the saucy chocolate sponge with ice cream and this pretty much does what it says on the tin. The wedge of sponge was enormous and with plenty of chocolate sauce and a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream this will always be a hit. I do slightly regret not ordering a crumble cos it looked and smelt amazing, and it was apparently so good that I wasn’t allowed to try any. It seemed to be a sort of a cross between a pie and a crumble as it was sitting in a pastry crust. I’m definitely ordering this on my next visit.
Saucy chocolate sponge pudding with vanilla ice cream
Apple & blackberry crumble with custard
Mother Mash is a really good option for a nice big comfort food dinner. Don’t go here if you want fine dining or a gourmet pie but if you want to fill your belly with some simple decent grub and leave satisfied, this is the place to do go.
Diary of a Saucepot 