Went to The Pie Factory for dinner this evening. It’s a spit and sawdust kind of place – literally. Set in the heart of the Black Country they really do have sawdust on the floor (although I think it's health and safety conscious artificially created hypo-allergenic processed sawdust!)
We’d reserved a table for nine to celebrate my ancient assistant Noreen’s birthday a few days ago.
The menus were hanging on a clipboard behind the table – there was a lot of stuff to wade through – including a few veggie options for my other assistant, Di.
We debated whether or not to have a starter – expecting large portions – and decided on loaded potato skins to share – actually six skins, two with mushrooms, four with bacon. This photo really doesn't do it justice - note to assistant - take better photos!
We ordered a couple of bottles of red – at £7.50 a bottle for a nice Italian Merlot, how could we not?
Then, what to choose for our main course? Considering this is the “Pie” factory, you’d think one of us would have a pie, but nope, no one. Scampi and chips, chicken Kiev and gammon were among the chosen, but Di opted for vegetarian fish (actually halloumi cheese in batter) and chips while Paul and I decided to share a “Mick’s Grill” – which is a mixed grill of rump steak, pork chop, lamp chop, gammon, three sausages and two eggs, oh yeah and chips. We figured it would be enough for both of us!
Our dinner arrived – on a shovel! Is that cool or what? I’ve never been served dinner on a shovel before and I can certainly recommend it. Di’s fish and chips were inspired, she said. Just like having ‘real’ fish and chips, but without that nasty fish flavour! Why aren’t chip shops selling these? They should. It was even served on a piece of newspaper under some serving paper.
Only downside with dinner was the chips were a bit hard – supposed to be beer-battered chips, but they were more concrete-battered! Some of them were nicely served in little frying baskets which I thought was a nice touch. Some were good, several were crunchy but many were pretty hard (think Goldilocks chips!) Oh, and some of them weren’t hot enough. I started to think about dropping them a Ted…
Well, after a while Paul and I made it! In Bear vs Food, the Bear won! Ha!
I even had room for dessert (or pudding, as we bears like to call it). Paul’s dad Ray ordered the Bread and Butter Pudding – which, when it came was HUGE! I mean, nearly as big as my head, but the rest of that Ted plummeted out of my rating when it came to his portion of custard. There was maybe a tablespoon full and I’m NOT exaggerating. Come on, guys! It’s bad enough having a tiny amount of custard on a small dessert, but on a dishful? It was woefully inadequate. Totally.
In their defence, their Eton Mess was nice with a strawberry juice mixed into the meringue and cream and my Chocolate Alabama Cake (or, chocolate fudge cake as it’s usually called) with ice cream (a just about reasonable amount this time) was nice too.
So, overall a good night out. A cheap and cheerful Black Country location with a good hearty menu including the four-pound Cow Pie that we didn’t even consider.
Definitely worth a visit, but steer clear of anything with custard unless you don’t mind not getting any!
