Review 6: Peyton and Byrne

The other week both me and my friend had both had a pretty miserable time. So we decided that meeting up for an afternoon wandering around Greenwich would be the ideal cure for our foul moods, and you know? It worked.

There was absolutely no question that we would be stopping at a cafe while in Greenwich, we both love cake way too much to go out for an afternoon and not find a local cafe. So we spent the overground ride googling potential candidates for our afternoon cake fix and came across Peyton and Byrne. The reviews were good, it was near the overground, we had a winner.

After a wander around Greenwich Park, taking in the views from the top of the hill looking over the Thames and strolling through the flower gardens, it started to rain. There was never a surer sign that it was time for cake.

Catherine had a slice of Bakewell, while I opted for the Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tart. I can’t speak for the Bakewell, but my goodness my tart hit the spot. Gorgeous shortcrust pastry, with a layer of salted caramel on its base, then filled with a rich creamy chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate shavings. It was drool worthy. I will 100% be attempting to recreate this at home in the not too distant future.

Turns out, Peyton and Byrne have three cafes/bakeries across London, with locations in Fitzrovia and Covent Garden, as well as this one in Greenwich. I’d highly recommend a visit if you are passing by. You can find Peyton and Byrne’s details below.

Review:

Item: Chocolate & Salted Caramel Tart, £3.80 (take out)/£4.50 (eat in)
10/10 for taste, 6/10 for cost ( London prices hey?)

Peyton & Byrne Greenwich Details:

Hours: Mon–Fri: 7.30am–7pm, Weekends: 8am–7pm

Address: 20-22 Greenwich Church Street, London, SE10 9BJ

Website: https://www.peytonandbyrnebakeries.com/#bakeries

Here one minute

Gone the next

Review 5: Hartland Pies & Scotch Eggs

Well it’s been a little while since I did a review! Three months actually… oops. I wasn’t sure if people were keen on the reviews, but a friend of mine said that she liked reading them because they read like I speak, which was frankly just a really nice thing to hear. Please enjoy this extremely belated review mate.

Anyone who knew me towards the end of my year in Germany probably knows that one of the things I truly missed the most about the UK was a good solid pork pie. I spent days craving pork pies and being completely unable to satisfy the craving. Turns out Germans don’t really know what a porkpie is, and I think they are missing a massive trick, but all I could do was wait to eventually come back to England and be greeted by pork pie upon pork pie. Some of my friends even went to local farm shops to get me specialty pork pies for my birthday. The pork pie love is strong.

As you can probably tell from the photo, I went to the Hartland Pies & Scotch Eggs stall just before Christmas. Santa’s elf was extremely friendly and lovely and she had plenty of pies to keep a Northerner in the South happy. So many different porky fillings to choose from and everything sounded just delicious. Hartland Pies is, unsurprisingly, a family run business that the Hartland family have been running from their Nottighamshire village for over fifty years. Plenty of time to figue out what makes a good pie!

All the fillings for their pies come from local farms and each pastry is made specifically to suit each pie, very much NOT a one pastry fits all kind of deal. Their passion for pies really shines through in their product and I cannot recommend a pork pie to any other homesick Northerners enough.

I eventually chose the pork and black pudding pie (£3), which was amazing. I love black pudding. The pastry, the pork pie filling sandwiched between two thick pieces of black pudding, and all the gaps filled in with that delicious pork pie jelly? Incredible. Exactly what I needed to sustain me until I could get back up to Yorkshire for Christmas. Just gorgeous.

Review:

Item: Pork and Black Pudding Pie, £3
9/10 for taste, 6/10 for cost (I’m a stingy Yorkshire lass, what can I say?). Will buy when homesick.

Hartland Pies & Scotch Eggs (King’s Cross) Details:

Hours: Wed-Fri: 10:00am-6:00pm

Address: Kings Cross Square, in front of the station, along Euston Road N1C 9AL

Website: http://www.hartlandpies.co.uk/index.php

Review 3 - Ole & Steen

This bank holiday I had a delightful time in the company of Momma Jude (pictured on left). We saw Sounds and Sorcery at The Vaults, watched Christoper Robin at the Empire on Haymarket (lovely cinema, and cheaper than Odeon etc), and had some amazing food. I mean, amazing food. 

We hit up both Borough Food Market and Spitalfields over the weekend. I love a food market and Momma Jude had no complaints. We filled ourselves with Moules Marinière with chips (£8.50) from Furness Fish Markets in Borough and gorged on Asian goodness in the form of steamed buns (2 for £7.50) from Yum Bun in Spitalfields. It was a good weekend for our taste buds. However, the sweet tooth prevailed and we had to stop for a cakey bun.

Ole & Steen is a Danish bakery (or Lagkagehuset, literally cake house) with their flagship store being a part of St James's Market on Haymarket. They do a whole range of stuff including breakfast, open sandwiches, bread, stews and most importantly pastries.

Ole & Steen are currently running a deal where you can have a glass of prosecco and a pastry for £9, and so of course Momma Jude had to take up the offer. Her raspberry tart was apparently excellent, but I don't think it could possibly compare to my cinnamon social slice. 

The cinnamon social slice (£2.80) was HUGE. Easily the size of my hand (I have small hands, but still. A hand sized pastry is still pretty big). I genuinely thought I would eat half of it and have to get a takeaway bag for the rest. Fortunately, I was extremely brave and managed to eat it all in one sitting. A real tragedy I know. Each slice of the cinnamon social comes from one long pastry. Each of the original pastries (which you can buy for £13) feeds up to 8 people and is meant to be shared socially, hence the name. but it could feed just one person in several sittings. Or one sitting. I'm not judging.

The slice itself is sweet and filled with cinnamon sugar and vanilla custard, making it moist and oh so good. With a drizzle of icing on the top it is just heaven on a plate. I would highly recommend it. The custard got a little cloying for me on the last few bites, but maybe I shouldn't have eaten it all in one go...

So many social slices... oh, and other pastries too...

Review:

Item: Cinnamon Social Slice
9/10 for taste, 8/10 for cost. Heaven on a plate

Ole & Steen Details:

Hours:

Monday to Thursday 7:30 – 22:00
Friday 7:30 – 22:30
Saturday 8:00 – 22:30
Sunday 8:00 – 22:00  

Address: 56 Haymarket, No 2, St. James’s Market, London, SW1Y  4RP

Website: https://oleandsteen.co.uk/

Review 2 - Crosstown Doughnuts

My friend and I were wandering through Spitalfields market last Sunday morning on our way to Brick Lane to get some brunch. We both ended up having something completely different to what we had been craving at Brick Lane, but that was A ok. We spent a good while browsing around the market at Brick Lane, waiting for our "brunch" to settle some, and went downstairs into their vintage market, where I discovered that I desperately wanted a red leather jacket and could not find one in my size. It's always the way isn't it? You find something in a vintage sale or charity shop that you love and it's never ever in your size. 

Anyway, after some moseying we decided to head back to Spitalfields and grab some dessert. Our sweet tooths were not satisfied with our very savoury brunch. On our way through the first time we had walked past a load of different stalls, but one in particular had caught my attention.

Crosstown Doughnuts. 

Photo source: https://crosstowndoughnuts.com/locations/

I watch a Youtube channel called SortedFood (they're great, seriously, check them out) and they occasionally go out of the kitchen to try and find London's best *fill in the blank*. They had got some Crosstown Doughnuts in this video and I thought they looked absolutely incredible. So there was no choice really. Doughnuts it was.

What makes Crosstown Doughnuts different is that they use an incredible sourdough base to their doughnuts. It is seriously good. It just adds a different texture to the doughnut than the traditional and isn't overly sweet, which is just exactly what we needed.

I ended up having the "Sea Salt Caramel Banana" doughnut, which is made with a chocolate sourdough base, filled with banana custard and topped off with sea salt caramel and chocolate soil. It was heavenly. My friend had the "Raspberry Jam", which was apparently very good. It certainly went quickly!

They are slightly spendy for a doughnut, with mine at £4.00 and the raspberry jam at £3.50 (maybe, can't remember, but Deliveroo says these prices), but they were seriously seriously good.

Crosstown Doughnuts have a load of locations across London and do delivery of doughnut boxes to your home, office etc. I'd recommend giving them a go if you're in the market for something sweet!

Review:

Item: Sea Salt Caramel Banana Doughnut
9/10 for taste, 7/10 for cost. Yes please!

Crosstown Doughnut Details:

Hours: Mon-Fri 09:30-18:00, Sat 10:30-17:00, Sun 10:00-17:00 or until sold out. (varies location to location)

Address: Spitalfields Market, 6 Lamb St, London E1 6EA

Website: https://crosstowndoughnuts.com/

Review 1 - The Pie Hole (The Pie Room), Holborn

Last week was my "last" day at the office (contract got extended. I'm still here, but didn't know that until after lunch), so I thought I'd treat myself to a very nice, quite spendy treat to celebrate. I have been walking past the "Pie Hole" at least twice a day on my way to work and every single time I have been intrigued by the sights and smells that come out of the small service window.

The Pie Hole is the service window attached to the Rosewood Hotel's Pie Room on High Holborn, just a two minute walk from Holborn tube station. The menu at the Pie Hole is limited, with the option of just 5 pies, a sausage roll, scotch egg or pate en croûte and sides of gravy and creamed potatoes. The limited menu means that they can really focus on doing the things they do well. And oh do they.

 The idea was spearheaded by Executive Head Chef Calum Franklin, who remarks that he is "obsessive about pastry". The passion for pastry really shows through. The glass front to the Pie Room means that you have an unhindered view of the pastry chefs at work, rolling out pastry, filling the pie moulds. They truly make pastry an art. It's certainly not cheap, but it’s an experience.

The Pie Room is certainly a high end destination, and the way they present themselves clearly gives an impression of luxury. It's certainly not cheap, but for an extra special treat these pies fit the bill. The packaging is lovely, and each pie comes with cutlery, napkins, a menu and is wrapped neatly in greaseproof paper.

The pie itself was amazing. 10/10. I got the chicken, girolle & tarragon pie and can highly recommend it. The flavours were perfectly balanced, the pastry was beautifully flaky and it was just gorgeous to look at. I also got a side of gravy, for an extra 50p, and it was some of the best gravy I have ever had. In total this cost me £9.50, pretty steep, but worth it for a special occasion.

If you have an extra special occasion on its way, you can book the Pie Room as an exclusive dining room for up to 10 people. The kitchen that you see by day is transformed into a unique dining room, where you can enjoy a 3 course meal by Calum Franklin. And if you can't get enough of Calum, he also does 2.5 hour long Pie Masterclasses that you can book a place on. 

Review:

Item: Chicken, Girolle & Tarragon Pie with gravy, £9.50

10/10 for taste, 6/10 for cost. Would get again, but only for a really special treat.

Pie Room Details:

Hours: Monday - Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Address: 252 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7EN

Website: https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/london/dining/the-pie-room