Hand on heart, we might have a slight obsession with pork pies. It is a borderline fixation, and one that’s been growing for some time. The good news is that as a result, you get the benefit of us having trekked all over London to find the best.
The thing is, there are a lot of bad pork pies out there. And by bad, we mean the ones with soggy pastry and - the ultimate crime - no jelly. So this is not the longest of lists. But it is the strongest of lists, with every pie on here worthy of a trip clear across town to buy it.
Henwen’s
Forest Hill - 49 London Rd, London SE23 3TY
We’ve been hearing good things about this Forest Hill butcher’s for a while. However, it was a video of theirs on Instagram detailing their pork pie cooking process that made us realise we were going to have to take the train to South London for a visit. Founders Charlie Smith and Sweyn Hall are the creative duo here. Their mission to make an amazing pork pie involved a pork pie tour of Huddersfield and time spent by Sweyn working at George Jephson’s Meat Fish Cheese. Every element of the pie is made in-house, from the lard to the meat, pastry and jelly. It’s one of the best we’ve ever tasted.
The Pie Room - Holborn Dining Room
Holborn - 261 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EN
It would be wrong to have any discussion about pies in London without making some mention of the Holborn Dining Room, where chefs/pastry gods Calum Franklin and Nokx Majozi turned the humble pie into an art form. Both have now moved on, but you can still head to the hatch here to get an amazing artisan pork pie. It features pork shoulder and smoked bacon with fennel and an intense jelly. Get them hot from the oven for a god-tier worker’s lunch.
Fallow
St James - 2 St James’s Market, London SW1Y 4RP
Holborn Dining Room’s loss is Fallow’s gain, with Nokx currently spending time as Fallow’s Chef in Residence. In addition to various weekly offerings, she’s added an always-on pork pie to Fallow’s menu. It’s made using a classic hot water pastry with minced pork, pancetta and lard, then hand-raised with a traditional dolly before being filled and baked. The restaurant serves it with walnut ketchup as a snack.
The Pocket
Islington - 25 Canonbury Ln, London N1 2AS
The arrival of The Pocket in Islington marked a second opening for the team behind what is arguably London’s loveliest small pub, The Southampton Arms in Gospel Oak. Here they serve up ‘brown food only’ as bar snacks and all their sausage rolls and pies come from Penny’s Pies in Helston. They’re a Cornish bakery known for their traditional hot water crust, hand-raised pies and Cornish pasties, all made with locally sourced ingredients. (The rather brilliant back story is that Penny was previously a postmistress affected by the Royal Mail scandal and went on to build a brilliant reputation for her pastry work). As pub landlord Joao explained to Hot Dinners, “they drive up to London every other week to supply us!”
The Hart
Marylebone - 56 Blandford St, London W1U 7JA
The Hart is a neighbourhood pub in the same way that Buckingham Palace is a London bolthole. And that means that their pork pies are several light years better than a lot of pub pies. The pies are made using whole free-range Tamworth pigs from Paddock Farm in the Cotswolds. Those pigs are then butchered in-house and minced, while the hot-water-crust pastry is made using the rendered leaf lard from these same pigs. There’s a good savoury jelly added before they’re served as part of an exemplary pub lunch with English mustard and chutney.
Meat Fish Cheese
Stoke Newington - 57 Newington Grn, Newington Green, London N16 9PX
George Jephson, the founder of Meat, Fish, Cheese (and co-founder of Cadet) is hands-down London’s best charcutier. But while he’s known for his fabulous examples of classic French terrines, pates and croutes, he’s also a master pie maker. And the key to his pies, which you can order online and pick up at Cadet, is the addition of duck fat in the pastry. The jelly he uses is the same that goes in his pâté en croutes and the end result is a real beauty of a pie.
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