Pieminister Full English Breakfast Pie

Description: Get ready to tackle the Full English breakfast pie. Bacon, beans, smoked cheese and succulent sausages.

Cost: Not sure, but each pie is pretty small. It weighs 170g apparently. I got this free as part of an 02 Rugby promotion to sample.

Cooking: 20 minutes on number 4 from chilled.

Verdict: First impressions? Opened the box and omg this is a small looking pie. Id normally eat 2 this size. Not many pies are heavily publicised, but pieminister seem to have an unlimited budget and their pies are probably the most hyped out there, so i was very excited to try their pies out.

Cooking instructions are pretty normal. I cooked this from fresh rather than frozen so it was quicker and eagerly tucked into it.

Whats the verdict? Well, cut it open and I counted 3 small slices of sausage, 2 thin slices of mushroom and a couple of beans. The base was serious stoggy and the crust was nice. The flavour was tasty and the stoggyness did fill me up, but i was wondering where the rest of the filling was. I seem to remember these pies arnt cheap and if you compare them to the tesco value pies at 24p which are proper tasty this is a no brainer. I was left feeling very disapointed and hungry. I felt like id wasted 20mins of gas cooking this pie. Not what I wanted. I still have another pieminster pie to test and hopefully that will be better.

If pieminister want to send me other pies to test they are more than welcome and I will give an honest opinion. Maybe they want to redeem themselves, or just accept my review as it is. The choice is up to them. Im genuinely unbiased, but have to say atm i am disapointed in pieminister.

Calorie count for this pie is 440 calories per pie.

Rating?  4 out of 10.

Morrisons Deep Filled Steak & Ale Pie

Description: Shortcrust pastry filled with tender pieces of steak in an ale enriched sauce, topped with a puff pastry lid.

Cost: 2 pies for £3. Each pie is 460g and is apparently enough for 2 people so thats good value!

Cooking: 40mins on number 6 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Pie on the packaging looks nice, huge lumps of steak in it, nice rich looking sauce. This will be my first Morrisons pie review so im really looking forward to it. Out of the packaging this is an ovalish pie rather than the normal round "family" pies you get. It certainly looks like a nice deep fill, so in the oven it goes.

40 mins later pie is ready. Perfect timing for the boiled potatoes and peas.

So, how does my first Morrisons pie fair up? Well, crust and base were nice, but the filling... i had to double check the packet to see what it was supposed to be. It reminded me so much of the Whiskas stuff I feed the cat each day. The steak was all disintegrated and fell apart, no chunks at all. It was like a big mushy gravy. The gravy was nice, thick and tasty. All in all it wasnt too bad. It was a little above average but not much. The competition out there is tough for this sort of pie. The overall the pie is surprisingly filling. Even though the middle is a bit mushy, its tasty, but its nothing special.
Not sure i`ll be buying this one again, but its definately not the worse ive tried. For the money, if theres a Morrisons near you, its worth a try,

Calorie count for this pie is 602 calorie for half a pie.

Rating?  6.5 out of 10.

Asda Steak and Kidney Pie

Description: Tender British Steak, Beef Kidney and Rich Gravy, baked in a shortcrust pastry with a Golden Flaky Puff Pastry Lid.

Cost: £1.37 for a 200g individual pie.

Cooking: 25mins on number 4 from chilled or 40mins on number 4 from frozen.

Verdict: First impressions? Pie on the packaging looks pretty average, not much gravy, nice lumps of beef in it, but the colour doesnt look as dark as the other steak pies ive had recently. Cooking instructions are worrying me, number 4 seems low, but then this is being cooked from chilled it may need less heat? Or it may be the puff pastry? We shall see! I hope it cooks through okay.

25 minutes later and sure enough, pie is ready. Puff pastry is great, not too flaky, base is lovely and stodgy. Filling is very tasty pieces of meat - no gristle and not too chewy. Has a lovely kidney flavoured gravy with small pieces of kidney, but not over powering. I half expected this pie to be full of kidney and no meat, but no skimping here. I am struggling to think of anything wrong with this pie.

All in all, im impressed. Its miles better than I expected. Very tasty and for the money a cracking nice Steak and Kidney pie. Definately one for the "buy again" list I think.

Calorie count for this pie is 497 which isnt too bad for an individual pie.

Rating?  7 out of 10.

Tesco Finest Chicken, Leak & Bacon pie

Description: A Shortcrust pastry base filled with tender pieces of British chicken, leek and bacon in a creamy cheese sauce topped with a light and flaky butter enriched puff pastry, egg glazed. No artificial flavours, colours or hydrogenated fat.

Cost: £2.49 for 2 individual pies.

Cooking: 40 minutes on number 6.

Verdict: First impressions? Well what a description! Tescos Finest really believe in giving you very tasty descriptions on their finest range of products to make you think these are awesome pies, best in the world! Maybe they are? But my test will tell!!!

Pie out of the packet looks good. Nice chunky looking pie, nice depth to it, looks filling. Normal 40mins on 6 cooking instructions. Bung it in the oven and sit back and wait.

Verdict: As you know already, I'm not a big chicken pie fan, I do prefer the meaty steak, but I have been swung over with that awesome Waitrose Roast Chicken Pie I had a few weeks back, so currently that holds the number one spot in the chicken pie market. So, does Tescos rise up to that and can they knock the Waitrose pie off the first spot?

Cut the pie open and loads of creamy sauce comes out. Inside there are nice chunky pieces of roast chicken. Not as big pieces as the Waitrose pie but still tasty. The sauce is very rich and full of creamy flavour. Small slices of leek are very strong and unfortunately over power the rest of the flavours. The bacon consists of very very small cut thin pieces which get lost in the other flavours, which mainly seem to be cheesy cream and leek. The puff pastry is spot on, very nice, just the right amount of flakiness, couldn't fault it.

But, all in all, I felt the leak was too strong and overpowering and the bacon was non existent, if they had been a bit different in proportions that could have made all the difference. Its not a bad pie, nice quality to it, but sadly this doesn't match up with the Waitrose Roast Chicken Pie.

Calorie count for this pie is 605 calories which is staggering. That's SERIOUS calories for a pie. I'm guessing its because of the creamy cheese sauce which it comes with. Id expect a pie twice the size for this amount of calories.

Would I buy it again? It has its place, and i think I probably would, but think id be reaching for the Waitrose chicken one first!

Rating?  7 out of 10.

2 for £10 pub - Steak and Ale pie!

Description: Steak and Ale Pie, served with mash, peas and gravy, with extra gravy on the side.

Cost: Whilst this is kind of included in the 2 for £10 offer, you have to pay an extra £2.75 to get this dish. So, technically its around £7.75 which isnt a bad price for the dish.

Cooking: Best thing about eating out is that you dont have to cook it! Ordered the food and there was around a 25minute wait, which was very reasonable.

Verdict: First impressions? Looking good. Nice sized pie, nice healthy amount of peas. Mash looked a bit non-descript - well its mash! Gravy smelt lovely and had a nice thick texture to it.


Inside the pie looked like this:

Now for the taste test. I was looking forward to this, as this was going to be the first non shop bought pie ive put on the blog. I was in 2 minds whether to put a review up of it or not, but because this is a chain of pubs, I figured there maybe a pub like this near you, so you`d want an experts view on their pies.


The mash was nice, hot, creamy and no lumps. Gravy was spot on. Very nice indeed, had a lovely meaty taste to it and was nice and thick - none of this runny thin bisto gravy here. Peas were a massive surprise to me as normally pub peas are tasteless and horrible things, but these tasted nice and fresh. And now for the pie. As you can see from the close up inside picture the contents didn't look too bad. Loads of gravy, very stodgy and filling pastry base and crust. The meat itself wasn't too bad. Nice sized lumps of meat, but whilst it was tender and cooked thoroughly, it felt like these were cheap cuts of fatty meat. The pastry was a bit too stodgy and soggy. It kinda reminded me of a shop bought pastie which you have heated up in the microwave. I was pleased the dish comes with extra gravy as you needed it just to force the pastry down. Another thing I noticed was that even though this claimed to be a steak and ale pie, I just could not taste any ale in it at all. In fact it was more like a Steak and Onion pie!


Final verdict? Not impressed. Ive had the Steak pie at the sizzling chain of pubs before and that was awesome, and I think cheaper! I certainly wouldn't recommend this pie as if you take your pies seriously like me, you will be sadly disappointed.

Calorie count? The only problem with eating out is your never really sure how many calories is in the grub. Judging by the size and contents of this pie, using my extensive experience, id say we were looking at about 800calories.

Rating?  3 out of 10.

Waitrose Steak and Mushroom Pie

Description: Tender British Steak with Rich Gravy encased in a shortcrust pastry.

Cost: £2.89 for 2 small individual pies.

Cooking: 40 minutes on number 6.

Verdict: First impressions? Well a bit disappointing so far. Pie looks nothing special out of the packet. Its oval shaped rather than the round shape most pies seem to be. Normally id scoff 2 of these sized pies down, but at 612 calories per pie, that's a lot, so i`ll settle with one and hope it fills me up.

The packaging appears to rely more on a lovely picture of a steak pie, rather than loads of text describing some "fictional mystical pie crafted by Gods hands himself" in the hope you buy the product.

My last Waitrose pie, the incredible Roast Chicken was awesome and still one of the top pies I've ever tasted, so I am really hoping this Steak and Mushroom pie is just as good.

40mins and the pie was cooked perfectly. The pastry was crisp but a bit thinner than other shortcrust pastries I've had. Gravy had a rich colour to it, the chunks of steak were of a decent size. The mushroom wasn't chunks but very thin slices and not many in the pie. In fact you couldn't really taste the mushroom in it.

The steak was tasty and tender, but not so tender that it melted in your mouth. It tasted very nice but had to chew it more than I expected. Don't take that wrong, it wasn't tough or grisly, but you had to chew it. The gravy was nice and rich and beef like. But I kept thinking that I am still going to be hungry once I'm finished and this meaty pie is 612 calories!!

Final verdict, I'm not too impressed. A "nice" pie, but nothing special. It did fill me up, but wont be buying this one again.

Calorie count for this pie is 612 for a small pie which is a hell of a lot for a small pie!

Rating?  4 out of 10.

Tesco Chicken and Vegetable Pie

Description: Shortcrust pastry base filled with tender pieces of chicken and vegetables in a sauce with a light puff pastry lid. No Artificial Preservatives, flavours or colours.

Cost: 84p (yes, 84p!!!) for 4 pies.

Cooking: 40 minutes on number 6.

Verdict: First impressions? Well as before with the minced beef and onion pie, this is a mega cheap stripey brand pie, so expectations were very low. After the super dooper experience with the minced beef pie, my expectations are higher than the price band would expect. Will this be a tip top pie or one for the cat?!

Out the oven, pie looks great, just like the minced beef one. Nice and crispy but not flaky, just perfect. Cut pie open, loads of gravy in there, nice thickness to it. Not too thin. Lumps of chicken are akin to cat food, that sort of size, but they aren't fake chicken, looks like proper bits of chicken cut up. 3 or 4 small lumps of carrot in there and i counted 3 peas. wtf? Not looking good so far, whats it taste like?

Once again, what a surprise. Ive really got to hand it to Tesco, and i do wish i was sponsored by them, but this is a great pie for the money. 1 pie really isn't enough for 1 person, so your looking at 2 for a meal, but for the cash, this is a no brainer. The chicken was real chicken, gravy was nice and crust was good too. If I was picky, maybe not enough filling in the pie, but for 20p a pie what can you expect. 

Definitely on my buy again list, but cos I'm a steak man, I'm gunna have to rate this lower than the minced beef version. And, against the king of pies waitrose chicken pie I'm going to struggle. Taste wise the waitrose pie cleans up over this one, but money factors into it. I'm going to have to consider both factors here. Whilst my rating seems low, its a good buy if your are on a budget and its a good pie, but not on the waitrose level. Id buy it again, so its definitely not a one off.

Calorie count for this pie is 370 per pie. Pretty average for a pie!

Rating? 6 out of 10.