The Ivy Brasserie, St Albans: at last one to recommend

This was my daughter's choice for a birthday lunch, so all the family deposited themselves in this popular branch of the chain. I had lunched previously in the original Ivy market Grill in Covent Garden, so was looking forward to this.
The place was packed on a Saturday Lunchtime with the well-heeled residents of Hertfordshire, and it was clear that if you did not have a booking, you were going to be out of luck.
I did not realise just how extensive the chain is (not mega, but enough to widely available throughout the country in places with money) and it amazes me, in retrospect how they have not fallen foul of the curse of chain restaurants: indifferent foods catering to the lowest common denominator. In the current times, when well known mid-priced chains are falling like dead flies, it is reassuring that someone knows how to make things work.
We had a big family table, and must have frightened some of the other diners with our collection of small children, but they know how to behave in smart establishments, so we all just got on with it. The menus are not huge and this is probably part of the key to success. Find a few great dishes that can be produced consistently in a pleasing manner. Whilst none of my particular favourites were available, I had no difficulty in choosing dishes different to my last experiences.
For starter I had the duck liver parfait which came with Caramelised hazelnuts, truffle, tamarind glaze with pear and ginger compote, toasted brioche (toast) and was a pleasingly large portion of tasty pate

It looked a bit strange before cutting into it, rather like a rice crispie pie with jam on the top. I found this very satisfying.
For main I chose Monkfish and prawn curry - £17.95 Keralan curry with jasmine rice, coconut “yoghurt”, coriander and sweet potato crisps

Whilst not the most spicy of curries, it was properly flavoured, and more importantly, hot, scoring 8.6 on the CHOF scale. Wonderful stuff with enough rice and yoghurt which I did not use. I liked this and would recommend.
I shared a creme brulee with my wife for desert, as the food had been most filling.

Whilst lacking the warmth of a freshly cooked/flamed brulee, it was a good one of its kind.

Also recommended.

We did not drink as a group, and I just had a pot of coffee, which could have been fresher.

Altogether this was a memorable meal, and the hot food was hot. All our party were happy with the outcome, and we would definitely go there again.

It does get crowded, and it was a bit on the noisy side, but the inside is attractive and spacious. Service was slow but accurate: it did not matter for us, but I think that if you dine when it is busy, you need to leave enough time. It is not cheap, and you are unlikely to emerge for under £50-60 per head, but you get what you pay for.

This place hit the spot for me, and I would go there again, no question.

Piebury Corner, Kings Cross. Smart Pies for the nouveau pie eater

8th Feb 2019
I first read of Piebury Corner in Time Out, and my love of Steak and Kidney Pies made me put on the 'to do' list. When the opportunity presented, finding myself in Kings Cross (just up the Caledonian Road) rather than the other home at Highbury Corner, I gave them a try for a late lunch on a Thursday.
When I went, which was at about 2pm, the place was pretty deserted except for a younger David Hockney lookalike (who made the staff take a video of him eating his pie and had successfully parked on the double yellow line outside).
I was only really interested in the s and k, so the lunchtime offers were not available to me.
Everything is sold separately, so you have to order the pie and the side and even the gravy is an extra.
The cafe is small with old fashioned zinc topped table and chairs. It can probably hold about 20+ at a pinch, and I noted that for evenings, they took bookings. I would be interested to find out if that is when the action really happens.
When you go in, from the point of view of the door, it might look as if you had entered a bar/bistro with its small range of bottles and the gleaming expresso machine

 The picture above give you a sense of scale of the place. At the time of my visit, they were also offering an art exhibition by Tony Husband, who I knew to author the Yobs cartoon in Private Eye, and had drawn the cartoon for a story which I had published some years ago. Most of his work was on the tiles of the toilet, so worth going if only to see the art.

My order was a budget order of Steak and Kidney pie and chips. The quality of the pie was excellent and it scored an 8.6 on the CHOF scale. In retrospect, I think I should also have ordered the gravy to go with it. The chips were also of good quality.

It is difficult to tell from my photo, but the portion sizes are small. Another web site has described them as being 'sensible size', but when you are into eating pies, sense does not come into the equation, and to be frank, I had expected to leave feeling a bloated, but this was not the case. In terms of quality of the product, I could not fault them: unlike so many commercial steak and kidney pies that you might buy at a supermarket, this had lots of kidney and meat. The pastry was not too thick and the consistency was just right.

The staff were encouraging and friendly, and a I got chatting to the waitress/counter staff who claimed to come from Baltimore via Arkansas. It was a bizarre mix of the merits of Bill Clinton and the dangers of downtown Baltimore.

This had started out for me with the intention of being a cheap quick lunch stop, but the Pie cost £7, and the chips £3, and there was 10% automatically added on to the bill. I was too mean to ask for drink and/or desert, as it seemed that this could quite easily get out of hand. On the other hand, if you were coming here as an evening main event, I could see that the extras would only bring this into the realm of a reasonably priced night out. I could have had the set lunch meal for about £8, but I wanted to try the S and K, which was not on the lunch menu.

If I wanted to take the pie home in its cooked cold state, that would be £4. I am contemplating buying a batch for the freezer.

Will I go back there again? Probably, but this is not the place for a romantic meal, and women might fail to be impressed, unless they really really like pies and small cafes. This was probably the best steak and kidney pie I have tasted in a long time.