Tom Doorleyreviews South William, D2
There's nothing quite like a good pie. It may not be convenience food, in the sense that the proper version takes time and skill to make, but it's certainly easy to eat. And if you combine good pastry with a judicious filling, along with some salad on the side, you have a complete meal. But we don't take pies seriously in this part of the world. There's Dingle pie, in which the pastry is traditionally made with mutton fat and the filling is long-simmered mutton. And we have some enthusiasm for steak and kidney, but savoury pies have barely caught on.
South William, an almost painfully fashionable bar, seems to have seen the error of our ways, and instead of producing the usual range of pub food it serves a small range of pies and a tiny selection of wines. When we asked the barman if there was anything in the way of dessert he suggested that a creamy pint of Guinness was the best option.
I like this minimalist approach to good food, and at South William the food is very good indeed. The bar had the brainwave of getting Troy Maguire, formerly of L'Gueuleton, to create its small range of pies. Maguire has a knack for combining simplicity with an unfussy form of imagination (which we can look forward to experiencing again when he heads the kitchen at the new Lock's, which opens in a month or so).
We had a glass of Prosecco and a pint of Budvar as starters (there are no conventional ones) and, in the interests of fair and balanced reporting, ordered three pies. Each involved a crunchy but not-too-thick shortcrust pastry with a pronounced dome on top, and none of them committed the cardinal sin of having a lonesome and meagre scoop of filling rattling around in the cavernous interior. No, these pies, which cost €8.95 each, were packed.
The first to go under the knife contained tender chunks of venison in what seemed to be a kind of red-wine gravy with roasted "winter roots", such as carrot and parsnip, and a generous seasoning of thyme.
The second was billed as bacon, cabbage and parsley sauce. It could have been exceptionally horrible, but it had been very carefully put together. The bacon was not too salty, the cabbage was not exactly al dente but nor was it wildly overcooked, and the parsley sauce was cleverly positioned on top of the rest of the contents, to avoid a soggy bottom. The sauce was packed with finely chopped fresh parsley and seasoned with nutmeg.
A purist might argue that such pies should be cooked from scratch on demand rather than being parcooked and simply finished in the oven before serving, as I suspect is the case here. But that parsley sauce was so good it didn't matter that it was more solid than liquid, thanks to reheating.
Our third and final pie contained a combination of chilli beans, avocado and Cheddar. The cheese was grated on top, and the interior was packed with haricot and kidney beans in a fairly spicy tomato sauce. We could find no particular evidence of avocado, but it was a fine, almost meaty pie.
With two Budvars, a glass of Prosecco, a glass of red wine and a big glass bottle of Vittel mineral water, the bill came to €55.90, excluding service. I'll be back to try the duck confit and red cabbage.
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Wine choice
The food may be radical, but the short wine list plays safe and assumes that the average customer is still into the New World. Norte Chico Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc are reasonable Chileans, reasonably priced at €19, or €5 for a glass. Lo Tengo Malbec's label is arguably more interesting than the wine inside (also €19). Stormy Cape Chenin is decent if a bit sweet. L'Ésprit de Nijinsky, from Provence, is oaky and dark, a decent buy at €23. Finca Antiqua Tempranillo, at €25, is similar but with more body. There is the ubiquitous Pinot Grigio at €25 and the lovely white Bordeaux Château Tour de Mirambeau, fresh and zesty, at €23. Prosecco at €40 a bottle or €9 a glass, especially this rather bland one, is a bit steep.