Fish pies

Fallon & Byrne Fish Pie, €6.95 for 550g, €12.63 per kg

Highs: This really is an excellent fish pie. Apart from being surprisingly good value, the sauce is beautifully creamy and filled with flavour, while the potatoes taste like you've just mashed them yourself. The fish is lovely, chunky and fresh and there's also a wider variety of it - including monkfish - than in the others.

Lows: It tastes quite salty, although how much salt is in it is impossible to establish as the packaging is pretty spartan. There was no information at all on the packaging other than the price, the ingredients, a best before date and the shop name. It would be nice if they could tell us how long to reheat or cook it for and whether it has to be taken from its packaging before reheating.

Verdict: Great tasting, if a little mysterious.

Star rating: *****

Marks & Spencer Gastropub Cod, Prawn and Smoked Haddock Pie, €7.89 for 660g, €11.95 per kg

Highs: The potato that tops this pie is nicely piped and it looks considerably better than the competition straight out of the oven. The mash also tastes pretty good too, the spinach gives it a healthy veneer and the very creamy sauce has a nice lemony kick to it. M&S has not been mean with the fish and prawns and what is there is nice and chunky.

Lows: While the sauce tastes nice, it is very watery and when served it quickly blends with the potato and the whole affair turns a little mushy, a shame given how nice it looks straight out of the oven. It also seems pretty pricey for an own-brand product and its size may pose something of a dilemma - it might be too small for two and too big for one.

Verdict: Good comfort food

Star rating: ****

Dunnes Simply Better Sea Food Pie 4.99 for 450g, €11.08 per kg

Highs: This tastes surprisingly good and one with a hankering for a fish pie could do a lot worse than this. It forgoes mashed potatoes in favour of potato slices, which brown nicely in the oven and taste good and crispy out. There was also a decent amount of chunky salmon.

Lows: The prawns, on the other hand were the smallest PriceWatch had ever seen and they tasted of very little indeed. At its sale price it seems a bit pricey but at its full listed price of 6.49 - which is 14.42 per kg or nearly 2 more than Fallon & Byrne's pie - it would be a very expensive indeed. The packaging promises "wholesome portions" of fish, although Lord knows what Dunnes consider to be a wholesome portion given it claims that 450g is enough for two.

Verdict: Not bad but only when on sale

Star rating: ***

Tesco Healthy Living Cumberland Fish Pie 2.95 for 450g, 6.55 per kg

Highs: This is the cheapest of the pies tried and will certainly fill you up - and at least Tesco doesn't pretend 450g is enough for two people. It is lower in salt and calories than the competition.

Lows: By comparing a low-cal healthy options pie with the more calorie-laden creamy pies we didn't expect it to taste as good but we did expect it to taste of something, which unfortunately this did not. The secret to healthy living, in Tesco-land at any rate, is potato - it makes up 52 per cent of this pie while just 20 per cent of it is given over to "white fish". PriceWatch would quite like to have been told what types of fish were used for this pie. The potato had an oddly glue-like consistency while the sauce tastes like packet soup.

Verdict: Cheap and tasteless

Star rating: **

Cully & Sully Superior Fish Pie, €5.49 for 300g, €18.30 per kg

Highs: This pie from Cork borrows its recipe from Ballymaloe and tastes very good indeed. The potato is lovely and the mushrooms are a surprising but welcome addition. The sauce is beautifully creamy and it takes just 12 minutes to reheat so is ready to eat before any of the competition. It is widely available and comes in its own ceramic bowl, which is better for the environment and for stocking up your kitchen.

Lows: While the sauce and potatoes taste great, the fish is almost irrelevant. It is made with just 17 per cent fish ( it's hard to imagine a Ballymaloe recipe being so light on the fish) yet costs a whole lot more than any of the competition.

Verdict: Tastes great but costs too much.

Star rating: ***