Pipe of Port Review by our resident Foodie Rich

March 18, 2015 by Richard

Pipe of Port Review

Thursday is the new Friday, all agreed? Normally if I make it to Thursday without popping out for a cheeky mid-week dinner I can wait till Friday, but last Thursday was a different story; the delights of Southend to London commuting topped off with a less than relaxing day at work meant only one thing, a quick text to my wife ‘Fancy dinner out tonight, after all Thursday is the new Friday?’…..it worked, seconds later a text back ‘Sounds like a plan I could kill a glass of wine LOL!’ Yes a glass of wine, now that got me thinking, where can you get a great glass of wine, not a bottle, a glass? Of course, the Pipe of Port.

Now those of you not familiar with the ‘Pipe’ (as its known to the regulars) it’s famed for two things in my view, pies, oh the pies, they deserve a two page review alone, and of course the wine. Not only has the restaurant a fabulous list by the bottle, but also some great wine by the glass. I forgot to count, but from memory there are circa 10 great reds and 10 equally great whites (I stand corrected if I have the exact number wrong), and where else can you enjoy a glass of Southend Chardonnay! Well, its not actually from Southend but from South Africa, but lets keep that to ourselves! Martin, who owns the Pipe and his team come from a great wine background, which explains the fantastic variety and quality on offer.

We arrived at this beautiful Dickensian cellar restaurant from a chilly March evening, and what I love here is the bar immediately confronts you as soon as you walk through the door. With its candles and mood lighting it fits the venue perfectly, not forgetting the sawdust on the floor, which further adds to the atmosphere of the Pipe. They have a great selection of locally brewed beers by the bottle, cocktails, and not forgetting the wine and champers. We enjoyed a well deserved pre-dinner drink at the bar. A Georges Brewery Wakering Gold for me (yes, its brewed down the road in Gt Wakering) and a Coopers Sparkling Ale for my wife Louisa (brewed a little further away in South Australia!). There was no pressure for us to be seated straight away, so what the hell, lets have another drink. We eventually decided we should really sit down, and we where seated near the kitchen, which is nice as you get to see other orders on the pass, which does help when making a decision from the menu.

So, on to the menu, a good selection of starters, classics like prawn cocktail, a homemade soup, homemade pate, are all there, but also the odd curve ball, like stuffed pigeon breasts. They all sounded great. I opted for simple smoked salmon with brown bread, pretty simple, but I was anticipating a rich main course. Louisa chose the six fingers of toast. Now this dish is six fingers of toast, as you would expect, however, two are topped with anchovies, two with sardines and two with Stilton. This is a dish that hits you in the chops with massive flavours, and says ‘welcome to the Pipe’ quite the opposite to my salmon, but both where very good. Where do we follow? Whenever I visit the Pipe, one of their famous pies often wins the day, and I have never been disappointed. I could have chosen from steak and kidney, chicken and chestnut, lamb garlic and rosemary, game or trawler pie? I reckon there is one to suit most tastes.

However, lets try something different. I opted for the Chicken stuffed with black pudding, wrapped in bacon with a Madeira sauce, served with mashed spuds. Louisa chose the roasted rump of lamb with anchovies, capers and dauphinoise potatoes, now you don’t get more classic than that! They both arrived hot, and the portions where very generous.

Now you are probably thinking at this point, at the start of this review I made a big deal about a glass of wine. What’s great about this menu is each dish has a suggested wine match, and of course each of these wines are available by the glass, so you can have a completely different wine with your starter, main and pudding. However, we decided to have a bottle of Dandelion Vineyards Barossa Shiraz, after all, it had been one of those days. For such a fantastic robust red this was a bargain at £23, so much so, we took a couple of bottles home with us (you can buy wines from their off sales list to take home, obviously at cheaper prices). My chicken dish was generously stuffed with black pudding and along with the bacon, mash, kale and sauce it all came together perfectly. Fortunately, Louisa’s main dish was too much for her, so I managed to put away a fair amount of the lamb as well! Need I say more, capers, anchovies and lamb, this is such a classic combo what’s not to like there, I new it would taste good, and sure enough it did not disappoint. The lamb was served lovely and pink, just how I like it. After all that food, there was no room for pudding, but the pudding menu is just as classic as the mains and starters. Their lemon merengue pie is legendary. As with the main menu, each desert has a suggested pudding wine to accompany it, again available by the glass. We decided to finish with a glass of tawny Port, as we both wanted something sweet, but I reckon my trousers would have split if I had eaten any more. The bill soon arrived, all of the above for £83, which I think is reasonable as we did have a couple of pre-dinner drinks at the bar, together with the generous starters, main courses, a superb bottle of red, finished with a glass of Tawny. A perfect start to the weekend, remember, Thursday being the new Friday and all that!

Now, I did have one gripe regarding the Pipe and I stress I Did have a gripe….why the hell don’t you open on a Sunday? I am sure a ‘Pipe’ Sunday roast would soon become legendary throughout Southend if not Essex. However, whilst writing this, ‘pop up Sundays’ have just been announced! They must have read my mind!

At last, a few select dates over the coming months where the Pipe will be open on a Sunday; I need to get myself booked in to one of these! Ok, so If I had to be picky why not every Sunday, but hey, this is a good start!!

All I can say is, if you haven’t been to the Pipe, give it a try, even just a glass of something nice at the bar is like nothing else in Southend.