M Manze

M Manze, a famous pie place.  I get suspicious when people label a place as great because it is “an institution”.

That’s like saying that somewhere is famous.

My problem is that this can apply both positively and negatively.  They can be positively bad, institutionally rubbish or famously inedible.   So when the several reviews applauded M Manze as being something old and storied, I that to mean that it had just been around a long time.

M Manze.  Known for two things, eel and pies.  They sold some merchandise as well although that wasn’t edible unless you are particularly desperate.  So we tried the actual food instead.

Eels with liquor and mash.  The liquor is a sauce made of the stock when boiling the eels and parsley.  The eels were white bony things. The mash was potatoes boiled too long.  As for the taste, all items individually and all together tasted of fairly much nothing.  The vinegar, copious usage of the pepper grinder and an indecent amount of salt did little to save things.  Reminded me of school dinners were taste goes to die.

Minced beef pies with liquor and mash.  The pie was slightly better.  Mainly as the burnt pie cases added some flavour to this mush.  The minced beef just didn’t taste of much at all maybe as it had been overzealously cooked.  The pastry was good though but perhaps this was just in comparison.

Apparently, pie and eel shops used to be all the rage in London.  Providing a hot, cheap and filling meal for the London masses.  I note that the various historical notes on these type of shops leave out any description of the taste of the food itself.  Having been to one of these places now, I don’t think that they were trying to hide something but rather that there just wasn’t very much to talk about here.  Although, at least it was cheap but perhaps not famously cheap given recent inflation.

A quiet eating 4/10.

Lunch (pie and mash) was about GBP9 excluding drinks and service.

M Manze (no website)

105 Peckham High St,
London, SE15 5RS