An honest and real review of an infamous Whitby pie shop ~ The Humble Pie and Mash.
Would it live up to the hype? That was the main question that ran through my mind. That and, “how the **** do they justify £14 for a meat pie?!” To be brutally honest, the first time I heard about this place I nearly wet myself laughing.
My other half, a sucker for Instagram reels showcasing the best of Yorkshire and alike, had sent me the short video and suggested we went. I said no. A firm no. An utterly emphatic ‘you-must-be-joking’ no.
Yes, I know the times have changed, and I know eating out in the UK is expensive, compared to other places, and the thought of spending the better part of $30AUD on a single meat pie was enough to make me choke.
$30, for a meat pie? Tell him he’s dreamin!
To be fair, this is also based on a decade long endurance race of NEVER getting a HOT meat pie in this country. I know, I know, taxation. To sell hot food in the UK incurs higher sales tax. Utter ridiculousness.
I digress.
So, during this week’s leave we decided to take a day trip to the coast, to the North Yorkshire coast. To Whitby, and a date with a pie shop to see whether or not it could call itself Humble.
Where is it? How to find the Humble Pie and Mash
For those who haven’t been to Whitby, it’s a coastal town that’s build around a harbour. It has a long history, way longer than I want to get into here, and has a spectacular Abbey on its hilltop – the site inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Yeah, that place.
For those wanting to go, the town’s basically split in two parts over the river that becomes the harbour. To the north are a load of shops, including cookware, bakers, pubs, jewellers, secondhand/charity, grocery, etc. To the south, is not quite as affluent. It’s nice, and there are a heap of jewellery shops selling Whitby ‘Jet’, but it feels more run down. Whitby Abbey is on the south side, but is only accessible via driving up and around onto the clifftop, or by trekking up 199 steep steps.
If you want/need directions, here’s a Google Map that’ll take you right there.
As for the pie shop, it’s on the south side, just before you hit the shopping quarter. To enter, you pass through a low door – anyone over 5’6” will have to duck. This building is old. Very old, and you can read all about it on the back of the menu! (see below)
What’s the Humble pie shop like?
As someone who grew up with Grandparents who’d served in WWII, who’s own parents had been in The Great War, I’m someone who takes my period sentiment rather seriously.
My Nan and Pop, and my parents, have told me many, many tales from their lives during the wars, and growing up in the after effects. The stories my grandies told of between the wars are cherished, and are deeply associated with my becoming a chef. As too the foods my parents grew up eating, and later fed me from infancy onwards.
Humble Pie and Mash – the scoop
Why am I saying all this? Because the Humble Pie and Mash is a yester-year place. Mismatched wooden tables and chairs, minimal tableware and service, and best of all, a from-scratch kitchen.
Yes, ingredients probably come from packets, but all the assembly is done onsite. The pastry for the pies, the meat and gravy, the custard and the puddings, it’s all made fresh and served at the appropriate temperature. Just like Nan used to.
Sitting there for over an hour, while we first ordered and then slowly savoured our pies with mash, we were serenaded by wartime classic songs. The pies came served in an enamel pie plate, the kind our grandparents took on camping trips or made a family-size pie in. Whilst at first glance this seems a bit gimmicky, it’s actually quite wise – stops the gravy from getting too far away from the mash or the pie!
We also ordered hot chocolates, with cream. The joke being, I don’t chocolate. I’m one of those rare beings that isn’t at all fixated on cocoa and it’s influence. To be clear, if the world relied on me to consume chocolate to survive, we’d have gone the way of the dinosaurs a loooong time ago.
Is there a point to stating this? Yes, because the hot chocolate was what you dream of; thick and luscious, sweet but not sickeningly so, it left a coating over your mouth and tongue that made you crave more, but equally satisfied with what you’d had. That is a rare thing. To hit all those notes, in one go, that’s skill.
What’s all the hype about this Whitby pie?
What about the pie? I hear you ask, I know, but it’s hard to explain. This isn’t like a standard Australian pie. There’s no flaky or puff pastry here, it’s old school hot water pastry, top and bottom. This type of casing has been around since Adam was a boy, and probably long before too!
The pastry is firm, study, up to the task of being baked for a period of time in a hot oven, and not lose it’s strength. It equally wasn’t like biting into a house-brick, as some can become. No, this shell and lid were spot on, golden on top, perfectly cooked underneath, and not a soggy bottom in sight!
I’m always a little dubious about pie fillings. I find quite often the ‘packed with meat’ claim is… well, misleading at best. More often than not, pies are half-empty, a gelatinous gob of something unidentifiable, and quite probably shouldn’t be ingested my humans. These, are not those pies.
Taking the lid off, to get a better view of what I was dealing with, I discovered that these meat pies were dangerously full – of HOT meat and gravy! There was no way anyone would avoid getting a third-degree burn if they’d been foolish enough to manhandle these pies and take a greedy bite out of them. Painful, but worth it, I assume.
To finish the dish we had mash and peas; one garden and one mushy. Garden peas is self-explanatory, but for the uninitiated, mushy peas are what they sound like. Partly pureed, part chunky, mushy peas are a nostalgic green mush that has a polarising popularity. You love it, or not. Try it sometime, see what you think.
Did we finish or were we Humbled?
I wish, for the sake of decorum, that I could say we didn’t finish. It’s a rather generous portion all in all, and I can well understand how many do not finish it. But, we did. It was too delicious, pure and simple. However, we were f.u.l.l. afterwards. So much so we decided to take ourselves off for a 90min walk.
Dragging ourselves around the harbour, up and down every alleyway and street we could manage, we slowly pushed and prodded space in our stomachs. We weren’t overly full, far from, however you see, Humble Pie and Mash also do puddings.
Yes, the counter-part to the humble pie is the even more humble pudding!
No one warned us there were puddings! But we won’t do that to you. No, we fought off the ‘should we vs shouldn’t we’ argument and returned 90mins later to sample some more wares, and another hot chocolate. I told you they were good!
It’s a tough choice though, sticky toffee, spotted dick, jam roly poly, or bread and butter, there was much to debate. Tortuous minutes later we ordered; one jam roly poly at the suggestion of the owner’s son/server, and a sticky toffee. Can anyone actually resist a sticky toffee? We can’t.
If pie isn’t your thing, or the thought of shelling out £14 for a pie doesn’t float your boat, try the pudding and a hot chocolate. You can do that for under £10, and the portion sizes are just as generous as the mains.
Humble Pie and Mash, Whitby, North Yorkshire – Yes or No?
It’s easy to get taken in by social media hype. More often than not, restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars, etc are all being coerced into sponsoring influencers to promote their location and experiences.
In an age where we’re inundated by falseness, in the form of AI and paid promotions, finding an authentic and honest voice, a genuine opinion based on personal experience as a paying customer feels incredibly hard to find. Because they are hard to find. There aren’t many of us left, the honest critic, not mean, just honest and fair.
Which is why I’d say, if you’re in Whitby, and you fancy a hot meal, go get yourself a pie and/or pudding at Humble Pie and Mash. Honestly, they really do a fantastic job. It’s not fancy, it’s not haute cuisine, but it is good, old fashioned, hearty fayre that’ll keep you fuelled for hours.
We really enjoyed chatting with our server, who turned out to be the owner’s son. He helped us choose which pies, and puddings, we’d like, and was really welcoming and friendly, without being overly. It was the perfect blend of attentive without being pushy.
The shop’s a 5min walk from the nearest car park on Church St, or <10 from the railway station. Not far away are the steps, if you fancy the climb to the abbey before or after you eat (fuel up, or recovery, either will work well), so all in all, it’s a perfect spot to make your trip to Whitby truly memorable. Oh, and they do take away, so if you can’t sit a while, you can still grab and go without missing out! FOMO sorted!
Ultimately, as someone who’d groused about the cost of a meat pie, as someone who’s been pretty hacked off for a decade at the lack of hot meat pies in the UK, would I go again? Yes. Yes I would. Not only that, but as I’m blessed to still have my mum around, I’m really looking forward to taking her the next time we’re out in North Yorkshire. I just won’t let her see the prices!
Humble Pie spend:
- 2 x Slow Braised Steak and Stout Pies £14.99ea
- 2 x Puddings £5.99ea
- 4 x Hot chocolate w/cream £3.25ea
- = £54.96 Total
This Humble Pie and Mash in Whitby review is not sponsored in anyway, all opinions are my own. If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, please consider subscribing to TheBiteLine or over at Substack if you prefer.