EAT THIS NOW! Double Pie and Mash with Liquor

Manze's, Tower Bridge

Tourist or local, have you even been to London if you haven’t eaten pie and mash at least once?

Double Pie and Mash with Liquor - £13.00

The Dish

Order a ‘double double’ - two minced beef pies and two portions of mash - with liquor, and don’t even think about asking for a knife; regulars just use a fork and spoon.

Liquor is the traditional accompaniment to pie and mash, a parsley sauce often viewed with suspicion because of its mysterious name and vibrant green colour. Historically made with stock from stewing the eels (but now more usually fish stock), Manze’s liquor is made to a top-secret recipe and partly credited with the restaurant’s long-standing popularity. Salt, white pepper and chilli vinegar are available on the tables and are usually added liberally once the pie has been cut open, so don’t be shy.

The Other Dishes

Jellied eels are the stereotypical cockney knees-up dish of East London, although most Londoners I know have either never tried them or don’t like them. In conversation with one of the lovely ladies behind the counter, even she confessed that everyone she knows prefers the stewed eels.

I went to an East End wedding many years ago where a delivery of jellied eels arrived at the reception at midnight, to the delight of the revellers. I was roundly ridiculed for attempting to eat them with a knife and fork; apparently you’re supposed to pop a chunk into your mouth and then discreetly spit the central bone out into your hand. I share this fact with you to save you that pain. East End banter is a particular talent, particularly fuelled by a night’s drinking; imagine being publicly, albeit hilariously, savaged by a pack of professional stand-up comics. It worked though; I never forgot how to eat eels.

The menu is, predictably, brief: basically pie, mash, jellied or stewed eels. Perhaps surprisingly there is a vegan pie option, which I have been told by friends is excellent. They also have a delivery service - hot food locally and chilled food nationwide - which I can recommend as a very welcome gift for Londoners who have moved out of the city.

The Restaurant

Manze’s Tower Bridge is on Tower Bridge Road just at the end of Bermondsey High Street; the nearest tube station is London Bridge, which is just over a ten-minute walk.

This Manze’s is the oldest ‘eel and pie house’ still in business; others have come and gone over the years, but currently there is a branch in Peckham, opened in 1927, and a newer site in Sutton.

Everything is made fresh every day in the basement kitchen (the jellied eels are cooked from fresh and allowed to set in the fridge overnight). Pastry is made and rolled, beef boned and minced, pies made and baked in ovens that are over a hundred years old, converted from coal to gas in the ‘70s. You will see stock being sent up in the lift when supplies are running low. Listen for the bell, as the counter staff still use the same codes for the kitchen as they did when the shop first opened: they buzz once for pies; twice for mash; three times for both pie and mash; and four times for liquor.

The restaurant has the most gorgeous original Victorian tiled walls in classic green and white, large mirrors to maximise available light, traditional marble-topped tables and pew-like wooden benches. It may be slightly fanciful, but you really feel part of London’s history here.

I don’t really have a favourite table as it’s a very small restaurant with a row of communal tables, but there is a comforting sense of continuity in sitting near the back of the shop and watching the regulars arrive, settling down with their newspaper for pie, mash and mugs of builder’s tea.

Any down sides? Not everyone loves sharing tables and hard wooden benches, but it’s not somewhere you are expected to settle down for the evening. Also, whilst pie and mash is the ultimate in plain, unpretentious comfort food, it’s probably a little basic compared to your usual lunch plans. I would just like to point out that you are now a stitch in a part of London’s tapestry which stretches back well over a century. Much as I love them, how many small-plates spots under the arches can offer you that?

The People

How about this for a family-run restaurant? Opened in 1892 by Robert Cooke, who opened his first shop 30 years earlier in Brick Lane, the Tower Bridge shop was bought in 1902 by neighbouring ice cream maker Michele Manze, who was also Cooke’s son-in-law. It was passed down to his son Lionel on Michele’s death, and then to Lionel’s three sons, Graham, Geoff and Rick. It is now owned by Rick’s daughter (Michele’s great-granddaughter) Emma, and her husband Tom.

The Area

There are plenty of coffee shops in the area but my favourites are both in Bermondsey Street, less than a five-minute walk away. WatchHouse is calm and minimalist, whereas Fuckoffee is energetic and edgy, so choose accordingly; both have indoor seating and a couple of outdoor tables as well as fabulous coffee.

Bermondsey Street would also be my go-to for a local drink. The Woolpack is a great pub with a cosy beer garden at the back, complete with seats made from beer kegs. Bermondsey Corner is ideal for a glass or several of wine; in the summer months they have outside seating and they are also a bottle shop and deli with some amazing French cheese and posh tinned fish. Don’t miss their addictive smoked almonds, which you can have as a snack with your wine or to take away.

If it’s cocktails you’re after then I like Chapter 72, a laid-back coffee bar and espresso martini specialist, although they also do your standard spritzes, margs and martinis for long summer afternoons.

M. Manze, 87 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 4TW

A final word: please do comment below if you’ve been anywhere I have mentioned, if you have a dish you think I should try, or you just have something you’d like to say. One of the lovely things about Substack is the opportunity for this direct connection with your community, and I’d genuinely love to hear from you.

Thank you!