An East End London classic 

This is the original fast food of London and more specifically the east end of London. Forget your fish and chips, chicken and chips and doner. All of them have arguably come from other parts of the world and have become part of our cuisine due to the wonderful multicultural nature of the capital. But the original fast food go to was this: pie mash and liquor. Such pie shops churn out pies and customers like your average chippy. It really is that fast if not faster. F Cooke is the oldest pie shop in the game. They have been doing the London classic, the London traditional, pie mash and liquor since 1868! Making them the oldest establishment to be doing this London gem of a dish. It is claimed that Robert Cooke was the first to put pie, mash and liquor together on a plate! They also do jellied eels which is another traditional delicacy. It’s a daunting looking and sounding dish. But we couldn’t try that because they use meat broth, and that won’t be suitable for the halal or vegetarian diet.

Their menu and old school vibes 

F Cooke’s menu is simple, much like any traditional pie shop (not like your flower wall more businessman than chef spot that tries to do everything under the sun these days). Essentially, they’ve got three things on the menu. But everyone is here for the pie and mash. You simply choose small or large. The second thing is the aforementioned daunting jellied eels. And the third thing is actually an off the menu item, fruit pie with custard/cream to finish off your meal. What did we get? We got the vegan pie because the original isn’t halal. We couldn’t get the jellied eels as mentioned earlier and they were out of fruit pies unfortunately. So, just the pie and mash for us. And the traditional London way is to serve it with liquor, which is actually a parsley sauce. Do not mention the G word here (gravy)!! You then drench it with chilli vinegar, and dig in!

The service was impeccable and something you’d expect from an east end joint. Very jovial, welcoming and warm reception. And their popularity is evident through the amount of visitors (who looked like regulars). I mean she knew their names and their orders! While we sat there waiting for our vegan pie (this took longer than usual because I’m assuming most order the original beef pie and so ours wasn’t ready to go), we witnessed numerous groups of customers walk in, eat and leave. All within minutes. Seemed like a very quick, cheap reliable go to meal for these locals. The turnover was unreal. We must’ve had 4 or 5 different groups sit next to us in the little time we were there. We loved the vibes! It was like going back in time. They had kept not only the menu and the recipe the same, but also little things like the chilli vinegar on the table, the no gravy rule, the fact that only spoons and forks are used (no knives) and the fun fact below is the best of all!