This historic pie shop has been serving the same comfort food since 1890
In a city where lunch can easily cost £15 or more, finding a sit-down meal for £6.50 feels almost impossible. So I went to try one of London’s oldest pie and mash shops to see if it was actually worth it.
Goddards at Greenwich has been serving customers since 1890 and is now in its sixth generation of family ownership. From the outside it looks traditional, and inside it feels like stepping straight into old London.
By 10 am, there was already a queue forming at the counter. The walls are lined with old photographs, and many of the customers looked like they’d been coming for years.
I ordered the traditional minced beef pie and mash, which at £6.50 is the cheapest option on the menu. It arrived exactly how you’d expect – golden pastry, two scoops of mash and a generous helping of bright green parsley ‘liquor’.
The pie itself was simple and no-frills. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it was hot, filling and proper comfort food, which is rare to find in London for less than a tenner.
On its own, the pie and mash tasted fairly plain, but that seems to be the point – I felt like I was tasting the first pie ever made. There’s salt, pepper, homemade vinegar and even chilli vinegar on the table so you can adjust the flavour to your liking.
The parsley liquor was the most unusual part of the dish. It used to be made with eel stock but is now vegetarian, but the flavour is still definitely different to anything you’d normally pour over mash.
If the traditional minced beef isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other options. Steak and ale, chicken and mushroom, lamb and rosemary, chilli minced beef and vegetarian pies are mostly priced between £6.50 and £7.20.
You can also upgrade to double pie and mash for £9.20, still under £10. Extras like peas or beans are available, and hot or jellied eels are on the menu too.
Dessert is hard to resist when handmade fruit pies start at £3.90. You could add that to the pie and mash and it would still be just 40p over a tenner.
Is it the best pie I’ve ever eaten? Probably not. But in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, a filling sit-down meal for £6.50 is what really makes this place stand out.
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