Minced beef pie with mashed potato and a green parsley liquor, the working-class East End plate served at counters like Manze's since 1902.
Pie and mash shops opened in east and south London from the 1840s, serving cheap minced-beef pies with mash and a parsley liquor made from the cooking water of jellied eels. F. Cooke (1862), M. Manze (1902 at Tower Bridge Road) and Goddards in Greenwich kept the form unchanged through the twentieth century: heavy ceramic plates, a knife and fork, optional jellied eels on the side. The trade declined as Cockney London moved out post-war; the survivors (G. Kelly on Roman Road, F. Cooke in Hoxton, several Manze's branches) trade as heritage spots in 2026.
2 editor picks for Pie and mash in London, ranked by editorial score. All London signature dishes · Pie and mash across every city.
Quality Chop House ★ 4.6
clerkenwell · 92-94 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3EA
The 1869 Farringdon Road working-class dining room in Clerkenwell London, restored under Will Lander since 2012, runs daily-changing British cooking in original Victorian booths.
The Eagle ★ 4.4
clerkenwell · 159 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3AL
Britain's first gastropub on Farringdon Road in Clerkenwell London, opened 1991 by Mike Belben and David Eyre, still serves Mediterranean-leaning daily-changing food at the bar.