G. Kelly

526 Roman Road, Bow, London
Visited 23rd July 2009

Well I'm certainly having all the authentic London experiences aren't. A visit to Gordon’s Wine Bar and then I stumbled across G. Kelly while looking for fishing tackle near my brother’s place on the Roman Road. This joint is about as traditional as you can get. Apparently the Kelly family started selling eels and pies in 1915 and one of their sons Gordon opened this pie and eel shop at the market on Roman Road in the 1930s. Inside its white and shinny; all tiles and lino, and about as old school as you can get.Ordering at G. Kelly is pretty simple as they sell the same traditional English delicious they’ve been selling for years: pies, sausages and eels, accompanied by mashed potato and either traditional parsley sauce or gravy. I went for a couple of Cumberland sausages with mash, parsley sauce and a sly little pie on the side. The thick sausages were really tasty; meaty and flavoursome. The stupidly big pile of mash was a tad dry, but went down OK when smothered in parsley sauce that was interestingly made with the dried herb rather than fresh. As a good Aussie boy I’ve eaten plenty of pies in my time and the crisp, flaky little package I got a G. Kelly was the best I’ve had in a while. Apart from the excellent pastry it was filled with good quality beef that was nicely seasoned with plenty of pepper. G. Kelly is about as far as you can get from fine dinning, yet there’s something pretty satisfying about a plate overflowing with simple, nourishing food. I really enjoyed both sausages and especially the delicious pie; I enjoyed the retro setting and I enjoyed the prices are seem to be from several generations ago. £2.80 for the sausages and mash and another £1.60 for a beef pie; £4.40 is a bit of a bargain for what was literally an overflowing pile of food. G. Kelly is London as it should be.

Visit restaurant website.