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May the 4th is as good a time as any to review a Winchester Restaurant that happens to contain a lot of Star Wars Themed stuff (even down to a Darth Vader hand drier in the loo!). You aren't just surrounded by Star Wars stuff at Piecaramba!, there's an overall pop culture/comic/sci fi theme, and you are more than welcome to choose a comic/book and browse over a pint of tea (yes, really!) whilst you wait for your pie...
Talking of which, you have 22 flavours of pie to choose from, including vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options, all with pretty imaginative names such as Al Piecino, 'Shroom Raider and The Pieoneer.
We visited on a Saturday lunch time with our two boys in tow... You often get a sense of whether a place is going to be child friendly as soon as you step through the door, and from the warm welcome we could tell all would be well.
Piecaramba! has plenty to keep small people occupied by the way, from the top trump packs that hang at the end of each table, to the booth that has a vintage Nintendo console at one end - not to mention the child friendly food. The repeat Super Mario Kart sessions meant that we were able to have a nice relaxed meal (you might want to book ahead though as there's only one console. We were lucky as we were first through the door!) once the Three Year old had stopped endlessly driving into "the sea".
As you might inspect, Piecaramba! has a very "pie centric" menu, but the kids menu does include a decent sausage roll, which I guess isn't technically a pie... The meal deals come with a choice of mash, mushy peas, onion gravy or liquor. You can choose to top your pie with cheese and onions, or if you are really hungry (and you would have to be really hungry, we are not talking small portions here) you can go for a Piefull Tower (a two pie stack of with mash and peas). There's also a "Piescraper" for super hungry super heroes who think they are able to take on the challenge of three pies with all the trimmings. If you polish the lot of within 10 minutes you will bag yourself a special t-shirt plus a place on the Piecaramba! Hall of Fame...
We opted for a Holy Cow ( steak and ale pie) with mustard mash and spiced mushy peas, an El Bandito (chicken in a habenero sauce with chorizo) with cheesy mash and peas, and a Chick chick chick chick 'Shroom (chicken and mushroom) again with cheesy mash and peas, plus a kids sausage roll for the least hungry of our gang. You order at the till and can pay up front which means there's no hanging around for the bill...
The portions were generous and the pies well filled. There was plenty of steak, chicken and mushrooms in the fillings, and the El Bandito was as spicy as it promised to be (you have been warned if you can't handle spicy!) The pastry was crispy and buttery, and the mash and peas were both really good as was the onion gravy and the liquor. Do watch out for the lid on the Henderson's sauce bottle, if you are not careful, your pie will be swimming in the stuff. Needless to say, one of us was not careful...
None of us had room for one of their dessert pies this visit which was a bit of a shame as the special of the day was a creme egg pie, but I am pretty sure we will be back.
We found Piecaramba! to be really good value, with a decent sized lunch for the four of us coming in at under £5o...
Piecaramba! is currently listed in the top ten list Winchester Restaurants according to TripAdvisor. You can find the Winchester Branch on Parchment Street, and a Southampton Branch opened in 2018...
11a Parchment Street
Winchester
SO23 8AT