Mother Mash - Carnaby — Restaurant in London

Every once in a while you stumble on the perfect little spot. Simple, straightforward, unassuming, reasonably priced & excellent service. This is that experience. We almost walked on by, after seeing 3 counter seats facing the windows and 4 tables, in a room about the size of our bathroom. We'd walked 40 minutes to get here tho, there was a slight chill in the air & a light drizzle- it was also 830pm & we were hungry... very hungry. This was a spot we'd picked in advance as our last meal. Meant to be a stick to your ribs and sleep hard before the 24hr trip home. OMG - am I glad we cracked that door open & strolled in! Beyond the register stretched a larger seating area, with plenty of patrons. The gent working was a right jolly fellow & he was ready to talk us through the menu. Apparently we looked enough like tourists to be easily spotted. I'll mention we were the only people inside at that time not speaking the Queen's English. The menu is simple enough: choose your mash, your meat / pie / veg & your gravy. I opted for colcannon mash, beef stout pie & onion gravy - it was the PERFECT meal for the evening. Without much arm twisting, we were talked into the Sticky Toffee Pudding with ice cream & sauce (by talked into, I mean they almost had time to ask if we wanted dessert). Now, this dessert had staff giggling at us while we moaned and sighed & thoroughly enjoyed every bite. I'm not a fan of the nuts used & didn't expect to do more than try a bite - but after one bite - it was spoon wars til the end. Delicious Food, Welcoming Staff, Great Prices & they have a toilet! I've bookmarked them for future visits and I've already recommended them to several coworkers. If you eat only one thing here, make it the Sticky Toffee Pudding - but do yourself a favor and order the...

Seems like Monster Mash rolls off the tongue easier than Mother Mash. Perhaps that's why I was a little surprised to see how small and cramped it is in here. Luckily we came for a late lunch and there were only a few patrons around.

The ordering situation here is very simple. You can either have two sausages or a pie, with mashed potatoes and gravy. Sausage (£9.50) and a Pie combo (£10.25)

We sat in a cozy little wooden booth and shared Classic Mash with Aberdeen Angus Steak Pie and Traditional gravy, and Cheesy Mash with Beef & Guinness sausage, Cumberland pork sausage and Farmer's Gravy.

Classic - Natural mash with milk & butter: Ok, but rather gummy, chewy, and dense

Cheesy - Natural mash with mature cheddar: Ok, but also dense and not very cheesy

Aberdeen Angus Steak Pie: Good! Chock full of beef chunks and gravy inside the pie. The crust could have been more flaky, but the mashed potatoes and sauces left the crust rather soggy.

Beef & Guinness sausage: Good! Very faint alcohol flavor

Cumberland - Classic British pork with pepper: Good! Very salty, porky flavor

Traditional - Simple gravy using juice from sausages and vegetables: Good! Thick, smooth gravy, very savory

Farmer's Gravy - red wine, onion, smoked bacon and mushrooms: Great! Tasty red wine flavor

£4.95 Bulmers Original Cider: nice and sweet to complement all the salty food

Overall, the food was good and pretty reasonably priced for a complete meal. Some of the items could use some improvement. If I were a local, I'd probably come back to try other pies and sausages. The service was friendly and the food came fairly quickly. I give Mother Mash...

Four of us went twice. First evening was full with a long queue outside so we made a reservation for dinner the following day instead. Second evening we were brought to our table and offered menus. After a few minutes a blonde lady came up and asked rather sharply if we were ready to order. We ignored her manner and requested a few more minutes to study the menu. Orders in, we waited for our food while sipping our drinks. Three steak and stout pies and one minced beef pie. All four pies had pale, doughy, undercooked and soggy bottoms. The mash was all right but nothing to shout about. Mine had horseradish in it, which sadly harmed more than helped the mash, as it was too sweet and tangy, with none of the characteristic eye-watering bite of horseradish, that I was looking forward to. The steak filling was tender and beefy but lacked any other flavour despite the dark and rich-looking gravy; it could have used more salt, pepper and onion flavour. The minced beef filling was starchy and quite tasteless. We all agreed a cold Gregg's steak bake is miles ahead in texture, aroma and flavour. When the plates were cleared, we were asked if we wanted dessert but after the middling pies, of course we did not want to take a chance on dessert. We politely declined and barely 30 seconds later, (although there were at least three empty tables within immediate sight) we were given the bill though we had not asked for it and still had lots of our beers and drinks to finish! They might as well have told us to get out! Total letdown in terms of food quality and service after all the glowing reviews. Absolutely not...