Mother Mash

What are some things one should do when in London or England? Well, one needs to visit all the local attractions that bring in people from all corners of the world, such as The Big Ben, The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, all the local markets and list just goes on and on. But they say that an army walks on its stomach, so how would you be able to cover all these grounds when your stomach is growling? Well, I have just what one needs to satisfy the stomach while enjoying a timeless British classic at the same time.

This special place will take you to the shopping heart and soul of the city. Yes, there’s the famous Oxford Street, but this place will take you off the beaten track. The place that I would very highly recommend that you visit for a meal is Mother Mash, a small but cozy restaurant tucked somewhere inside the buzzing Carnaby Shopping Street. If you’ve got internet on your phone, just type in the address, 26 Ganton Street, London W1F 7QZ. Otherwise, don’t be shy to pop in any store near by and ask for the name of the restaurant or simply where Ganton Street is. We actually found this place on accident one night after walking in this shopping area. It was one of the best random discoveries we made this whole London trip!

Okay, without further delay, let’s talk about Mother Mash. You could already assume by the name there’s something about Mash, as in mash potato. I couldn’t really make much sense out of Mother but that this place may have some family recipes or simply they just want a word that starts with M to link with Mash. Anyhow, you will soon find out that this place specialises in mash. Well, you may think that specialising in mash potato is easy and simple enough, but you may want to think again! I mean, it is easy, but it does get a bit more tricky when you have more than seven different types of mash! Yes, I kid you not, more than seven.

When we saw all the different mashes they do here, we decided to get into the place. Mother Mash is a super chill eaterie. I am afraid of calling it a restaurant, but it’s more towards the cafe end of the spectrum. We were starving so we dived right into the menu. The menu is very simple and straight to the point. You get two choices: either mash with sausages or mash with a pie. If you go for the sausages option, it’ll fall at £8. 45. If you go for the mash and pie option, you’ll be paying £9. 45. As expensive as England and British Pounds are, this was an amazing deal in our opinion.

Once you’ve chosen your choice, you can then go on and select the type of mash you prefer. I went for the unknown since I am always curious to taste new, and local dishes. Other than going for the classic mash with milk and butter, I challenged myself to a bubble and squeak, something that sounded like a beer manufacturing company at first glance. What this is, is mash potato with an addition of other vegetables, then fried. Oh yeah. For my main, I went for pork and cider pie, since I know how delicious pork with the sweetness of alcohol could be. And of course, you get pick your own sauce! With the two prior options in mind, I carefully chose the traditional sauce consisting of gravy from sausages and vegetables.

Another friend went for a completely different version than mine, and it must’ve been something like cheesy mash which has mature cheddar incorporated into the goodness. For his choice of pie, I think he chose the chicken, leek and bacon pie, which sounds equally as good as my pork and cider. To bring everything in together, he chose farmer’s gravy, which was a combination of red and white onions that’ve camarelized and a vegetable based stock. At this point, you could probably imagine what this taste like.

With a really good meal on the way and a lot of sightseeings during the day time, we realised it was time to celebrate with some beer. But not just any beer. We wanted to celebrate with some good, local, British beers. We strategically chose two different beers so that we could get a few sips off of each other for a taste. My mate went for Camden Hells Lager from North London, and I chose Meantime London Lager from the opposite end of the city, South London. While I was really tempted to get cider, the only option they had was Bulmer’s Original Cider from Ireland, which is also amazing, but also very easy to find elsewhere. The beers arrived at our table immediately since we were sat next to the mini bar, how lucky.

Alright, now back to the food. Everything arrived at our table within 10 minutes, which was super fast. Since they arrived so quickly, I had my doubts as to whether it was fresh or not. This doubt soon disappeared, because everything was amazing. My bubble and squeak was delicious and was a perfect eye opener. My sauce, was absolutely spot on, but my only concern was that I didn’t get enough to enjoy the whole dish thoroughly. Everything was perfect and it looked like my three choices complemented each other flawlessly. This made me think about what would happen had I went for other combinations. Anyhow, what my friend chose for this meal was also really, really good.

But to really wrap up the British dinner experience, you need to get some dessert! We didn’t though, since they just got another drink instead, but this was definitely a regret. I really should've really ordered a dessert since that would really add another picture to this post. They have desserts in two sections: British Puddings and Classic Sweet Pies. You get a choice of some really delicious-sounding desserts, such as but not limited to, saucy chocolate or sticky toffee puddings, apple pie and apple & blackberry crumble.

Starting from 11:30am, you can enjoy a more exclusive menu for lunch and dinner, in which you can go on a British adventure of good mash, good pies, good sausages, and of course, good drinks. They also have a menu for breakfast in which you could enjoy their version of the good old British breakfast tradition. This place is quite small, so I would suggest that you come with a bit of patient in case you need to wait for a table. If you’re low on patience, you could also put through an order for take away. As I said, they have great mash and pies, but they also have an interesting array of sausages. I was tempted to get the sausages actually, but was persuaded by my friend to get a pie since we were in London. Now that I look back at how delicious it was, he did have a strong point.

I would strongly advise anyone in London, looking for a good, comfort food kind of a meal, to head over to Mother Mash for a delicious experience. Yes, I say that it’s an experience since the food was superb, the drinks were great and the service was very family-like. And as per always, I have hooked you guys up with a link down at the bottom, whereby you can directly check out their breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks menu, as well as find yourself to a little map of their location! Enjoy your mash and pie/sausages, cheers!

Mother Mash

If you like the content of this post, or just want to check out some pictures that I take on my adventure, feel free to like and/or follow me on instagram at oat93, cheers!