M. Manze
RARELY PERFORMED THESE DAYS but a smash-hit in its own, the musical Me and My Girl premiered in the West End in late 1937. Telling the story of a cheerful Cockney, Bill Snibson, who is discovered to be the long-lost Earl of Hareford, it sparked the dance craze known as the Lambeth Walk. Watched or listened to now, it’s a reminder of a time when class was the defining factor in London lives up and down the social scale. If, as Lord Hareford, Bill would have been found at Wiltons, as plain old Mr Snibson, he would surely have lunched at M Manze. Established in 1902, and still in the hands of its founding family, this purveyor of superlative pie and mash remains, as it has always been, a local place for local people.
Beautiful in its simplicity, the bill of fare includes jellied eels, a dish that can rightfully be called the caviar of the East End. As an alternative to gravy, you can order the green parsley sauce known as ‘liquor’; as an alternative to a mug of tea, you can opt for sarsaparilla, a fruit cordial served either hot or cold. Although you can eat in, on a wooden pew at a marble-topped table in a tiled interior virtually untouched since the Edwardian era, you can also take away. Indeed, the reputation of Manze’s pies is such that they’re now available for home delivery anywhere in the mainland UK.
See also: Mustard, Regency Café, Simpson’s Tavern
