Tudor House, Santa Monica, CA

Tudor House
1403 Second Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401
310-451-4107
http://www.thetudorhouse.com/
Bakery, breakfast, lunch, and tea room. Not open for dinner.
Plenty of surface and structure parking nearby for 3rd Street Promenade.

Visited: February 2010

This review is of the numerous pies that you can buy either in the Bakery or have served in the restaurant for Lunch. They're quite the value when purchased in the Bakery - prices range between $2.95 -$3.95. In the restaurant, they're $8.50 and served with Tudor House Salad. They're easy to reheat in the oven or toaster oven, 350*F for about 10 minutes.

All of the pies have a very rich crust, and are quite filling.

Cornish Pastie - ground beef and veggies in a nice gravy. This was one of our favorites with a great flavor.

Beef and Onion - a very fine ground meat and onion filling; almost felt like mushroom duxelles. This was a little salty, and you definitely need the crust to help cut the saltiness. Overall, though, this was one of our favorites.

Beef and Potato - a nice mix of meat and potatoes. This also was a good choice.

Steak and Kidney - chunks of steak and kidney. Rather bland.

Lamb Vindaloo - it was definitely a lamb curry of some sort, but did not taste like vindaloo.

Lamb and Mint - well, I wanted to try this one, but it confirmed that I don't like mint with my lamb. I ended up picking out the meat chunks - those were tender and tasty.

Vegetable Curry - A nice mix of potatoes and veggies. A different texture than some of the pies in that you could feel chunks instead of the feeling being smooth. Nice spice flavor.

Chicken Curry - a soft mix of chicken and veggies. It has a nice little spicy kick.

Chicken and Mushroom - a nice blend of chicken and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. But like all of the other pies, there's just enough sauce to hold it together; no need to worry about any gravy spilling out.

Spinach and Cheese - very very cheesey (a bright orange kinda cheese). Too salty and rich.

Spinach Artichoke - also very cheesey. I ended up picking out the artichokes.

Pork Pie - plain, and the chunks of pork were rather firm.

Scotch Pie - a mixture of ground beef and spices. This was also a very tasty pie.

I'm glad we took the opportunity to try all of the pies. It was interesting that some were so tasty, others bland. Some I would definitely get again, others definitely not. Overall, I would choose to purchase them in the bakery to take home instead of being served in the restaurant.