G Kelly

Date of visit: 9th Dec 2025, 1700
Score: 10/10

Many years ago, the sons of one of my university lecturers started a podcast called Unified Review Theory. The idea was that they would review absolutely everything in the universe. Of course, they failed. I suffer from the same urge: to catalogue absolutely everything. I usually stop myself, but this time I’ve started a new blog to catalogue Pie and Mash (P&M).

We start this adventure in the shop where I had P&M for the second time. Believe it or not, I didn’t get around to trying proper P&M until much later in life. This is despite that fact that I studied in east London and I lived in Hackney, Mile End and Wanstead between 1993 and 1999. In fact, I lived about 500 metres from a P&M shop when I lived in Wanstead for 4 years. But alas, I never went to one.

One day, when I was working in South Quay, I took the DLR to Greenwich and had P&M in the shop there. This must have been before 2010 but well after 2004. I’m not sure what the shop was called, but I should revisit. I didn’t go for P&M again for years. It must have been around 2019 or 2020 when I popped into G Kelly for the first time. I was working in the university library on one of my publications and I went there for lunch. At the time, I was not impressed. The pastry wasn’t cooked properly. But this must have been a one off, because I have better news from the recent visit.

In a similar vein to P&M, it’s taken me a little while to get around to writing this visit up. I’m a little behind with a great many things.

The 9th of December was a Tuesday and I was due to go to a comedy event in Bethnal Green. Usually, I would not eat carbs on a weekday, but I’d spent the day at the Royal Veterinary Hospital with one of my dogs. I saw that G Kelly was open until 6pm. I also quite fancied a drink.

Now a problem that is becoming more frequent for me as I get older, is I need to pop to the toilet more often. I got off a Mile End and there is nowhere to go. I headed up to the P&M shop and on the way stumbled upon a pub. A Young’s pub called the Green Goose to be precise.

Yes, yes, yes. I know what you are thinking. I don’t go to the pub very often and I don’t drink beer very much. But it would be rude to go to the pub, use the facilities and not have a drink. So, I ordered a pint of Young’s Ordinary (or Original as it is now called). It came in a jug and it was beautiful. Crisp, clear. Everything a pint of real ale should be. But I digress, we were on our way to a P&M shop.

The shop is open relatively late in the day for a P&M establishment. It’s open until 6 Tuesday to Thursday, and until 7 on Friday and Saturday. It’s also open on Sunday. Also, they take credit card. Many P&M shops are still cash only.

The menu is a standard P&M shop one: various combinations of pie and mash, and eels. There is apple crumble and ice cream for dessert. There are also fresh seafood and takeaway options. During my visit, many people popped in and ordered pies and liquor to go.

The liquor is the parsley sauce, traditionally made with the cooking water from the eels. Now, I’m not a particular fan of eels so I didn’t order them today, but in the future, I will write a bit more about them.

As this is our first visit for this blog, we need to set a standard that we will order everywhere. This will hopefully make the blog a fair comparison of P&M shops. I ordered: two pies with double mash, liquor and a cup of tea.

You are supposed to turn the pies upside down and open them up. I add chilli vinegar to one of the pies and leave the other as is. The chilli adds a bit of extra bite. And this is what I will do when I do these reviews.

Vinegar is good at cutting the fatty taste out of food. It’s great with fish and chips. Try it on corned beef as well. These days, there is probably little need for it. But it’s a tradition at P&M shops. There’s usually normal vinegar and chilli vinegar. Some people add lashings of white pepper. But not me.

But back to these pies. They are delicious. These pies are full of meat and gravy. The pastry is cooked just fine. The liquor is not overpowering. The food is hot and filling. The tea is strong and tasty too. And the cost is £10.80 in total. Not bad at all for a filling nutritious meal.

The shop has been a P&M shop since the 1920s, but George Kelly took it over in 1939. It was sold to family in the mid-50s. George Kelly’s father, Samuel Robert Kelly opened a P&M shop in Bethnal Green. Several of the family opened P&M shops too. This is a family business that continues today.

Being in the east end, the shop supports West Ham United (nobody is perfect of course). Often, they stay open late to feed the supporters on the way to the match.

This is a friendly establishment offering cheap and nutritious food. Also takeaway and delivery is available via the usual websites (JustEat, Deliveroo, etc.).

We need to establish a scoring system for this blog, so as this is the first P&M entry, we will do it here. The criteria I came up with are:

• Authenticity - are the pies made and cooked onsite (1 point)
• Cost - are the prices reasonable (1 point)
• Presentation - do the pies look good (2 points)
• Portion size - are the pies big enough (2 points)
• Taste - the most important factor of all, are the pies tasty (3 points)
• Condiments available - are the vinegars available and are they good (1 points)

Running through these for G Kelly: the pies are cooked onsite and the presentation is perfect. You cannot argue with a few pence short of £11 for a meal. The pies are full of meat. The taste is delicious and the liquor is spot on. The shop provides its own branded vinegars and they are good. So top marks for G Kelly.

G Kelly
526 Roman Rd, Old Ford, London E3 5ES
Tel: 02089803165
Web: www.gkelly.london

Green Goose
112 Anglo Rd, Old Ford, London E3 5HD
Tel: 02030583728
Web: www.greengooselondon.com/