The Price of Pudding.
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Recommendation added: 11/03/2006 01:11
By: dewberry (YSUK rating +825)dewberry has been thanked 2 times for this contribution
"We had a weekend in Derbyshire last month, and when I texted my mum to tell her we'd found a place to stay in Bakewell she immediately replied to say bring her back a tart. Luckily we'd already spotted a quaint little shop called 'The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop' so this was the first port of call. Set in the centre of Bakewell Village, the Pudding Shop immediately caught my eye because of the prettiness of the exterior of the place. The whole of Bakewell village seems to be built with huge great blocks of stone, and the Pudding Shop is no exception. It looks quaint, with the dark green paintwork and white stone I almost expected to see an E on the end of the words 'Old' and 'Shop'.
The display windows show a small enticing selection of the goodies you'll find when you enter, just enough to pull me in and force me to look around the shop(e) which is actually much larger than it appears from the outside. Despite the large amount of floor space the shop still looks absolutely packed out; a third of the Pudding Shop is stocked with gift items, another third holds confectionary and the other third has a huge array of delicious home-cooked treats.
When I first walked in I had to stand still for a moment to suss out the best route around the shop because there's simply no room to manoeuvre as there are so many people inside. This place is definitely popular. The first place I headed was for the gift section on the lookout for pressies for the kids.
The thing I liked most about the gift section was the distinct lack of tackiness. Yes, the Pudding Shop has your usual jokey magnets (you know, 'Sometimes I wake up grumpy, other times I let him sleep” and other 'amusing' phrases) and teddy bears with Bakewell Pudding jumpers but everything is of a higher quality than most gift shops I've visited. The only disappointing thing about the gifts is the lack of Pudding Shop memorabilia, when I go places without the kids I like to buy them back gifts to show them where I've been but there were no pencils or badges with the Pudding Shop emblazoned on them. Eventually I bought them a teddy bear with 'The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop' embroidered on their chests. Not the most original present I know, but the Pudding Shop is decidedly lacking in choice of goodies for children. Also available is a large range of Peak District goods such as tea towels, local history books and even the odd local interest DVD.
Wandering (well, fighting my way) into the next area of the shop my nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of sweetness. Yes, I'd arrived in the confectionary section of the Pudding Shop. In stark contrast to the selection in the gift area, everything you buy here is clearly labelled with the name of the Pudding Shop. You can buy a wide range of delicious goodies from Whisky Marmalade to Beer and Black Peppercorn Mustard to a range of scrummy sounding biscuits with everything packaged to look traditional and twee. Gorgeous. There are also jars of old fashioned sweets which staff will weigh out for you, everything from Aniseed Balls to Rhubarb and Custard boiled sweets.
The best section of the Pudding Shop by far is the 'cake' section. OMG, I thought I'd gone to heaven. As expected in the BAKEWELL PUDDING shop, Bakewell Pudding is the prominent display. You can buy huge puddings, smaller puddings, individual puddings, slices of pudding – Bakewell Pudding in every shape and form. When you've chosen your pudding (because you have to buy pudding, it's the law) you can look around the rest of the homemade delights, which are just about screaming 'Pick Me'. Fruit cake, a massive selection of fresh bread, lardy cake and pastries are a very small part of their range. You can practically see the stodge in everything so don't even bother with the Pudding Shop if you're seriously trying with your diet, it just doesn't work.
The biggest let down of my visit to the Pudding Shop was the prices. Even for a gift shop type establishment the prices are a bit extreme, disgusting in some instances. Fancy a fruit cake for £21? The smallest pot of chutney in existence for £5? A ceramic tea pot for (gulp!) £72.50? Erm… not until I've won the lottery thanks… For an example of the cost of a visit to the Pudding Shop; I bought 2 small teddy bears, a couple of bottles of jam and mustard, 2 Bakewell puddings and a box of shortbread and the total of my purchases came to just short of £35. My fella wished we hadn't spotted the shop in the first place!
The best buy is a long running deal of 2 of the large Bakewell Puddings for £5, saving around a quid compared to the cost of buying them separately. If you go to Bakewell Village you must buy a Pudding, imagine a Kipling Bakewell Tart. Pictured it? Well forget it. A Bakewell Pudding is a thick stodgy slab of what looks like a greasy pastry, it has no prettily swirled icing atop a geometrically correct pastry case. It's basic, traditional and looks homemade. The smell of a Bakewell Pudding is like nothing I've ever smelled before, it smells of almonds and fresh jam and general sweetness. I won't even begin to go into the taste otherwise this will end up a review on the merits of a 'real' Bakewell Pudding, suffice to say it tastes a million and a half times better than the rubbish Mr Kipling passes off as Bakewell. But then Kipling doesn't breach the Bakewell copyright, he calls his a Tart – never, ever call it a Bakewell Tart in the Pudding Shop or you'll be looked at like you're the village idiot.
Another thing you can do is order a hamper from the Pudding Shop for delivery to anywhere in the UK. Ranging in price from £55 to upwards of £100, these hampers are for a special occasion. Beautifully packed in a wicker basket they are a perfect gift but not the thing you'd really buy for yourself, save yourself twenty quid or so and buy the goodies separately – you'll still get a lovely paper Pudding Shop gift bag to carry your purchases home in.
After you've shopped to your hearts (or your wallets) content head off upstairs to the recently refurbished restaurant. Here you can sit down and enjoy a glass of wine, a freshly cooked meal, good quality coffee and a slice of Bakewell Pudding. The food is reasonably priced although you will pay more for alcoholic drinks than you would at your local pub. This is to be expected however, as the Pudding Shop restaurant is obviously wanting to attract eaters not drinkers out on the binge. Expect a meal for two to cost around £25 - £30 including drinks, money well spent as the both the service and quality of the food is outstanding. There's nothing to say that children aren't allowed in the restaurant, but there's a definite adult feel to the place. While we were eating not a single child entered the restaurant and I praised god that I hadn't got my own two (rather loud) kids in attendance.
The Pudding Shop is located in 'The Square' in Bakewell Village. Once you're in the village head for the huge ultra-modern Co-Op and ask directions from there, locals definitely know the place. The shop is open from 9am – 6pm 7 days a week, so if you're in Bakewell there's really no reason not to visit is there?"
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