Pudding and Pie

The name of this bistro style café reminds me of that nursery rhyme ‘Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry’. I always wondered why the girls were crying so much at him kissing them, he must have been quite the hunchback for them to have reacted in that way because in my experience, any attention from boys is usually a good thing as far as girls are concerned.
Luckily, Pudding and Pie café in Wayfarers Arcade has no such problems satisfying its customers as it offers hearty home cooked meals at very cheap prices. The food usually changes on a daily or weekly basis as they use local ingredients but the daily specials are definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area.
They offer a patio seating area in the Arcade itself for you to watch your fellow shoppers as they pass by as well as a decently-​sized seating area in the café itself, with interesting Lloyd-​loom style chairs for you to sit on.
Pudding and Pie also offers a range of scones and cream cakes as well as hot and cold drinks, meaning it is a great place to go if you’re in the Arcade and fancy stopping off for a decent meal or a just a small refreshment.

Situated in the beautiful Wayfarers Arcade, this place is awesome! I totally love the chanderlier — nice touch. Pudding and Pie is about making you feel at home with some traditional English dishes. The furniture is pretty cool with round back hole chairs. Clean white table cloths cover the tables. There are familiar dishes such as Nan’s Recipe Bacon Bone Soup, fish finger sandwich, Steak and Ale pie and Lancashire hot pot. There’s plenty of the sweet stuff also — Bread & Butter pudding, Eccles Cakes, Apple Crumble and much more. The service is ace and staff very friendly.

You’re homesick. You miss your mummy/​daddykins/​dog/​significant other/​catfish/​weasel/​antfarm. You need some of that home cookin’ to soothe your lonely soul, something traditional and warming and comforting. And while in this humid heatwave such thoughts might turn your stomach as much as they’re turning mine, I’m thinking back to the cold winters of November when I visited Pudding and Pie in a chilly, wind-​whipped Southport. It’s worse on the coast, you know. Rumour has it that breeze is so sharp it can make your favourite jumper threadbare. True story.
Look no further to solve those feelings than the very definition of stodge that is Pudding and Pie, a place where they do a mean fish finger sandwich (whether the fish were mean before they became fingers remains to be seen), a steak and ale pie that views your arteries as a personal challenge, Lancashire hot pot that could rival Betty’s in the Rover’s, soups designed to put hair on your chest when you’re feeling infirm… all 100% home made.
And if you’ve made the leap to the fat-​is-​flavour side of the river this far, you might as well finish yourself off with an equally cosy pud. Eccles cakes, or fly pies as my mother calls them (thanks, dear parent, for ruining a traditional north westerly baked treat), apple crumble so warm and juicy that Jim from American Pie would want to get a room with it, bread and butter pudding that ain’t stingy on the bright yellow sticks of doom… it’s all here, waiting to comfort you.
The location is pretty delicious too; Wayfarers Arcade happens to be one of my favourite spots in Southport and the ornate architectural delight that it is blankets Pudding and Pie in even more loveliness. Plus it’s super central, so once you’ve had your fill you can either walk off your heavy tummy by hitting the shops with aplomb or head straight to the beach for a lunch-​burnin’ sand hike. Either way, the staff are lovely and it makes a superb spot for a substantial lunch or naughty treat any time of the day… one I’d highly recommend.