The Cove

1 The Piazza

Covent Garden

London

WC2E 8HB

*Guest post by Andy*

Growing up in Cornwall left me with a deep-rooted fondness for pasties. There was something about those pastry-wrapped parcels of meat and potato that captured my heart, where rugby, choughs and tractors failed. So I was happy to discover The Cove pub, a corner of Cornishness squeezed above a kiosk of the West Cornwall Pasty Company in Covent Garden. True, no Cornish pub would charge 3.80 for a pint of ale. And there should technically be more random agricultural implements hanging on the walls. But with its artistic homage to smuggling, its wooden floors and beams, its decent selection of beers (Proper Job, Tribute, Betty Stogs etc) and, crucially, a wide array of pasties served with nothing else but napkins for about four quid a go, the place represents a West Country oasis in the middle of London. I'd been a few times before, with my Cornish friend G, and returning on a work night out I tried a "medium traditional" pasty, with steak, onion, potato and swede, paired with a pint of Betty - a proper treat. A colleague's balti pasty was less successful, possibly because innovation is un-Cornish. It was raining this time, but for when it's nice there's a balcony looking down over the piazza, allowing patrons to observe "London", with all its weird metropolitan ways. Arrive early to get a table.