Hassop Station Cafe just a mile or so away from Bakewell lies right alongside the popular Monsal Trail that runs for 8.5 miles along a former Midland Railway line.

At the station as well as the cafe, and a gift shop, you can also hire bikes to ride the trail. The place seemed popular with both cyclists, ramblers, dog walkers and people like ourselves who had just bimbled our way here along the trail from Bakewell village

We had come here for lunch on purpose for a change instead of by chance as one of us had been here once before with a walking group on a day out in the Dales so we knew what to expect.

There was plenty of room inside and outside to sit, room for more than 100 I would guess and it didn’t matter what state you were in. muddy boots and dogs were welcome

We took a seat inside and I was full of hopeful that the decent lunch I had been promised was going to be worth the walk here!

Spoiler alert, it was 🙂

SPECIALS MENU

A quick perusal of the specials menu and board gave me everything that I was looking for. It was a straight battle between the Beer Battered Fish and Chips or the Steak Pie. The pie won.

I did note for another time when I was less hungry that I could get ‘Homemade Soup of the Day with a sandwich for £7.75 as that sounded good value

For today though it was Pie time!

HASSOP’S STEAK AND MONSAL TRAIL ALE PIE

I ordered the Hassop’s Steak and Monsal Trail Ale Pie – ‘Freshly baked and served with Chips, Homemade Mushy Peas and Gravy‘ for £10.95. There was an option to add a slice of Cheddar or Stilton on top for another quid which sounded a bit weird to me. Is that a thing? Have I somehow been missing out?

It was a good looking pie with a decent well baked crust swimming in a pool of gravy. It did not look quite as ‘rustic’ as I was expecting but it was certainly a good size and I was chomping at the bit to cut it open.

INSIDE THE PIE

Once inside the pie I was delighted to find that it was packed out with soft and tender chunks of steak meat. There was a nice rich flavour from the ale and it was all very well seasoned.

The pastry crust was a bit hard but that was ok as there was plenty of gravy to soften things up and the moistness of the meat married it all together really well

PIE, CHIPS, AND MUSHY PEAS

The pie was the star of the plate, but the homemade mushy peas were a close second. They were thick and creamy with a little crunch from the peas in the mix.

I had plenty of chips on the plate, perhaps I would have liked them a little thicker and a little less crisped, but as with the pie crust the gravy and the peas softened things up and I mopped the sauces up with the chips as I worked my way across the plate.

As pies go this was a really very good one, well filled with plenty of meat and a really nice flavour from the addition of the ale. I would happily have another one!

MENU BOARD

On this occasion were were too late for the cooked breakfast as they stop serving at 12 so we ended up having a proper meal. I do have plans to come a bit earlier next time so that we can have one although they do serve Breakfast Buns all day as well so I might end up with one of those instead.

I noted that you can get one with Bacon, Sausage, and Egg so was thinking that if I added and extra Black pudding, mushrooms and hash browns I would basically be getting breakfast anyway if I tipped it all out onto a plate. Cunning plan eh? But don’t tell anyone lol

Hassop Station Cafe and Monsal Trail Cycle Hire is located at Hassop Station, Hassop Rd, Bakewell, DE45 1NW.

Check them out on their website, and also on their Facebook page, Twitter feed, and Instagram profile

To get here you can park at the station and on the road leading up to the cafe from Bakewell. You can also get here by walking the Monsal Trail from Bakewell which took us about an hour as we started at the end instead of joining part way like many people were doing