I was told that the place was popular as we did go on a Sunday right about lunch time after going to the near by Tulip Festival. However, I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw. In my mind I was expecting a few people in line and some free space as it was in Olinda which is a small town some 50 kilometres from Melbourne CBD. As I entered, I was overwhelmed. There were people crowded around the whole entrance that I could hardly open the door. Mind you, it wasn't a tiny pie place like many are but a full restaurant sized building. The dine in tables are upstairs and there was also a line for those. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes for a table and a further 20 minutes before we got our food. It was well worth the wait though.
You're able to order from either standard pies (such as regular meat pies, mushroom pies or bacon & onion pies) or from the gourmet pie selection such as beef burgundy, beef guinness, beef curry, korma chicken or spinach & feta just to name a few or if you're feeling adventurous, you can even order from the specials board which changes occasionally with a special flavour. At the time of visiting, the special pie was Mexicana which I assumed would have tasted like a burrito. Just reading the titles of these pies made my mouth water. But wait, the choices don't end there. After you're done choosing your pie, you get to choose whether you want to sides to go with it. If a pie doesn't sound filling enough, try having it with the delicious peas, salad, chips, mash and/or gravy. One word of advice though, if you wish to have peas, mash and gravy together, it is best to order peas & mashed potatoes with a jug of gravy as a side instead of ordering the pie special which comes with all 3 as it actually cost less that way (I learnt the hard way).
I ordered a korma chicken pie with the pie special ($14.90). I originally wanted to order 2 pies but lucky I didn't because it was immensely filling. This pie has previously won gold medals and I had wanted something different so this pie it was. Lucky too because it was delicious. The sauce was rich and flavourful and faintly spicy. The pastry was crispy and light which complemented the filling very well.
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| Korma Chicken Pie with Pie Special (peas, mash & gravy) - $14.90 |
The lid was a little hard to take off as the pastry crumbled under the force of my fork. I succeeded in the end though. Look at that colour! The peas were beautiful and I ate almost all of it, until I got a bit full and Yuye had to take over. The mash was a little too powdery for me but still went well with the rest of the dish. These pies don't really need tomato sauce as there was plenty of flavour to make them tasty.
Yuye ordered a beef burgundy pie also with the pie special ($14.90). This pie also won gold medals however, I liked my pie more. His pie was good but it lacked that punch that mine had. I preferred his with a bit of tomato sauce.
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| Beef Burgundy Pie with Pie Special (peas, mash & gravy) - $14.90 |
What came after the pie was an even bigger surprise. Their scones and home made raspberry jam!! I fell instantly in love with those piping hot and soft like cotton candy scones. You can order a devonshire tea set for $8.50 which comes with a tea or coffee of your choice and two scones with the awesome homemade raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream. I am so craving for some as I'm typing this. We ordered 4 sets between the 5 of us which came with 8 scones in a basket.
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| Scones that came with our Devonshire tea sets - $8.50 each set (2 scones & a tea/coffee) |
The raspberry jam and cream can be topped up if you run out as they only give you one serving no matter how many scones you have. The jam was sweet but not overpowering, it was chunky but not too hard to chew and truth is, I just absolutely love the taste of jam and cream together.
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| Homemade raspberry jam and freshly whipped cream - delicious! |
