The pie’s the limit: Melbourne’s best pies
Flaky pastry, perfectly-seasoned filling. What’s not to love about the humble pie? But not all pies are created equal, so if you’re having a pie, make it a good one. Here are five of Melbourne’s best.
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The meat pie is an Aussie institution, synonymous with regional road trips and general stores, the footy or quick snack from your local servo or bakery.
Enthusiasts gravitate towards pies with good flavour and structural integrity.
The pastry should be crispy and flaky, holding a filling that is well-seasoned with good meat-to-gravy-ratio from \first bite to last.
While brushing away a few stray flakes of pastry is perfectly acceptable, and in fact a sign a good time was had, no one wants half the filling down their front.
Although our penchant for pies may have evolved to include such gourmet treats as the Chinese BBQ pork belly pie (Winner 2022 Great Aussie Pie Competition) from Miss Amelie Gourmet, or Rolling Pin Pies and Cakes’ Mushroom and Truffle Pie (Best Pie, Baking Association of Australia’s 2022 Best Pie and Pastie Competition), it’s still hard to go past a good, old-fashioned, unfancy meat pie when you’re after that comfort food fix.
To sauce or not is an actual question.
Purists claim the pie should stand on its own, while others insist on the tangy sweetness that tomato sauce brings to the whole experience.
No matter how you enjoy yours, here are our picks for the five pies (four classic meat, one vegan for good measure) that we reckon deliver flaky, buttery, pasty perfection.
WHITTLESEA BAKEHOUSE
A visit to Whittlesea Bakehouse calls for a mini road trip from the CBD. The one-hour drive is well worth it, and if you don’t have a car, you can take the Mernda line to the end, then a nine-minute bus ride to Whittlesea. The Bakehouse has classic old school bakery vibes. There’s a Ned Kelly pie (steak, cheese, egg and bacon). But its plain meat pie was voted the best in Australia in last year’s Great Aussie Pie Competition. Whittlesea pie maker Adrian Caporetto’s pastry is golden, flaky and robust and filled with a slightly peppered rich savoury gravy with chunks of meat.
Location: 34 Church Street, Whittlesea
Whittlesea Bakehouse on Facebook
FALCO
Falco is the happy product of a gun hospo team, reading the room (seven years of burgers at Rockwell and Sons), the recruiting of baker extraordinaire Christine Tran and changing tack to conquer the bakery game. Their signature pie, the Rockwell, is a hybrid burger-in-a-pie nod to a past favourite. Riffing on the double smash patty Rockwell burger, the sturdy, yet flaky pastry puffs in all the right places to encase burger-seasoned meat. And the pie is served with their ‘special sauce’, a mix of three kinds of mayonnaise, savoury tomato reduction, herbs, onion, spices, and house-made pickles.
Location: 288 Smith Street, Collingwood
PIE THIEF
Pie Thief’s co-owner and chef Scott Blomfield worked at Supernormal and Mighty Boy Eatery and was head chef of Fitzroy’s Grub for seven years. After a stint overseas, he returned to Melbourne and bonded with Aaron Donato, from Footscray’s Bar Josephine, over a mutual love of pies. They do the usual suspects well; steak, steak and cheese, bacon and egg and then they go all out in the creative stakes with glorious weekly specials and a vegan spaghetti bolognaise with rich tomato vegan bolognese topped with vegan cheese. Seven days a week in Footscray, and weekends in Fitzroy.
Locations: 297 Barkly Street, Footscray, 300 Napier Street, Fitzroy
BAKETICO
Baketico has several outlets across the city offering the full range of chef Raymond Capaldi’s Wonder Pies. That’s a whopping 29 flavours, including both classic and more out there flavours (Mac ‘n’ cheese, beef, pineapple, chilli) three vegan and five vegetarian fillings. Capaldi’s tried and true pastry shell recipe has resulted in a sturdy receptacle with a light shortcrust pastry bottom and a crispy puff pastry lid - both pastries using vegetable lard instead of butter. While the smoky spices and deep flavours of the tandoori chicken appeal, you can’t go past the rich and satisfying beef, cheese, and pepper.
Location: 126 Langridge Street, Collingwood
THE FRENCH LETTUCE
The French Lettuce Carlton has been around since the eighties with pastry chef Peter Brown and his wife Nicole taking over in 2003. A second, bigger store opened in Bulleen in 2020 and Richmond locals get their French Lettuce fix from the Saturday morning Gleadell Street Market. French Lettuce makes one pie and they make it well. Their beef and burgundy pie is made with lean beef, slow cooked for six hours with a roux made from the remaining liquid added back in. The pastry case is golden and buttery and made from Australian and French butters. Tomato sauce is not required, but, you know, we’re not going to stop you!
Locations: 182 Bulleen Road, Bulleen, 237 Nicholson Street, Carlton, Gleadell Street Market, Richmond
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