Revealed: Where to find Melbourne’s 10 best pies
WINTER is in full swing and the only thing guaranteed to brighten a grey day is a heartwarming meat pie. Dan Stock trawled the suburbs to find Melbourne’s 10 best.
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WINTER is in full swing and the only thing guaranteed to brighten a grey day, to warm a long night or to coax a smile after your team goes down at the ‘G, is a hearty,heartwarming meat pie.
Here in our great city the pie takes on many forms — from the traditional, say a Four’N’Twenty, from the servo, through to the exotic, say a lentil ratatouille number from a hip foodtruck, and many versions of beef in between.
But where will you find the best savoury pastries going around?
Where will you find those with firm yet flaky buttery pastry?
Those with fillings that are all killer, no filler, all flavour to savour?
Dan Stock trawled the suburbs to find Melbourne’s 10 best to eat this winter.
CHICKEN, LEEK, BACON, CORN PIE ($8.90) at Pure Pie
We’ve done it to the brothers Finn, Phar Lap - heck, we even claim Russell Crowe as one of our own - so there’s very good case for officially adopting Kiwi expats Holly and Michael Carthew as Aussie pie makers extraordinaire.
From the first humble batches made in their St Kilda apartment in 2011 and sold at farmers’ markets, to the thriving online and retail business of today, Pure Pie pies have rightfully won many fans around town.
“Our pies come from a Kiwi base of flavours,” Holly says. “And that’s what we wanted to achieve with our chicken and corn pie.”
In an all-butter sour cream pie base, chunks of free-range chicken are cooked with smoky, streaky bacon, and teamed with a creamy corn and leek sauce.
The pie is then topped with hand-crimped golden puff pastry. It’s a gloriously comforting pie of great beauty.
“We just want to make people happy,” Holly says. And with this winter winner they are doing their bit to make us smile broadly (even if a bit begrudgingly).
383 Bay St, Port Melbourne, 9041 5004
TRADITIONAL BEEF ($8.50) at Bendigo St Milk Bar
Di and Mario di Stefano have transformed a traditional backstreet milk bar into a locals’ cafe where the conversation is easy, the coffee is good – but the pies are out of this world.
“We were shown how to make our pies by our friend Gina, who translated a traditional spanakopita recipe into an Australian pie when she emigrated to Australia,” Di says.
“She perfected the art over 20 years and we’ve followed her ‘secret’ recipe for the past eight years.”
That recipe makes a pie that’s generously filled with hunks of beef, stewed tender and covered in a sticky gravy with a lovely onion sweetness.
The good pastry, not overly flaky, and crisped top and bottom before serving.
“We don’t use pie warmers as it dries out the contents quickly,” Di says.
“The most difficult part of producing our pies in-house is being able to keep up with the demand.”
It’s with very good reason they are coveted so.
37 Bendigo St, Richmond, 9428 4196
GOURMET PIE TRUCK ($5) at Gourmet Pie Truck
A classically trained French chef with a Greek heritage making an Aussie icon – George Vagianakis might have such luminaries as Jacques Reymond, France Soir and Paris Go on his CV that stretches back 25 years, but it’s with his six-month-old pie food truck that he’s now making his mark.
“I thought to myself, what would make good street food? And our national dish wasn’t represented,” he says.
It is now. With 11 flavours on offer, from Thai chicken to chunky steak to a red lentil ratatouille all baked daily, there’s something for all tastes.
“I do everything by hand, I hand-chop, hand-marinate, make the pasty – I do it all,” he says.
For his curry pie, that means dry roasting spices including nutmeg, garam marsala, fenugreek and cinnamon, then adding them to oil and marinating chuck steak for 24 hours.
The meat pieces are then cooked with onion, garlic and more spice paste, before making their way into the short crust pie base.
With its beautiful aroma and a deft touch of creeping heat, this is one curry you’ll want to get in a hurry.
1A Stewart St, Brunswick, and various locations
BEEF AND MUSHROOM PIE ($5) at Zumbo
He’s known for marvellous macarons and fantastical desserts, but cake king Adriano Zumbo is no slouch when it comes to the savoury side of the ledger.
The pies baked daily at his South Yarra store include rich roast chicken, chicken and smashed potato, and a beef and cheese option, along with the traditional beef.
Adriano reckons the key to a great pie is simple.
“We use good quality ingredients in all our pies, including premium butter in the pastry and use Vic’s Meats in the filling,” he says.
For his beef and mushroom version, this results in an excellent firm-yet-flaky buttery pastry that holds generous chunks of meat that come in dense mushroom-packed gravy that has a sweet earthiness.
Unlike his sugary creations, this pie doesn’t have any tricks up its sleeve but it is no less magical for it.
14 Claremont St, South Yarra, 1800 858 611
CHICKEN AND PUMPKIN ($7.50) at Tivoli Rd Bakery
The classic beef and mushroom pie might be the one that flies out of Michael James’s oven at Tivoli Rd, but it’s his chicken and pumpkin number that will have us lining up this winter.
The first thing that hits you about the deeply tanned sesame seed-topped pie is its glorious buttery aroma.
The second, once you bite in, is how generous the filling is.
Pumpkin, cooked with parmesan and basil, is added to a béchamel into which pieces of chicken thigh have been roasted off at high temp, ensuring they are as moist as they are flavoursome.
It’s this unique combination of flavours in the hands of a master baker that brings us back time and again.
3 Tivoli Rd, South Yarra, 9663 3038
SLICE OF HEAVEN: Melbourne’s 10 best PIZZAS
BEST BUNS: Melbourne’s 10 best BURGERS
STEAK AND MUSHROOM ($6.50) at EuroLounge
For the past six years, Todd Millar has been keeping High St (very) happy with his excellent riffs on the classic steak pie, whether the steak and bacon, steak and potato, steak and pepper or the original.
The steak and mushroom is a deeply satisfying option; the, dark, thick gravy is rich with earthy mushrooms and dense with chunks of perfectly tender meat.
“I don’t use any veg fats in the pastry, and nothing artificial in the pie mix,” Todd says.
This makes for pies that are golden oblongs of sturdy stuff sure to sate the heartiest hungers.
974 High St, Armadale, 9509 5166
TRADITIONAL BEEF ($5.60) at Candied Bakery
Five layers of flaky pastry that top the pies at Candied Bakery herald the fact they are something special indeed.
“We make the pastry on-site, made with butter, of course,” owner Orlando Artavilla says.
“It takes two days to make; we rest it overnight and use it on the third day.”
That patience pays off with a tasty, structured base that is their take on a Four’N Twenty pie.
A touch of Vegemite in the slow-cooked gravy adds depth and character, while the organic beef (from Cherry Tree butchers) is a mix of chunky mince and hefty pieces for texture.
“We played around with the recipe for months before we got it right. We just wanted to make a really good meat pie.”
Well, they most certainly have done that.
81A Hudsons Rd, Spotswood, 9391 1335
CANADIAN MAPLE BEEF PIE ($5.20) at Rolf’s Pies
For more than 20 years Damien Portwine has been getting up well before dawn to make an award-winning array of pies for which Rolf’s is famed.
And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love it. I prefer it to an office job,” he says. “I get to be a chef, a cake decorator, and a pastry chef, all in the one.”
As popular today as they were when the doors opened 35 years ago, there’s an extensive range of pies of all flavours, quiches and flavoured sausage rolls, but it’s the Canadian Maple pie that we love best.
Coarse mince steak (“we’ve used the same retail butcher for 15 years”) is marinated in maple syrup before being cooked with onions, giving the filling an alluring sweet savouriness.
“We make everything from scratch; the recipes we use are the same as they were 35 years ago. And people have been coming back to us for their favourites for all that time.”
181 Middleborough Rd, Box Hill South, 9898 3403
STEAK AND BACON ($5) at Tony’s Pies
Another stalwart who has been serving all the pies for 30 years, Tony Gavaghan learned the trade from his brother-in-law, Rolf Lie, of Rolf’s Pies fame.
And over in Essendon, Tony has been plying his craft ever since.
“The menu hasn’t changed that much over that time. People love the standards.”
And those standards come out of the oven at the rate of up to 200 at a time.
It’s hearty, honest fare; pies that are as easy to eat as they are tasty. Nicely meaty with a great smokiness, Tony’s steak and bacon is a beauty.
309 Buckley St, Essendon, 9937 1034
CHUNKY ANGUS ($5.20) at Richmond Pie Shop
On a cold winter’s day before heading off to the ’G, footy fans have been stopping by the Richmond Pie Store and filling their bellies for more than 16 years.
Owner Quy Tran keeps the oven stocked full of pies, including the popular beef and curry, chilli beef and cheese, and beef burgundy versions, which are just three of almost 20 flavours offered.
The chunky Angus has diced beef in a flavourful gravy encased in hearty, hefty pastry.
It’s untricked up and workmanlike, but it’s a pie that will do the job of seeing you through four rainy quarters with ease.
200 Swan St, Richmond, 9421 2711
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