I found Australia's best pie in the most unlikely place

Forget Goulburn's Trapper's Bakery and Victoria's Country Cob Bakery: I've found a new contender for Australia's best pie, and it's in the last place you'd expect.

There's a satisfying crunch as the pastry enters my mouth. The rich goo-ey interior soon joins the party and I mull it all around in my mouth like a sommelier. 

I groan, lean back, and savour the warm feeling of carbohydrates sinking down my throat. Life doesn't get better than this.

We all love demolishing a good pie. But how did I reach this pastry-piphany? 

The Otford Pantry has some of the finest pies in the land.

It all started an hour south of Sydney. I staggered up to The Otford Pantry after a long trail run on The Coastal Track, a 26 kilometre walk that starts in Bundeena and finishes in Otford (at the moment you can only do certain sections of it).

The Otford Pantry is located near Bulgo Beach at the end of The Coastal Track (when walking it north to south), and is about 5 minutes walk from Otford train station. It sells pies, empanadas, jam tarts, coffee, and various other sweet treats.

I'm not the only one to fall under the Pantry's spell... Images via Instagram (left: @misspiggyexploresandmiss.vanara, right: @natnat1512)

Thanks to this area's distinct microclimate (think: tall cliffs, waterfalls and Jungle Loop Tracks), I'm blissed out, hungry and exhausted.

These three factors have perfectly primed my palette to receive the best pie in Australia.

A bad day to be a pie...

While studying the cheeky sign that says "best pies in the universe," I wait for the gaggle of sports car enthusiasts in front of me to order (the Otford Pantry's main clientele seems to be petrol heads, who love the area's windy roads, and hikers) and order a beef empanada and a spinach, onion and feta pie. 

I go sit outside, peel my socks off, and throw away a few leeches that are sucking on my ankles. 

My feet now drying out in the sun, I return to the food. The empanada is the first to perish, with the meat nicely offset by something red and (I presume) healthy. 

The empanada didn't last long either.

Next up is the spinach, feta and onion pie. At first I suspect it will be average, assuming truly great pies are only found in cold, rural or grey places like Victoria, Bowral or Goulburn.

But as I raise it to my mouth something astonishing happens. I fall in love. We form a bond as unbreakable as that between an inner city Sydney yuppie and their favourite pair of Birkenstocks.

The meat pies look good too. Image via Instagram (@misspiggyexploresandmiss.vanara)

Good things never last though. Soon all that's left is a couple of crumbs on a greasy paper bag. I sit and stare at the oil stain, wondering if such a fleeting moment of magic will ever flutter up to me again.

Suffice to say, even though I was bound to enjoy it, given how hungry I was after my run, until I find a better one, this, for me, will remain the best pie in Australia.

Originally published as I found Australia's best pie in the most unlikely place