Shut up: are pies in Melbourne really delicious or too delicious out there? Plus 12 of the best to try
Singaporean chili crab, lasagna, Massaman curry and more are being sealed under the cake lid as Melbourne cake makers explore their creative side.
The city is home to a bewildering array of gourmet pies thanks to new businesses – some of which are lockout projects – and established bakeries who are experimenting boldly with fillings.
Sally Roxon from Austro has Polish heritage, while her husband is Austrian, so she loves the flavors in the pies she offers from her South Melbourne bakery. There’s the Polish hunter stew pie, featuring sausage, pork belly and sauerkraut, and in the past mushroom stroganoff and beef goulash have been featured.
Footscray’s Pie Thief is one of Melbourne’s most adventurous pie purveyors, with owners Aaron Donato and Scott Blomfield (former Supernormal chefs) breaking all the rules.
“I guess we don’t really look at other pies when we come to flavors,” said Donato. “We saw what good food was and [ask] can it be turned into a cake?”
The Builders Arms fish pie may not have a cake on the bottom, but it’s a favorite at Fitzroy’s pubs. Photo: Grace Dorman
Singapore’s famous chili crab and HSP kebab shop both run as weekly pie specials. There’s even a burger-inspired filling from the well-known fast food conglomerate, which asked for the cake’s name to be changed. Now called the Big Thief.
The shop also offers vegan pies, with plant-based cakes that have been through a lot of testing.
Magnum PI, apart from being Melbourne’s most famous pastry shop, also gets points for the best ingredients it uses, whether you eat meat or not. The mac and cheese pie fills its white sauce with spinach and herbs in some healthful attempt. Pulled beef is cooked in merlot for seven hours for the store’s most popular pie.
West Melbourne cafe Udom House combines chef Aum Phithakphon’s Thai heritage with Melbourne’s coffee culture – and pies. Everything served with white rice, from green curry to spicy pork bolognese, is also sealed in puff pastry.
Many of these gourmet cake makers love the portability and accessibility of cakes. Hand-held cakes are an excellent gateway to flavors that people may never have tried.
But rising costs are being felt. Pie Thief will not offer family pies as Donato says charging the actual cost for all the ingredients needed would make a pie of that size very expensive.
The haloumi pie at A1 Bakery in Brunswick gives you a change of $5. Photo: Provided
Wonder Pies founder Raymond Capaldi, a chef with 40 years of experience, believes his family pie, which weighs one kilogram and makes four servings, should be priced closer to $30, not $24.
The price of Wonder Pie’s ingredients, including flour and vegetable fat for cakes, continues to increase every month. But passing those costs on to consumers can be difficult, according to Capaldi, because there are only so many people who will pay.
“I said we did the best we could for what you’re willing to pay,” Capaldi said.
The Fishmonger’s Son fish pie was originally a collaboration between neighboring businesses The Pie Shop and Maria’s Pasta. Photo: Parker Blain
The most interesting pies in Melbourne to try
Magnum PI
At this newcomer to Fitzroy, the roasted cauliflower pie with beluga lentils or Sri Lankan vegan curry is just as satisfying as the meat options, using as free, locally sourced products as possible. Think pulled beef with merlot, saltbush lamb, or chicken with salsa verde. Magnum PI started out as a frenzy for former Pillar of Salt chef Jason Cubasek, but we’re glad it held up. Most pies hover around the $9 mark, even though the ingredients are premium. Don’t live near an aircraft carrier? Shipping is available for orders of $30 or more.
402 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, magnumpi.com.au
Pie Thief at Footscray get creative with their pie filling Photo: Eddie Jim
Austro
“A pie is just one of our bowstrings,” says co-owner Sally Roxon. That makes the beauty on offer here even more impressive. The rich fricassee chicken is topped with peppers, while the zucchini gets the parma treatment thanks to the nappy sauce and mozzarella. But Polish hunter soup – pork belly, sausage and more – has become a cabinet star, defying Roxon’s hopes that people will pass up the slow-cooked beef pie it replaces. This is typical of the hearty, comforting, and highly flavorful dishes that Austro serves in buttery puff pastry (all $9.50). Apparently, it’s one person’s job to make the puff, and you know what they say about practice: it makes perfect.
147-149 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, austrobakery.com
Party pies from Pie Thief. Photo: Jason South
Babaja
The Borek may not be sealed on the sides, but it does have a cake bottom and top, which is more than some Melbourne pubs can say about their pies. At Babajan, each borek filling, layered between 10 sheets of filo, is as rich and comforting as any other traditional cake. Crowd favorites include silverbeet and feta, and baharat spiced lamb with potatoes. But the surprise was the tuna, slow-boiled in white wine with carrots and fennel, paired with kefalograviera cheese. Each is available as a single (from $8) or in a larger tray for easy entertainment or family dinners. Pie purists can stick to haloumi, feta, and cheddar pies, which owner Kirsty Chiaplis says is her favorite way to start the day.
713 Nicholson Street, North Carlton; Store 5, 1 Little Collins Street, Melbourne; babajan.com.au
At Udom House, everything from green curry to spicy pork bolognese is also sealed in puff pastry. Photo: Penny Stephens
Wild Flour Bakery
Run by two British bakers, Matilda Rexton and Keith Doig, this Prahran shop serves three different types of cakes for everything from pork pies to hand pies (aka pasties) and your more typical round pies. Pasties are typically vegetarian, containing oozy bechamel and truffle or sweet potato mushrooms seasoned with caramelized onions and corn. What’s even more exciting is when you enter the pie territory: Pork and Beef Bolognese with cheddar joins weekly specials like lamb rendang. We’ll take one of everything.
21 St Edmond’s Road, Prahran wildflourmatilda.com
Pies at the Austro bakery, which chooses warm Eastern European-style fillings in its pies. Photo: Provided
Pie Thief
There’s nothing that can’t be sealed in the cake, seems to be Pie Thief’s motto, which steals hearts with its array of lasagna, Thai chicken and grilled jackfruit pie. For this week’s pie, the team really flexed their creativity: lamb kashmiri, venison braised in Garage Project stout, and Singaporean chili crab all featured. There’s always a selection of vegan pies plus sweets like pastries, brownies and vanilla slices, as well as coffee from St Ali. In even better news, the team has added a weekend pie stand at Fitzroy that adjoins their production kitchen.
297 Barkly Street, Footscray; 300 Napier Street, Fitzroy (weekends only); piethief.com.au
Fish Seller’s Son
How many can claim that it takes one village to raise their cake? In a sleepy enclave north of Melbourne last year, when takeaways were a lifesaver for diners and restaurants, that’s exactly what happened. The local fish shop teamed up with Maria’s Pasta and nearby The Pie Shop to make the fish pie ($35) which has since become a permanent item and is still made according to the same recipe, even though The Pie Shop is no longer around. Feeding four, it brings together the best seafood of the day – possibly salmon and scallops – white wine, dill, bell peppers, potatoes and carrots, sealed under a crispy, golden shortcrust lid.
703 Nicholson Street, Carlton North, thefishmongersson.com
magic cake
You’ll understand what’s behind the name when you realize how smooth this pie is. Led by top chef Raymond Capaldi, these pastries filled with steak and ale, cauli and leek and lasagna are made with shortcrust on the bottom and coarse puff on the top. Capaldi won’t use butter in the puff because he says it will go rancid when the pie is kept in a warmer place. He uses one muscle (brisket) for the steak and mushrooms, so that the beef cooks evenly. Each month, the team sampled its competitor’s pies. “It’s like going back to school to learn baking,” says Capaldi. With six stores around Melbourne and 11 choices at the larger cake that feeds four stores, we’re glad he’s made it again.
Location in Melbourne, wonderpies.com.au
A1 Roti Bakery
Some come for the falafel wrap, others all about the manoush. But the real gold at this Melbourne institution comes in the form of a cheesecake ($4.50). Don’t be fooled by first impressions. What appears to be a rather plain and pale crescent moon hides the molten haloumi, baked until it is warm and oozes out the liquid. It’s the perfect salty contrast to the slightly sweet bread bag. Other snacks near pies include triangles stuffed with spinach and cheese or marinated spinach, or ring-shaped kaak stuffed with halloumi and topped with sesame seeds.
643-645 Sydney Road, Brunswick, a1bakery.com.au
Babka
If you believe in the adage it doesn’t break, don’t fix it, Babka is your spirit animal. A Brunswick Street mainstay for 30 years and counting, this bakery keeps its cakes the same from week to week and prefers classic fillings – mostly. The Moroccan-inspired lamb pie, which involves lamb fillet cooked with dried apricots, bay leaf, and peppercorns, is a surprising find. But beef with mushrooms and red wine, spinach with ricotta, feta and pine nuts, and chicken and white wine keep the boat steady. Don’t even try to go without the lemon tart slices.
358 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy
Udom House
Newsflash: The best Massaman curry you can get in Melbourne is probably hiding in the pie. Udom House, a cafe in West Melbourne run by chef and barista Aum Phithakphon, has made pies a vehicle for Thai flavors such as green curry, Massaman and dishes that remind Phithakphon of his childhood. Vegetarian fillings might include sauteed pumpkin with garlic scrambled egg or jackfruit with northern Thai flavours. The curry paste is made from scratch, the coffee is made by Padre (and includes a Thai drink not often seen here), and there is a kaya (coconut) jam for the sweet.
343 Victoria Street, West Melbourne, 0468 789 851, @udomhouse on Instagram
The Builders Arms Hotel
Not for the faint of heart, the fish pie at this upstate pub is something of a stunner. It asserted itself from the start, arriving on a square ceramic plate with a steaming puff pastry cap. Prick with your fork and you’re greeted by the aromas of fennel, fennel, and scallops, thanks to a bisque-based sauce that calls for bread (or a loaf of pastry). You may be upset that this is a pot pie, but the generous proportions of sauce for sea trout, whitefish, shrimp, and sorrel will fix it. Our advice is to skip lunch so you arrive hungry, or split it between two people.
211 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, buildersarmshotel.com.au
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