Just a little PSA here. Been on the road for work for the last few days and had occasion to stop at a 7-11 (there are none near me), so I grabbed a cheese and bacon traveller pie, with very low expectations. It was surprisingly good for a mass produced, packaged, hot box pie. The pastry was nice and held together well, and the filling seemed to have all the flavours and textures I’d expect.
Later in my trip I stopped there again and tried a smoky bbq beef pie and again was pleasantly surprised. Pastry might be a little thick for some, but it was enjoyable, and the filling had real chunks of meat in it.
So if you’re like me and you’d normally avoid trying a 7-11 pie in a plastic bag just on principle, maybe reassess if you’re in a pinch, you might be surprised.
My qualifications - going back not that many years I travelled constantly for work, and have had far more than my fair share of servo pies. Mostly I’ll avoid them, though I don’t mind a villi’s. The only ones I refuse to eat no matter how hungry I am is four n twenty. They’re absolute trash. I’d rate the 7-11 pies near the top of the pack for frozen, bagged, reheated pies.
As a Melburnian, four n twenty pies are an embarrassment.
All Aussies feel it mate. I can’t for the life of me figure out how they’re still every bloody where.
I chalk it up to footy and kids. Those pies are a treat at the footy for kids. Those kids grow up, and will get themselves one as a little nostalgia hit.
I have eaten a servo pie/convenience store about twice in my life and always with regret. Haven’t lived in the city for a couple of decades now but don’t people have local bakeries and delis anymore? If not that is really sad.
I often find those places to be pretty overrated. Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent bakery pies around, but I’d say just as many that people rave about but I don’t understand why. On this occasion I wasn’t on a pleasure cruise, just stopped to fill up and grabbed it for convenience. Expectations were very low, so I was pretty impressed.
In the cities we have local bakeries and instagrammabke gourmet pies. I’m always disappointed by country town bakery pies and sausage rolls. The black of competition makes them not try hard.
Delis are not quite as common for snacks…they tend to be more on the grocery side and butchers and delis are dying, due to supermarkets.
Both Melbourne and Sydney have big café culture. I haven’t been to brissie for a while but Adelaide recently seemed to have the makings of a café culture.
In the cities we have local bakeries and instagrammabke gourmet pies. I’m always disappointed by country town bakery pies and sausage rolls. The black of competition makes them not try hard.
How interesting! In WA, it’s mostly the opposite. I can’t think of any Metro bakeries that I’d go out of my way to visit. But there are more than a few incredible country bakeries that are literal draw cards for tourists coming to town.
I’m pretty sure there are great country bakeries too, but it’s very hot and miss. My theory is that bad places die faster in cities due to higher rent and more competition. That goes for restaurants too. Even busy local favourites go under due to costs, especially rent
I’ve seen that in small towns too, but it seems to be staff costs more than rent.
Never had an issue with any of the servo brand pies to be honest. When you’re on the road a heap, stopping off at some boutique bakery to buy a lamb roast pie with sprigs of rosemary and a red wine jus isn’t practical a lot of the time.
Also found the aforementioned bakeries often offer poor value in terms of extra price versus extra taste. If the thing costs an hours wage and only offers a marginal taste improvement that’s a poor return on investment.
Most bakeries seem to just be reselling the same cheap crap anyway. Just because it’s from a bakery doesn’t mean it’s from THAT bakery. Reminds me of that Mighty Car Mods road trip where they bought a pie from two towns claiming to have the best pies and it was literally the same pie.
Yeah that’s my attitude. If I’m buying a pie in a plastic bag for $4.50 the bar is low so I’m easily pleased. If I’m paying 9 bones for a basic pie it had better be a bloody great pie.
Their meat free mock sausage rolls on the other hand are decidedly average - unless the one I had a while back was a real outlier they’re pretty dry and bland. I decided my old stalwart for the occasional times I buy servo food - the spinach and feta roll - was a noticeably superior option.
I do enjoy a good spinach and feta roll. I’ll keep it in mind for next time!