The Pie Tin has that ‘Inn’ feel, old-fashioned and somewhat homely. Feels similar to a pie shop that you would find in rural areas. There are a selection of savoury pie, sides and great selection of dessert pies that are available from opening time.The most annoying thing is the time taken to serve the pies after ordering. It’s all ready-made, yet it took more than 15min to be summoned to collect the meal at the counter with the place only at half capacity. Yes that’s right, there’s no table service.
SLOW ROASTED SMOKEY BEEF BRISKET & MUSHROOMS + 2 SIDES $14.50
Sides of leaf salad and potato salad
The size of the pie immediately stood out. It is quite big, one pie should be enough for two if you are going for something sweet afterwards. The pie is made up of a thin but dry pastry, I have mixed feelings about it. It is perhaps by design to hold up with sides such as pea/potato mash and gravy. I personally find it too dry and prefer the pastry of Bourke Street Bakery and Lorraine’s Patisserie’s better. While the filling of brisket was chunky and generous, it lacked depth of flavour and fell behind the two competitors mentioned above. The uniqueness of The Pie Tin is certainly its sides, the potato was good, served from the fridge and it did feel ‘homemade’. The salad was standard and the serving was not as generous.
The plate used was too small for two sides so you are better-off ordering one side instead of two in terms of value as they use the same plate size for one or two.
BLACKFOREST MERINGUE PIE $7.90 to $10.90
The meringue is very rich and thick, thus very sweet. This heavy meringue looked like it would bring lightness to the base layers, however it was quite the opposite. It was the chocolate mouse on top of the crust that made it light and somewhat enjoyable. I am quite the sweet-tooth and even I could not down half of the meringue. The base was nice, crunchy textured and flavoured but not balanced when eaten with that ratio of meringue to base.
Conclusion
Considering the high rating on Urbanspoon, I was very disappointed with the service and technical execution of the pies. The pie pastry is way too dry for me and the sweet pies are unbalanced. The staff need to wake up or have a couple of espressos on the house to speed up their service. There is potential here for The Pie Tin to become a house-hold name with its image of generous and wholesome food. On this visit, it was not an experience to remember.
Would I go again?
No.
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