Apollo Bay Bakery — Restaurant in Apollo Bay

After travelling from South Australia to Tasmania on a scallop pie tour I have tried my fare share of scallop pies so when I saw Apollo bay bakery is “home of the scallop pie” I had high expectations. I was delighted to see pies came in both mornay and curried- great start and I decided to try both to get a full understanding of the offerings. Located on the main strip in Apollo bay it was easy to get to, understandably busy with tourists i was concerned to see so many people eating their pies with cutlery and also confused by the pies being in individual foil tins. The service was friendly and easy despite the venue being very busy which was fantastic. Now once we sat down we started to eat the pie in true Aussie fashion with our hands, the pastry had quite poor structural stability with the top coming off and the base sagging with the weight of the scallops. The mornay had a gorgeous filling but far too runny to be in a fragile pastry, the curry was a bit thicker and had a great amount of spice. But we soon saw ourselves go back in for cutlery- a true Australian crime and we soon understood why the pies had the foil tin. The pastry needed more cooking and much more stability. The scallops although generous lacked the gorgeous sweet scallop flavour that I had come to know in Tasmania. I give them a 3- if you haven’t had the opportunity to try a scallop pie then this will be a delight to you, otherwise I highly reccomend driving to Geelong and catching the ferry to Tasmania for the best pies...

The pies are a must try but the barista is worth a miss.

Even if you are not into pies, there are some good non - traditional varieties e.g. scallop mornay, prawn and garlic, curried scallop and Thai chicken curry. The last one was our favourite and much better value than the seafood varieties. The pricing is on the premium side and the pies are filling so choose carefully.

The barista experience is idiosyncratic and not customer friendly. It does not help that the barista herself keeps ordering people to leave. After ordering and paying for your hot drinks, you're required to collect your pies, exit the store and wait on the pavement till your name is called on a loudspeaker. Then you enter the store again to pick up your coffees /hot chocolates. Why not move the barista counter to serve drinks onto the street like so many businesses have done in covid times? Even better, get a more customer friendly person?

When asked how long our order might take, she (the barista) bunched up tokens and waved them about, loudly remarking she had a lot and could not tell. We politely cancelled our drinks and the staff efficiently refunded the money with an apology.

The rest of the staff are exceptional. They packed our pies beautifully when we said we had to take them to Melbourne and they...

It is crucial to recognize the disparity between a small-town bakery and one that operates within a highly competitive market. However, this context does not mitigate the unfavorable experience we encountered during our visit. Upon inquiring about the bakery items, we were informed that they are prepared fresh each day. Given our arrival at 8 AM, it would be reasonable to expect the products to be fresh. Nevertheless, all the bakery items appeared and emitted an odor indicative of prolonged storage. The croissants, in particular, were reminiscent of stale products, despite the staff's assurances regarding their freshness. This experience was profoundly disappointing, and I sincerely hope it was an isolated incident. Furthermore, when we addressed our concerns with the staff, their response was notably unprofessional. Although they acknowledged that bakery items should not possess the hardness of steel, they continued to assert that the products had been made merely...