Kakkadoo Kafe — Restaurant in Dunedoo

Pie lover alert. Do not drive past this place.

Rivals to the legendary PiesRUs at Narabeen (RIP), better than Southern Rise in Bowral (very good BTW, 2017 winners of the PieFest competition). At my visit they were veritably fenced in by Highway Patrol cars for lunch. Those blokes know where to get a good pie, and I might be rude enough to suggest that they look like it too, well built country lads that they are.

The Kakkadoo guys are too busy making pies to enter a competition or chase public profile. They confirm that they are "strictly a small business" focussed on quality. Does it show? Does it ever!

My offsider (the boy) and I, a team of amateur pie cooks, fresh from Boggabri Pies at the Grab and Go, a little disappointed with being compelled to eat their fare with a fork (top notch mince filling though), were stunned and mystified at the Kakkadoo's solution to the art of the pie seal. Somehow they have managed to fill the base then top the pie with a puff pastry (we are not puff fans but this was good) tucked under the rim of the bottom pastry inside the tin for a perfect seal every time. We have never seen its like elsewhere. Easy one handed eating.

We started with a Stroganoff and a Steak and Pepper and then had trouble stopping so we wound up also nailing a Lamb Shank and a Curry. All pies are steak chunks, not mince, just the way we like it. Our favourites were the first round, so hunger almost certainly played a part in our enjoyment. Good value at $5 a pie, $7 premium price for the Lamb Shank.

The Pepper Steak filling was gorgeous. Plenty of fall apart chunks, a dripless gravy without those weird thickeners used by inferior pies and a very pleasant pepper afterburn. The boy hoovered up the Stroganoff pie before I could sample it but the creamy gravy surely looked appealing. His smile spoke of something rather good though (a young man who eschewed his 10th birthday cake for my meat pies).

My Lamb Shank pie was an architectural work, with more of it above the case than in it in a rather suggestive rounded dome. Suckling at the teat of this wonder, the gravy was more liquid than that of the Pepper Pie with a waft of herbs headed for the nose. It did drip but I was distracted enough by the gooey shank meat not to care much. The dome was suspended by a large dollop of mashed potato and while I might have preferred a little less of it; the gravy! Gravy and mash. Liquid and solid. It was a meal.

Again, the boy was too quick off the mark for me to sample the curry pie but we got a cross section photo of the seal and the filling for your amazement. The boy did say that he would have enjoyed a heavier curry flavor but that it was enough.

What's with Dunedoo and pies I wonder? Population 1200, 3 pie shops. No idea about the others for flavor, but I did a runaround and this was easily the most...

I love myself a pie, and wherever I go, if I come across a pie shop, I'll always buy a couple of different pies to check it out. Living on the coast, it's completely normal to pay a stupid amount of money for a bad pie, and people seem to do it all time! The pies here are sensational. While we were eating our lunch over the road, caravaners were walking down the road to other caravaners, not introducing themselves, just demanding, "Go and get a pie from over there!" I've never seen anything like it. If a Dinky Di Dog's Eye opened even an hour closer to me, I'd make a regular...

Husband had a plain meat pie & I had the double egg & bacon Turkish roll. We both had a medium tea. Husband said the pie was delicious with nice big chunks of meat. The double egg. & Bacon roll was amazing & really hot Would have liked the teas in a mug but they only use takeaway cups. The gentleman serving was a bit abrupt when I asked for a pastie (they don't make pasties only pies), it was busy...