Bels Gordon St Bakery — Restaurant in Port Macquarie

I went today to the Bakery as I was told it had won many awards for its pies. I love my pies since I was a kid, so I was keen to check em out. I ordered a plain meat pie without sauce as I prefer to eat them that way, to ensure you get all the flavours. Anyhow, it's a good size pie, they cost $5.00 each. The pastry is ok and the meat constancy is good too. You don't get that gluten gelatinous stuff that many pie makers use. After eating into it, I noticed it does have a slight peppery flavour in it, which I'm not sure how to take that as I was hoping for just a plain meat pie taste. Then as I was eating into it, I bit into cartilage. Not once but twice, (see image). It's common that this stuff is shoved in pies to I guess "fill in the gaps" I suppose. Otherwise, it's not a bad pie. You may laugh, but you can go to the local Caltex and buy a Mrs Macks pie, which in my humble opinion, it's actually a fantastically tasting pie considering. Anyhow, just my thoughts. 🙂 Oh, by the way, they make great coffee and staff are super...

I was worried I'd hyped it up too much, but it lived up to its billing of Australia's best pie.

The pastry was perfect, flaky enough to blow poetically with every gust of wind going through the store, but strong enough to encapsulate the tender steak and gravy filling without fuss. The first bite was a genuine surprise; the edge of the pie is usually a dry pastry affair, but with the world's best pie, it was meat and gravy to the edge.

After the first bite, I could barely take my eyes off the perfect snack that lay before me. I mustered a smile to the smitten D-bomb that sit opposite me, engrossed in the culinary experience in the same way I was, but the 5 minutes that followed was a blur of happy thoughts. This pie is most certainly the food served up in heavens kitchens.

The gravy was the perfect consistency, never falling out of the casing even in my clumsy hands, and I wouldn't be surprised if the steak was slow cooked for a thousand years to arrive at the tender levels presented today.

11/10, best pie in...

I don't normally write reviews, but this is a weird exception. For a place that makes such delicious pies (and charges accordingly), it is pretty shameful in Australia to charge for tomato sauce. It's not expensive to supply, and what they do supply are the tiny squeezie packets that are an environmental nightmare, AND charge 40c for the privilege. The containers are as bad as plastic straws which even Woolworths are now stopping selling. Happy to change my rating to a 5 (for the delicious pie) once / if the situation changes.

EDIT: Thanks for the reply, I appreciate the response and understand your position being dictated by the council. They definitely deserve a 1 star for that decision. I've updated my review accordingly for your delicious food. Would it be possible to provide large pump dispensers for sauce instead of the red squeeze bottles? I know of several establishments that have them, so hopefully they clear...