Hope Bakery — Restaurant in Victoria

After a morning spent knee-deep in creek muck and quartz scatter, my bones cried for sustenance and solace. Thus I wandered into Hope Bakery, a name most promising—and, lo, it did not disappoint (though it did mildly scald).

The meat pie—aye, she came piping hot! Too fierce to tame upon first bite, like the temper of an unclaimed nugget. Yet once cooled to miner’s-mouth safety, it proved itself hearty fare. The crust held firm, the meat sang a savory hymn, and I’d rank it fair in the top 450 pies I’ve consumed across colonies and camps. That’s no idle claim—it outpaces the infamous pie of Bendigo, though still shy of Mrs. Flanagan’s gristle-rich marvel from 1849.

Now to the sweet goods! The gingerbread men marched into the hearts of the wee diggers with cheer and crunch. Their sugary smiles lit up the children’s faces like fresh veins of quartz in the morning sun—utter triumph.

But alas, the wagon wheel did roll with mystery. One hemisphere was jam-laden, a glorious ooze befitting a royal ration; the other, bare as a claim post—no jam, no joy. A biscuit divided, a confectionary injustice. I petition for balance in all...

The pies were quite good just maybe a bit too salty for my liking.

We had the chicken pie, the steak and mushroom pie, and the steak bacon cheese pie. The crust was good and it held together well. There were nice big chunks of chicken in the chicken pie which was good. But there were barely any mushrooms in the steak and mushroom pie and I could barely taste them. More veg would have been better.

We also got the apple crumble pie which was quite nice. It was cold, a perfect little treat to to end lunch with on a hot summer's day at Sovereign Hill. It had nice chunks of apples inside a beautiful crust topped with a crumble topping. It wasn't too sweet either. Would recommend!

Service was friendly, but the lady at the counter seemed a bit inexperienced and messed up customers orders a...

We paid $49 each to enter Sovereign Hills, around 2:20pm. When we entered Hope Bakery we asked if they had any famous sausage rolls left as we drove from Werribee and paid an expensive entry fee to try it, the lady said no and attempted to correct me on the time, saying it was 2:30pm. There was only one rack of hot food left at that time, considering they close at 4pm, we thought there would be more. As we left the store with disappointment, we heard a customer greet the worker, the worker sarcastically responded “that’s better!” implying the customer wasn’t upset like us.

The kind ladies down at the gift store stated there should have been plenty to choose from at that time and apologised for our experience.

Worst experience and will never return. Don’t waste your money...