Just a little PSA here. Been on the road for work for the last few days and had occasion to stop at a 7-11 (there are none near me), so I grabbed a cheese and bacon traveller pie, with very low expectations. It was surprisingly good for a mass produced, packaged, hot box pie. The pastry was nice and held together well, and the filling seemed to have all the flavours and textures I’d expect.
Later in my trip I stopped there again and tried a smoky bbq beef pie and again was pleasantly surprised. Pastry might be a little thick for some, but it was enjoyable, and the filling had real chunks of meat in it.
So if you’re like me and you’d normally avoid trying a 7-11 pie in a plastic bag just on principle, maybe reassess if you’re in a pinch, you might be surprised.
My qualifications - going back not that many years I travelled constantly for work, and have had far more than my fair share of servo pies. Mostly I’ll avoid them, though I don’t mind a villi’s. The only ones I refuse to eat no matter how hungry I am is four n twenty. They’re absolute trash. I’d rate the 7-11 pies near the top of the pack for frozen, bagged, reheated pies.
Never had an issue with any of the servo brand pies to be honest. When you’re on the road a heap, stopping off at some boutique bakery to buy a lamb roast pie with sprigs of rosemary and a red wine jus isn’t practical a lot of the time.
Also found the aforementioned bakeries often offer poor value in terms of extra price versus extra taste. If the thing costs an hours wage and only offers a marginal taste improvement that’s a poor return on investment.
Most bakeries seem to just be reselling the same cheap crap anyway. Just because it’s from a bakery doesn’t mean it’s from THAT bakery. Reminds me of that Mighty Car Mods road trip where they bought a pie from two towns claiming to have the best pies and it was literally the same pie.
Yeah that’s my attitude. If I’m buying a pie in a plastic bag for $4.50 the bar is low so I’m easily pleased. If I’m paying 9 bones for a basic pie it had better be a bloody great pie.