The Great Pie Off was born to settle passionate arguments on our Saigon player’s chat group surrounding the cities best pie brands. We needed to find out once and for all who makes the best pies in town. Our testers tried pies 1 after another and judged each category after trying all 5 brands (on a rotated order category by category). They were told the prices of each pie but were left in complete control of their own criteria in assessing their 3-2-1 favourite pies. Thanks to all the testers who helped us get such a great summation of the Saigon pie scene!
The good news – all 5 of our manufacturers are setting a very high bar. Our testers will be ordering from ALL our manufacturers down the track after their impressive sampling. The less good news… we had to identify winners despite any of these pies being worthy hunger killers…
Read on to discover who took home the medals and our taster feedback on each of all the pies sampled. We’ve added contact info at the bottom of this article for your next pie purchase.
Beef Pie
The staple beef pie is a right of passage of any footy fan. While living overseas one of the key things any Aussie could miss is a good solid beef pie and this was the key motivation behind this event. Fittingly we were given an incredible range of fantastic beef pies from local manufacturers seeing judges both impressed and challenged to identify their 3-2-1 voting.
Gold Winner – Hans Beef Pie (37 points)
WOW!! This was an underdog story right from the start! Only the most seasoned of pie eaters amongst our test crew (Sha Mac) were aware Ben Hansen was pumping out pies of this quality but right from the first round our 20 tasters were well aware that Hans Pies mean business. Typically a smaller and more traditional pie than some of the competitors instant flashbacks to favourite local bakery pies was the common response upon trying Hans’ Beef Pies . Hans got 11 of 14 BOG (3) vote results from the testers in an emphatic showing.
Very Aussie taste, nostalgic. Reminds of petrol station pies in a good way.
Traditional pie was runny consistency that I like.
Very yummy traditional meat pie.. delicious.
Brilliant! Good rich gravy, pasty on point. Fantastic consistency
Beats a 4&Twenty for FLAVOR !
Deliciousness – delicious gravy, captures the flavour of a true blue traditional Aussie meat pie that you
Saucy beef, crispy and minimal spillage, really worth the price. Overall classic pie.
Silver Winner – Matty’s Aussie Mince Beef Pie (20 points)
Meaty and yummy. Flavour is a traditional meaty pie, focusing more on the flavour on the meat itself. Filling bite.
Tastes good and I like the modern twist to it.
Good pie modified from a traditional meat pie.
Like the addition of the rosemary topping on the pastry.
Top crust is a winner!
Nice flavour, quite meaty.
Delicious sauce, meat mince goes nicely, easy to eat, sweet crust and tasty.
Bronze Winner – Mr Pie Aussie Steak Pie (16 points)
More complex, steak and potato and herbs. Very nice, for more refined palette.
Very nice, more pepper, good pastry.
Pepper flavour, nice chunks of steak.
Loved the pastry. Little too much celery flavour for my liking for a meat pie.
Nicely seasoned casing pastry!!!
Decent sized portion, soft, chewy and good sized meat chunks, flavourful thick pasty and crust, would try again.
Union Jacks Peppered Steak Pie
Tall with a lot of filling. Easy to eat and hearty.
Nice pie, more like shredded meat than mince.
Delicious, taste of herbs.
Delicious. Love the flavor and the gravy, also like the pepper through it.
Very herby. Nice pulled beef.
I liked the pie, not a huge fan of pepper so my own personal opinion is great pie but too much pepper. Great pie for pepper lovers!
Like the different texture of the beef and the pepper.
Nice & chunky w/ just right pepper.
Full of flavour, very filling, good balance of meat to gravy
Easy to eat consistency, meat has good flavour and crust not as crispy but overall amazing!
Muffin Top Regular Mince Beef & Onion Pie
Pastry is excellent, ingredient quality is good. Just needs more gravy!
Too much meat, too dry. Needed gravy. Nice pastry. Enjoyable pie though.
Nice filling, pastry a little thicker.
Good flavour with the meat and onion.
Good onion to beef ratio, needs a gravy,
Very meaty but I’d like more gravy. Pastry was good.
Good presentation, small and chunky rather than fully minced meat, good sauce and delicious crust.
Chicken Pie
Chicken pies hold a unique place, more of a gourmet taste than a beef pie which also meant far more subjectivity. Once more the field was red hot! Flavours were unique but across the board delicious in this category so if you’re a chicken pie lover read the comments – then try them all!!! You can’t go wrong!
Gold Winner – Hans Chicken Pie (34 points)
Would you believe it?!? Hans proved the Meat Pie was no fluke taking out the Chicken pie, this time with 10 of the 14 BOG (3) votes awarded, the other 4 went to Matty’s Pies meaning we had the same gold and silver medalists in the first 2 staple pie divisions. Again Hans was praised for being solid and no fuss yet delicious.
Great taste, good fillings.
Hands down.
Good Australian chicken pie.
Once again elite! Good saucey pie with great pastry!
Creamy savory goodness!
Delicious gravy, could do with a little more meat.
Saucey texture, similar to their beef pie, quite flavourful and crispy, perfect price.
Silver Winner – Matty’s Pies Chicken & Mushroom Pie (26 points)
Creamy and delicious, balanced flavours.
The chicken was good as well as the pastry.
Unbelievable, delicious… Not so much mushroomy but delicious none the less.
Good shredded chicken and pasty.
Sweet pastry!
Nice flavour, tastes like chicken.
Really creamy, a bit sweet on the pastry, easy to eat and great value price.
Bronze Winner – Union Jack’s Chicken & Mushroom Pie (17 points)
Great texture and flavour.
Great pastry and flavorful filling.
Great creamy filling and good pastry.
Nice gravy, well composed in terms of the balance between meat and gravy.
Creamy, crispy, easy to eat.
Mr Pie – Roasted Chicken Pie
Good chunks of meat.
Taste of Thai.
Awesome pastry and I liked the spice however I much preferred Mr Pie’s normal chicken pie.
Has an Asian twist with the seasoning. Good puffy pastry.
Nice & spicy!
Tender chicken and unique taste, delicious pastry and goes good with the filling.
Muffin Top – Chicken Pot Pie
I am full, good chunks of meat.
Good combo, some vegies and chicken.
Unique roasted flavour, soft and thick pastry, a nice roasted hint flavour and good presentation.
Gourmet Meat Pie
The gourmet meat pie category let the manufacturers get fancy and as it turned out the more interesting the better in this category. It was commonly mentioned that these tend to be ‘non-sauce’ pies where you can lap up the pie’s unique flavour’s rather than adding your own tomato sauce.
Gold Winner – Matty’s Pies Chilli Con Carne Pie (28 points)
The UJ’s Rendang got everyone buzzing with it’s strong curry flavour and looked like it was going to run away with this gold medal until we got to Matty’s Chilli Con Carne Pie – the last to be tasted in this round. The delicious Mexican flavour in a quality pie attracted 6 maximum 3 vote scores from our testing team with Union Jack’s getting 5 of it’s own.
Delicious. The chilli is yummy and a lot of flavour. Spicy to a good degree.
Amazing, so tasty love the meat texture.
Unique flavour for a pie, I loved it.
Nice spicy kick, good filling.
Amazing flavour,
Brilliant, it just works in pie form, the spiciness and sweetness of the chilli works well with the pastry, crispy thin pastry and surprisingly not much of a mess.
Silver Winner – Union Jack’s Beef Rendang Pie (25 points)
Fantastic filling! Very tasty and smelt amazing.
Yummy!
Next level deliciousness!
Loved rendang! didn’t know it would be better in pie form, good heat, crust got crunch, chewy and flavourful!
Good and spicy, nailed the flavour ,this one I will definitely order from Union Jacks.
Very tasty, a very well done rendang flavour, a bit of spice at a good level. In my opinion perhaps the meat could be a little more tender but overall it’s a great pie.
Nice, real rendang curry.
Fantastic flavor, reminds me of Indonesia, good job.
Bronze Winner – Hans Curry Beef Pie (22 points)
Good pie, well rounded flavour.
Nice filling. Good pastry. Reminded me of a Chinese chippy curry from England.
Very nice, curried egg flavour.
Great pastry and tasty flavour.
Great simple curry pie, would expect this from the local in Australia.
Grandmas curry egg sandwich there.
Nice traditional curry.
Nice curry paste, not all that spicy, crispy, soft thin pastry.
Mr Pie – Braised Nha Trang Venison Pie
Good flavor, the meat chewy for those who like to something to chew on.
Meat very chewy. Flavour was nice.
I’d never tried deer meat before, but its juicy, chewy, pastry dry but extremely crispy.
This was a unique take on pie and I would try again.
Muffin Top Pepper Steak Pie
Great chunks of meat, mmm…
Nice pie. Almost too sharp with pepper.
Nice pepper taste good kick and good meat.
Nice flavour, needs more gravy.
Pretty peppery, extremely good crust and pasty, thick and crispy, good presentation, some good heat.
Vegetarian Pie
Our testers were growing weary by the 4th category (16-20th pies to be tested on the day!) but a dedicated crew stayed at it for the vegetarian category. Cheese was a common theme through these pies with a couple of more vegetable focused entries mixing it up. Some great options for those herbivores or pie lovers looking for a lighter option.
Gold Winner – Muffin Top Cheese & Onion Pie (16 votes)
Muffin top grabbed the gold with more than half our testers giving them top marks as their favourite Vegetarian Pie overall.
Good flavor and substantial filling.
Great combo vegies and cheese.
Liked the potato in the pie.
My favorite from muffin top so far, potato nice addition!
Cheesy and onion-y!
A more pastry like pie, sweet and fatty cheese, quite flakey and crumbly but nice sized onions and sweet, good take.
Silver Winner – Hans Vegetarian Pie (12 votes)
Nice solid mix of vegetables.
Good vegetarian pie.
Good verity of vegetables with a tasty curry sauce.
You’ve got to hand it to Hans!
Like their seasoning, good texture on the vegies, thick and crispy crust. This is what I would get if they don’t have meat.
Bronze Winner – Union Jack’s Cheese & Onion Pie (8 votes)
Nice and cheesy.
Very cheesey.
Nice cheese to onion ratio.
Onion-y and cheesy.
Mr Pie Green Curry Pie (Vegan)
Curry flavor is nice and lots of veges is also great.
Good variety of vegetables in it.
Favourite out of the cheesy pies, the cheese wasn’t overpowering and the vegies are still fresh and delicious, wouldn’t mind seconds!!!
Matty’s Pies Cheesy Vegetable Pie
Very good saucy consistency.
Good creamy cheesy filling with veggies.
Not as cheesy as I would’ve hoped, but flavour was great, vegies were nice and good seasoning.
Thanks again to our wonderful pie brands for joining us. As you can see they were all fantastic and pie lover’s in the city are heading into a golden pie age. Fantastic news given a few year’s ago there were very few decent options available. Please give them a try on, check them out at:
Hans www.hansaust.com or email customerservice@hansfoodsvn.
Matty’s pies www.mattys-pies.com or on Facebook
Mr Pie on Facebook
Muffin Top on Facebook
Union Jack’s www.union-jacks.co or on Facebook
