Located on the far flung but picturesque Northern Beaches, lies a yellow and green painted pie shop that apparently does a very good pie. Surely these very health conscious Northern beachers (the healthiest segment in Sydney apparently) wouldn’t be scoffing this buttery pastries? I suppose low carb gymwork only sustains you for a while before you just have to bite into a hot pastry.
I’ve actually called ahead to reserve myself a pie, as I am intrigued by the chicken, brie and avocado pie and didn’t want to miss out. For good measure I also reserve a cheese and bacon sausage roll. For the other pie I’ll decide when I get there. Run presumably by Sylvia and Fran (whose names remind me of Fran and Sylvia Fine from “The Nanny”), I’m picturing two Jewish ladies with big hair and nasal Queens’ accents behind the counter. The truth is far from it. As we drive up one sunny Saturday afternoon, past the snarls of traffic headed towards Manly beach, there’s a big queue outside of people. The shop is painted in the Australia colours of green and gold with an Australian flag flying atop. There’s also an area to the left where on someone’s fenced off lawn, there are benches and tree stumps serve as a place to eat the pies.
It’s a very small shop, more a counter with a bit of room to queue and a small side table. There’s nary a Nanny character to be seen, it looks like a family business and the boys at the counter look like they could be part of the family. I have trouble deciding on my other pie, the Beef and Burgundy won Gold in the Great Aussie pie competition but that was in 2002 so it seems a while ago. The one that catches my eye is the breakfast pie, with egg, bacon, mushrooms, tomato sauce and mash ($6) so I order this along with my chicken, brie and avocado pie ($7.20) and Cheese and bacon sausage roll ($3.50).
Prices are about $6.50 for most pies up to $7.20, which is a little higher than your average pie shop but obviously judging from the queue, it’s not an issue. There are over 30 fillings ranging from Lamb & Rosemary, Tuna & Avocado, Singapore Curry, Mexican Curry as well as 5 steak pie variations, 7 chicken pie variations as well as a large selection of vegetarian pies with a choice of 6 fillings.
With my goodies secured we go outside to partake of our spoils. The Chicken, brie and avocado is adorably decorated with two hearts and a swirly ribbon. It’s a good 12cms in diameter which is probably why it is a bit more expensive than your average pie. Opening it up, it is packed with tender chicken, brie and fanned out sliced avocado. I am one of those people that prefer to eat the innards of the pie with a fork before eating the crust separately. This way I can also taste the flavour of the filling a bit better.
Our first forkful yields a creamy tender chicken breast filled pie (not dry breast though, very soft), unmistakably brie-ish and made even creamier by the avocado. It’s very good. Taking a bite with the pastry, the brie flavour is somewhat lessened by the pastry. It is very flakey pastry on top but not as buttery as I’ve had. The really buttery pastry could have me enraptured but this is nice but just not buttery enough for a butter monster like me.
The open topped breakfast pie with egg yolk peering out at us like a curious cyclops is next. It’s smaller than the chicken pie and the mash is quite dry, I suppose as a result of this being made more for the breakfast crowd than the lunch crowd and it tastes like powdered potato to me I’m afraid, which is a pet hate of mine.
The egg by now is hard and rubbery so I leave this behind. Biting into the filling, it tastes like spaghetti bolognaise sauce with the tomato, bacon and mushrooms. There’s just too much tomato sauce on it to qualify as a breakfast pie, although if they took to mash and egg off the top it would very faithfully represent a bolognaise pie.
Our sausage roll is last. Cut in half it has some melted cheese at the top and the centre looks like regular sausage with perhaps some ham ground into it as it’s pinker than your regular sausage roll filling. I wasn’t sure what to expect here, perhaps a layer of cheese and a layer of sliced bacon on top of the sausage meat. It’s fairly good but not particularly strong in the cheese and bacon flavour, especially when you compare it to the Bourke Street Bakery’s sausage rolls.
Sylvia and Fran’s The Upper Crust Pies
Open Daily 7am-5pm
1003 Pittwater Rd Collaroy
Tel: +61 (02) 9971 5182
9 Comments | Add your own
i find i like the idea of the all day breakfast foodstuffs more than the reality. they have a lot of all day breakfast sandwiches over here, but i find that the taste of the bacon and sausage is overpowered by tomato. it would be even worse with mash…
the avocado and brie and chicken pie looks great though i would probably prefer it with a stronger cheese
This post had me salivating! Pies and sausage rolls are a weakness of mine and I’m always looking for a good one.
When hubby and I had a romantic getaway in the Dandenongs (near Melbourne) we ate at “Pie in the Sky”.. because there was so much hype about the place. But we were both disappointed.
We tried another bakery near the beach at Ocean Grove (Geelong.. where we live).. and there were nice offerings there.. particularly hubby’s Curried scallop pie made with local scallops.
That chicken and brie pie.. just looks awesome! I’m sorry the brekky pie didn’t fare too well.
I was a bit shocked at the pie prices.. but I’m the type of person that pays $17 for a bag of Persian Fairy Floss! For pies and sausage rolls.. I’d pay too!
What ruins a good pie or sausage roll for me is if they’re too salty.
Yatala pies in Queensland (near Brisbane) used to be good..but we’ve been so disappointed the last times we’ve been there. It’s the first pie joint that I’ve ever seen that has a drive-thru window.
Anyway.. I better stop talking about these delicious things.. as I can’t eat them at the moment.. so I’m torturing myself just thinking about them!
Thank you for your well wishes too
Hi blythe-I think if I were to have a breakfast item I’d eat it closer to breakfast time so that it would be fresh. I guess I was hoping that they wouldn’t sell something that wasn’t super fresh but perhaps they didn’t really think about it as they were really busy. A stronger cheese would definitely be good in it!
Hi Maria-Pies are a weakness of mine (if they have good pastry). I wonder if the Pie in the Sky is related to the ones that we have here? We’ve driven past one and I’ve always meant to go in.
Oh wow, you’re making me drool thinking about a curry scallop pie. I adore scallops, especially thick juicy ones…
I think the $7.20 pie was a bit of a surprise to me, especially since I equate most pies to about $5 or thereabouts. It was larger than most I suppose but I think if they made them slightly cheaper and smaller that would be better as they’re too much for 1 person. Although I don’t think they have any problems selling them from listening to what everyone was ordering
If you’ve got a Turkish grocery shop near you, they have persian fairy floss quite a bit cheaper. We don’t really have one near us, its about 45 mins drive but my sister in law bought a huge box for $10. But unlike that gorgeous Pariya brand they don’t have the lovely saffron or pistachio flavours, only chocolate and vanilla.
A drive thru pie shop-wow, that’s dangerous around me!
All the best with your health and I hope it improves very soon
I love, love, LOVE this place! Its just down the street from the boys place & its just perfect to grab a pie (potato is my fav), sit on the beach and then do the Dee Why - Freshwater walk to burn off the enormous pie!
Hi Naomi-Hehe yes the size of some of them requires a huge bout of exercise to help work off the pie!
I visited here 2 weeks ago and true to form their bakery was busy and displaying a great array of gourmet pies.
I chose the roasted vegetable pie topped with cheese- it was utterly divine, the veggies were roasted and cooked so well and delving into the pie discovered mash potatoe and cheese sauce - it was a taste sensation and pure perfection. If only they were bigger !!!
Hi umaa-Looks like I should have chosen that one! I think I just baulked at $7.50 for a vege pie where I could get a meat one for the same prices. They seem to have different sizes for different pies, I’m not sure why.
I love these pies! They are the most amazing thing in the world and one of my most missed items from Australia.
Truly a National Treasure.
I wish we had something half as good here in Canada.
Hi quickp-Oh no, there are no good pies in Canada? What a disappointment
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