Beefys - multiple locations

Red Curry Lamb Pie

I know that this week I promised you a review of the Golden King at Ashgrove, but I've just looked at my notes, and they are exactly that - notes. Not what you've come to expect from me, i.e: quality. So Golden King will have to wait. Instead, I have a couple of rippers for you after last week's dungers from Bulimba.

I have a great dealer / enabler. He calls in every now and then to drop off some more 'samples'. Last week, he announced that he had been to Beefys, and thought I might like to review their special pie (a Thai red curry lamb and vegetable), and their signature pie, the angus beef. So he had picked me up a couple of cold ones to heat up at my leisure. Great bloke.

I had been to Beefys before on several occasions and couldn't help but be impressed with the quality of their product. Their (Type 1) curry beef pie could use a little more Keens, but everything else was very good or better, and the menu contains some unusual options for the pie-curious, such as the Mexican, Thai green chicken curry, chicken honey and soy, and steak sweet chilli and onion...along with regular favorites such as the Ned Kelly.

Beefys has 4 outlets: at the Moby Dicks servo on the Bruce Highway southbound near Glasshouse; Buderim; just near the Ettamogah Pub / Aussie World on the Bruce Hwy northbound; and Ningi...wherever the hell *that* is. This puts Beefys - in the minds of some people out there in internet-land - into the 'franchise' category of bakery, and therefore beneath them. We should pity these poor fools for their ignorance, but at the same time rejoice...because that means more pies for us.

Cooked at home from frozen @ 180 for 40 min with egg wash.

Red Curry Lamb

Lovely golden colour with light flaky top. Temperature perfect because I heated it myself. Pie size is 'oversize' due to the thickness of the pie and it's filling rather than it's diameter. I could possibly attempt 2 in one sitting, but would probably need to lie down and rub my belly for a few hours afterwards.

The base was firmer than Pippa Middleton's and would ace the driving test. Filling was solid and not very viscous; without being like a bottle of Clag. You could set this thing down half eaten on a plate and the filling would stay put and wait for you until the end of time.

Type 2 curry pie (Thai red curry). Excellent balance of flavor and heat with the sweetness of the red curry coming through loud and clear.

This thing had more veges than a market garden, with onion, capsicum, beans, peas, and my old nemesis - corn - all getting a look-in. A picky man would say that there were perhaps too many vegetables in there, but I'm happy to stave off scurvy for another day without having to resort to vitamin supplements or, heaven forbid, actually cooking my own.

The lamb was a combination of mince and slow-cooked chunks that were delicate and tender, and the pie was the sort of thing that you'd be happy to receive in a restaurant. Speaking of which, at $6.50 we're starting to get up there a bit (if the wife and kids decide they want one too, you're suddenly looking at a $26 lunch before you shell out another $10 for drinks), but as I've said before, quality costs and lamb isn't cheap these days (thanks to Sam Kekovich). It's also another good reason not to have kids.

As it was, the egg wash and perfect temperature were of my doing, resulting in a score of 8.5. I think that if you bought this hot from Beefys and ate it there it would probably rate a very solid 8/10, but attention to detail such as egg washing (take a bow, Piefection) separates the truly great pie shops from the also-rans and is worth half a point on its own. Maybe if the pie came in under the $6-mark I would have awarded another half point for value. All in all, the pie was a bit left field, a bit unusual, very tasty, and well worth a look if you feel like going off the reservation.

Angus Beef pie

Again, heated from cold at home...180 degrees from frozen for 40 minutes. No egg wash - because it didn't really need it. You could see from cold that this pie would step up when the heat was on...and step up it did.

A thing of beauty and a joy to behold (and be eating)

Nice appearance, buttery pastry lid with the word, 'ANGUS' branded authoritatively into the top of the oversize pie, so you don't forget that what you're eating is quality. Not that you could forget it; this is a seriously good unit.  I kept wanting to make notes, but couldn't put the pie down for long enough. I've made the photo extra-large so you can fully appreciate what's going on in there....

There are tender chunks of moist beef mixed with chunks of real mushroom (not champignons) and a hint of onion, all bound together with a thick beefy gravy with excellent viscosity and no hint of gelatin holding the whole ensemble together. This mushroom gave Crispy an unpleasant surprise when he ate his (possibly a flashback to a bad trip); but I found it to be a flavorsome addition. The colour is deep rich brown. The pie is completely devoid of rubbish - no lips and arseholes here, folks. I am rapidly becoming a BIG fan of Beefys. This pie was $5.95 and scores a 9.

The keen eyes amongst you will have also noticed that, due to some feedback I've received, the Leaderboard on the right hand side has now been separated into 'curry' and 'non-curry' categories for those who don't like curry pies and don't have the mental capacity to filter them out of a consolidated list (is there a correlation there, one wonders?). I have, for no particular reason, named the non-curry Leaderboard 'Roobs' List'. 

Cheers