John L.
Yelp
Every Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, I try to buy food that is representative of the host country. When the host country was Australia, I sought out something that would be authentically down under. Upon searching for Aussie meat pies, I got 3 main search results. Some place in Denver that permanently closed, some place in Fort Collins, and Tip Top Savory Pies. Even though I live on the south end of Denver, I decided that I needed these pies to complete my Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix themed Sunday. I know, New Zealand is not Australia, but it's close enough for me. To make it work, I bought the pies on Saturday and ate them on Sunday.
The pies themselves were really good. I'm thinking somewhere between 4.5 to 5 yelp stars. The pie crust is as good as I can imagine savory pie crust could be. The fillings were flavorful and comforting. I couldn't decide which pie to try, so I got 2 of each savory pie that was available that day: steak and cheese, steak and ale, New Zealand beef, and chicken. My only nit pick was that the chicken pie was slightly under seasoned. The fabulous thick pies were quite substantial, and each pie was enough to serve as an entire meal for me.
Service is good and friendly. There is basically a window where you can order your pies. The person working the window was patient with me and explained their products. Next to the small building is an outdoor seating area. I prefer an indoor dining experience because I like the idea of eating my food in a controlled environment right after ordering it. For my specific visit, it didn't matter because I was getting takeout, but not having a dine-in experience option will weigh on my future meal considerations here.
When I ordered 8 pies to-go, I was expecting the pies to come in boxes to preserve the shape. When I got all 8 pies, individually paper wrapped, all crammed into a single bag, I was worried. The top 2 pies were perfectly fine. The middle 4 pies were progressively flatter and broken as we made our way toward the bottom of the bag. They also steamed in the bag. Sadly, the bottom 2 pies actually busted open. Thankfully it wasn't like an explosion or anything. It was just really flat pies with maybe like 20% of the filling outside of the pie. We reheated the pies in an air fryer, which fixed the steamed crust issue. The pies where the filling spilled out a lot were noticeably more dry after air fryer when compared to the in-tact pies. This whole situation could have been avoided if they either packaged pies in rigid boxes with steam holes on the corners or if they make a limit of something like 4 pies per bag.
All in all, the food from here is worthy of 5 stars for me, but the combined lack of dining style options and especially the to-go packaging fail has me knocking off a star.