Little Pie Review

The Little Bakery - Scotch Pie Review

Whilst in Dumfries on a cycling trip I checked the Scotch Pie Club website to see if there were any recommended Scotch Pie available near to my route. I found a company called The Little Bakery who had won Scotch Pie Club Awards Gold in 2014 for their Scotch Pie. The name 'The Little Bakery' sounded appealing, I was expecting a cute, traditional bakery shop. We were following National Cycle Route 7 and it was about a 2.5 mile detour off our route so it took a bit to convince my girlfriend it was worth it. However, the excellent traffic free cycle routes across Dumfries really helped. Unfortunately my girlfriend didn't enjoy getting completely lost in a housing estate after it turned out that the address of "2 Downs Way" that I found on Google was pretty misleading. Because we had taken such a detour I refused to give up despite Anna starting to lose a bit of patience with my constanstly optimistic belief that it was 'just around the next corner'.

Fortunately, after some time I spotted this sign hidden in the greenry.

So it turned out the address should more accurately read Unit 2A Downs Way Industrial Estate, this was not at all what I was expecting. This was once of the least glamourous locations I have ever purchased a pie from. There was a little bakery built into the front of this warehouse with a blue facade.


Once inside it was much nicer than I expected (given the location). It seemed like any high street bakery and was particularly appealing with many different pies available to eat hot or cold. For £2.30 I grabbed a hot Scotch Pie and a Macaroni Pie to give me energy on my cycling trip. Judging by the amount of grease which had oozed out of the Macaroni pie, this was a good choice if looking for a high calorie content. The Macaroni pie was as good as any I have had, it was cheesey and stodgy in pleasingly wrong amounts. Sadly it did lack a pastry lid meaning it doesn't meet our definition of a proper pie so I haven't given it a formal score. The Scotch pie was okay, but I actually found it a little disappointing. I don't know if I was just unlucky but it wasn't well filled. The flavour of the minced beef filling was a little bit bland for me. However, the texture was good, with some crunch to the pastry and a moist filling. At £1.20 it wasn't the cheapest Scotch pie (espeically as I bought it direct from where they make them) so I don't think I would be venturing into an industrial estate to have another. I think that the reason they are based in the Industrial Estate is that they supply pies wholesale to local shops so if I chanced upon another I might get one again. See how this pie fares against all the other Scotch Pies we have eaten in our list of the best Scotch Pies.
Interestingly The Little Bakery had the best Scottish Football League football pie at the Scotch Pie Club Awards 2016 at Queen of the South for their Scotch pie, congratulations to them, perhaps we were just unlucky with the one we had.

Scotch Pie

Macaroni Pie

Beef Scotch Pie (The Little Bakery [DG1 3QL])
Score: 4.37/7
[Condition 5.30, Colour 3.70, Cheapness 3.70, Capacity 3.80, Chewiness 5.00, Content 4.40, Consistency 4.70]

SJL