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With more and more food trucks added to the streets of Vancouver, some of them are now forming into what we call pods. For example, around the Vancouver Art Gallery there are 5-6 trucks on a regular basis. Recently a smaller-scaled pod has been formed near the intersection of West Georgia and Hamilton. It involved a trip on the skytrain and another 5-10 minute walk, but the 6 of us made our way to this pod to give Aussie Pie Guy a try.

Aussie Pie Guy

Food

As suggested by its name, Aussie Pie Guy specializes in pies, mostly savoury pies. I ordered the Aussie Pie, because, duh, that should be what started this all, right?! It’s supposed to a traditional Aussie pie with chunks of beef. Now, I have never been to Australia so I’m not going to question its authenticity. The pie crust was flaky and not very thick nor doughy. It was piping hot and steam just burst out as you cut through the crust. The chunks of meat was tender and had lots of flavour. It had richness from the meat gravy, and hint of bitterness from the use of beer. I thought it was overall pretty good, but it did remind me of the Campbell Chunky Beef line.

Aussie Pie with Ginger Beer – A traditional Aussie pie made with chunks of free range BC beef and organic onion in a pepper gravy made with Howe Sound Rail Ale from Squamish, B.C.

I also ordered an Australian Bundaberg Ginger Beer (aka Bundy) to go with my pie. It has a prominent ginger taste, not as sweet as our ginger ale.

MP ordered the Shane’s Pie, which is their signature pie. I took just one bite of this, but I liked how it tasted. I actually prefer this over the Aussie Pie. The meat here is shredded beef short rib, so it’s also nice and tender. The sauce tasted more interesting, with a bit of sweetness from the hoisin sauce added to the savoury pie. The Aussie Pie felt more one-noted to me.

Shane’s Pie – A signature pie created by our friend Shane. Tender free range BC beef short rib and vegetables with a red wine au-jus and apricot hoisin sauce over mashed potatoes.

Of course now I realized I should’ve taken a picture of what it looks like inside. But we were all too hungry, so even for me, I couldn’t resist the temptation of finishing the pie quickly while it’s still hot.

Although we all agreed that the pies were good, they are a bit over-priced. It cost me $11 for the pie plus the ginger beer; or $10 for pie plus pop. I would assume the pie itself would cost you around $8-9. For the price we paid, it would be fair for us to expect to feel full afterwards — not in this case. It was just a 4″ pie that left you wanting more food. Definitely not enough food for a guy. One of my co-workers is actually from Australia and she said a pie like this would cost $3 back home. Understanding that we’re in Vancouver and everything is more expensive here, I still think $6 would have been a more reasonable price for these pies.

Service

Because they only have limited quantity for each kind of pie at any given time, it’s a luck of the draw whether they have your desired pie in stock. Otherwise, it takes about 7 minutes to bake a new batch. 3 out of 6 of us ordered the Porky Pie so they sold out Porky Pie when TC, the 6th in line, wanted to order one. He had to opt for something else instead.

Final Thoughts

The pies here were good, and I think they are one of the few food trucks that would be great for the winter season. Pies are just perfect comfort food. That being said, the portion size is quite small for what you pay and with that, I’m not sure if I would go back again.

Aussie Pie Guy
West Georgia Street & Hamilton Street
778-991-7437
www.aussiepieguy.com