While going for a stroll on a blustery Sunday morning, a certain shopfront caught my eye — the Kingston ‘National’ Bakery. The sense in which the bakery was ‘National’ piqued my interest and led to an impromptu visit for a pie.

I settled upon a steak and pepper pie ($4.30). My companion opted for a vegetable pastie. We ventured to the Kingston Foreshore to enjoy our acquisitions by Lake Burley Griffin.

The pastry was puffed on top and had a sprinkling of pepper. It looked potentially soggy on the bottom but held together well.

A few bites revealed a dark interior. The pie was nice and hot, even after a 5 minute walk. It wasn’t he most attractive pie internally and texturally it had a gelatinous quality, not as smooth as I’d like. The flavours were a bit simple, nothing of note. The pepper was noticeable but not overpowering. The pastry and meat didn’t complement each other as much as I’d like as the puffy quality of the casing proved distracting.

All in all, the pie was decent with a pleasing pepper hit but nothing special.

My companion described the veg pastie as ‘generously filled’ but ‘pretty bland’ and ‘quite dry’. It was, however, ‘easily jazzed up with some Tommy [tomato] sauce’.

It remains unclear in which sense Kingston National Bakery is ‘national’ but I approve of their adoption of the tendency for things around these parts to include that adjective.

Kingston National Bakery is a straightforward suburban bakery with a reasonable range of baked goods. It’s not sophisticated but it does a decent job.

On a Sunday, I went to the Fyshwick Markets for no reason other than to consume baked goods.

My companion and I settled upon Crust Bakery to satisfy our pastry-needs. They had an intriguing array of meat pies on offer. I eventually decided upon the steak, mushroom, and Guinness pie ($6.60). My companion procured a chickpea curry pie.

The pie certainly appealed aesthetically with a flaky golden exterior. One thing of note is the structural integrity of the pie(s) — the lid came off quite easily and, while holding together reasonably well, the pie itself was a bit fall apart. Care was necessary in the handling of the pie. Also, the pastry was less flaky underneath, a tad soggy.

The filling was rich in colour and full of big chunks. There was no gristle and the meat was good quality. But one downside with the chunky approach in this instance was that it was not ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ and didn’t meld together with the gravy. The gravy itself was quite yummy, with a hint of sweetness derived from Guinness. The pie would have benefited from some more seasoning — both salt and pepper (no strong pepper notes). I did not detect any mushroom.

A decent pie but with room for improvement.

My companion described the chickpea curry pie as ‘quite nice, quite nice’.

Crust Bakery has a decent range of options including a nice assortment of pies, both meat and veg, and other baked goods. Worth a visit if at the markets.