*****UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

Down Under in Old Town Scottsdale AZ is the newly opened Great Australian Bakery serving up the savory and the sweet bringing a small piece of the Wonderful World of Oz to you. You won’t need an airline ticket. All you need is to  drive down to Old Town Scottsdale.

The specialty of the house are hand pies of flaky pastry in different sizes and shapes. The very large hand pies are called Pasty and are crescent shape and on my visit came in beef or vegetable filled. The medium size hand pie are called Sausage Rolls and came in house made sausage balls or a spinach and cheese filled. They offer around a dozen different variety of smaller various round hand pies. Some of these pies come filled with breakfast type foods, some are assorted vegetables, others are beef varieties and chicken as well.

I imagine your choices will differ some on your visit because the online menu differed slightly on my visit.

This is a casual bake shop where you order at the counter, pay, pick up and seat yourself.

The place is very open and airy but not fancy at all but seems fresh and clean.

We ordered a shared TWO pies and one Sausage Roll.

Steak and Mushroom Pie, Curry Steak Pie and a Sausage Roll filled with House Made Sausage Balls.

All the hand pies were tasty. My favorite was the Curry Steak. The flavor was exotic and perfume-ee and was delicious. Steak and Mushroom was good too with a rich beefy gravy steak and mushrooms. This is The Forking Truth so I have to let you know the steak in both pies was not bad but on the chewy side and might be due to being a newly opened business.

*****(Ninety percent of all newly opened businesses do open with hiccups.)

The Sausage Roll with House made sausage balls was tasty too and also but also was stuffed with sausage that seemed a tad dry.

My husband did a GREAT Job in finishing up the hand pies so I could save some room to try a dessert.

Up on the menu board listed several desserts but they were serving three on my visit that all looked very good.

Vanila Slices…..that look very similar to Napoleons.

Apple Turnovers…and…

Lamingtons  filled and unfilled.

I went with the unfilled Lamington for my first Australian Dessert.

I have to say this was an excellent dessert. This dessert was mainly a spongy light cake like a pound cake and an angel food cake had a baby and this is what the cake part was like. Then the cake was frosted in a good tasting chocolate and hit with a good dusting of coconut to make it special. When you ate it you got soft not too sweet but sweet enough melty delicate cake in your mouth that tasted like you dipped the cake in chocolate with that coconut adding a little texture and an interesting pop of another flavor.

The pricing is very low for Old Town Scottsdale and you probably won’t do won’t pay less unless you purchase low quality fast food. So if your hungry and want some quick casual eats and or tasty dessert The Great Australian Bakery is Worth a Fork.

The Great Australian Bakery brings a little piece of the Wonderful World of Oz to You!

******UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

For more information please visit www.TheGreatAustralianBakery.com