2024 🥧 Tour
Review no 27
Dobinsons Bakery
(Gungahlin ACT)
After a couple of PFD’s (Pie Free Days) it was time to hit the road to visit more bakeries in the search for Canberra’s best 🥧. That day saw me head out to Gungahlin to visit one of Canberra’s most well known 🥧 joints, I am of course referring to
Dobinsons Canberra.
Dobinson’s Bakery has four locations scattered around Canberra and is owned and operated by Sue Dobinson. Five generations of the Dobinson family have produced traditional Australian baked goods for more than 125 years and Sue Dobinson has been operating her businesses in Canberra for more than 30 years. Baking is clearly in Sue’s blood. She’s happily followed in the footsteps of her great grandparents who opened their first bakery in the late 1800s in Kyogle, Northern NSW.
The first thing you will notice when you visit any of Sue’s stores is the impeccable cabinet display. The cabinet display is 100% up there with the best I’ve seen. The masterpieces Sue’s team have created, will blow your mind. From Tim Tam tarts to Nutella cheesecake this bakery sells it all. All these delicious sweets had to wait as I was here for the 🥧’s.
There is a great selection of 🥧’s on the menu here and narrowing it down to one was going to be very tough. From your traditional meat 🥧 through to an exotic gourmet range, I was struggling big time. In the end I went for your good old plain 🥧. Its been a long time since I’ve reviewed a plain 🥧 and this one looked terrific.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – $5.50 was dirt cheap !!! Size and diameter was more than acceptable. It’s not often you find a 🥧 priced around the $5.50 mark and this one in particular was a little beauty 10/10
2. Meat Ratio – Full Full Full !!! No more fill could be fitted in 10/10
3. Flavour – For a plain 🥧 the overal flavour was excellent. This was your good old traditional 🥧 pie. The mince was cooked right through and the gravy sauce wasn’t gluggy nor runnie. No reall negatives here, great job team 9/10
4. Pastry – Color, shape and stability were all really good, while the visible shrinkage was only on one side. The top bake was terrific as was the bake thickness. The bottom and side bakes were thick and underbaked but nothing over the top. The top bake was flakey and tasted really good. A few minor points to tweak but the overall pastry was more than satisfactory. 7.5/10
5. Serving Temperature – Perfect serving temp 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 46.5/50 🥧🥧
This was your classic old school plain meat 🥧 and it was sensational. The serving temp, meat ratio and value for money were all perfect. $5.50 is crazy value and for a 🥧 of this size is hard to beat. For a plain 🥧 the flavour was terriific and stability was excellent. Only negatives and these were minor was the side and bottom bakes and thicknesses. Overall this was an awesome 🥧 and I would have absolutely no hesitation smashing another one.
Add the name “Dobbisons” to your ever growing bakery list it’s a must visit. As mentioned earlier the cakes, slices and other goodies sold here are out of this world and well priced. I cannot wait to check out the new Majura Park location when it opens up later in the year.
A huge thanks to Sue and her son Andrew for having me in. This was an incredible visit and I could have easily sat down and chatted to Sue for hours. Her knowledge is incredible and her passion for the industry is very infectious. What this women has achieved over the past 40 years is quite remarkable and her 🥧 journey is far from over.
