2024 🥧 Tour
Review no 37
Gusto Bakery
(Strathmore VIC)
After leaving Rutherglen it was time to head to Melbourne for the annual BAA trade show. Before I checked into the hotel, I decided to pull into Gusto Bakery
in the Melbourne superb, Strathmore. I’ve had this place on my list for a while so it was finally great to be here.
As mentioned Gusto Bakery is located in Napier Street, Strathmore and there is another location over at Fairfield. When I arrived at the bakery, I was greeted by the owner, Simon, and bakers Jake and Lisa. Simon has had this place for over 23 years and did his trade in both bread and pasty around Melbourne many years ago.
Two things stood out as soon as I entered the bakery one how small the serving area was and the second thing was the impressive cabinet display. It didn’t matter which way you looked everything in the cabinets looked unbelievable. Everything that you could ask for was in the the cabinets and ready to go.
The serving area might be small, but the baking area was massive. The engine room kept on going and going, it felt like I was burrowing through a rabbit warren. After getting a quick tour, Lisa led me straight to the 🥧 warmer to choose a 🥧 to review.
The team have created a great selection of pies with nearly every imaginable flavor on offer. For this weeks review, I wanted to try a pie that was a little bit different and I went to Lisa for advice. She strongly insisted I give the slow cooked beef brisket with chili chipotle sauce a go. The word chipotle had me straight away and I knew immediately this was going to be a little beauty.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – In my opinion $6.90 was sensational value. Although it wasn’t a massive sized 🥧, slow cooked beef brisket is considered a gourmet flavoured 🥧. 9/10
2. Meat & Fill Ratio – About 95% full, there was a few spots here and there for extra fill, but these were very minimal. Overall you would be very happy with the fill in this 🥧. 9.5/10
3. Flavour – 18 hour slow cooked beef brisket, tomatos, chili, and a smoky chipotle sauce. The pics may indicate that the 🥧 was a little dry, well that couldn’t be further from the truth. The flavor in this 🥧 was absolutely beautiful and got better with every bite. I can’t remember the last time I had a pie with chipotle sauce and gee wizz this was a beauty. The chilli chipotle sauce did have a little kick which I loved. Great job guys this was a ripper. 10/10
4. Pastry – The top was a nice golden color, while the side and bottom were a little white and pale. The shape, shrinkage and stability all nearly perfect, and when the 🥧 was tipped on its axle, it never moved one bit. Although the bottom was a little soft, the bake and thickness was perfect. The top bake was a smidge too thick and slightly underdone. Overall a couple of small points to tweak but nothing major. 7/10
5. Serving Temperature – Serving temp was perfect !!! 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 45.5/50 🥧🥧
Overall, this was an excellent product. The flavor for me was my clear favorite. The chipotle sauce added some real flavor to this pie while giving it a little kick along the way, the price point was spot on and the pie was nearly full. Yes the pastry needed a few tweaks here and there, but nothing over the top and nothing that can’t be fixed. I cannot wait to get back to Melbourne and try one of these pies again, absolutely loved it. Great work team.
This bakery was a little cracker and 100% worth the visit, definitely add this one to your list. I need to give a special mention to the chicken, spinach, pinenut pastie, omg it was the best I’ve ever had. A big thank you to Simon, Lisa, Jake , and the rest of the team for their incredible hospitality. This was a very quick visit but one I thoroughly enjoyed. What a great bunch of people.
