2025 Pyney’s 🥧 Reviews
Review No 46
Guildford General Store
(Guildford VIC)
June 2025
My plan was to post my review of the Rochester Bakery tonight, but due to family passing in the bakery I will postpone that one for a few weeks. After leaving Cobram I made my way down through Eucha, Rochester and eventually set up camp near Maldon. The plan was to set up camp for a week explore the area and visit as many bakeries and hidden gems as I could. One of those little hidden gems was a recently reopened Guildford General Store.
Guildford is situated on the Loddon River and is located between Daylesford and Castlemaine and it is 124 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. Right in the middle of town is where you will find the general store. The building has been around for over 100 plus years. Once a pub then in 1915 it was converted into the towns general store. Sadly the store closed down a couple of years ago then a wonderful lady named Norma decided to re-open the place. After a lot of money and hard work the place re-opened in Feb this year.
Open Tue to Sun the place and particularly the food is amazing. Norma’s grandson Curtis is the man in charge of the kitchen and he’s doing a sterling job. Curtis a boilermaker by trade decided to introduce arrange your handmade 🥧’s to the menu.
He’s has created a great selection of flavours on offer. All of the usual bakery favourites are available. Choosing a 🥧 to review was a very easy choice for me, I got a tip on the pepper steak and that’s the one I decided to run with.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – Yes I won’t argue $12 is well truly up there, but this 🥧 was massive weighing in at almost 350 grams. It was a more then generous size in death diameter and the unusual shape works a treat. When you factor in the sheer weight (100g above industry standard) of this 🥧 $12 is reasonably good value. 7.5/10
2. Meat/Fill Ratio – Chock a block full with a huge chunks of meat. Easy one to score. 10/10
3. Flavour – Sensational !!! This was up there with one of the best pepper steak flavours I’ve had. The meat pieces were massive and melted in your mouth, while the gravy sauce was beautiful and the peppercorns were the exact amount. While not super hot, the peppercorns were just enough to give this 🥧some real added flavour. Great job Curtis i couldn’t fault the flavour in this 🥧. 10/10
4. Pastry – Curtis has some a excellent job with this pastry. To be honest, there wasn’t much wrong with it. The stability was excellent and when tipped on its axis, it didn’t move one bit. The color and whole oddly shaped were all very good and couldn’t be faulted. The top bake thickness and bake was magnificent and the only real negative was the bottom bake needed a smidge more time and had a slight wet line. Overall Curtis has done a cracking job with this one. 9/10
5. Serving Temperature – Perfect serving temp 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 46.5/50🥧🥧
This was incredible 🥧 with incredible flavour. For a non baker Curtis absolutely nailed this one. From the un-usual shape to the pastry it was all positive. For me the flavour was the absolute stand out. Pepper steak is my 🥧 of choice and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Fantasic job with this one Curtis you may have just found your calling in life. Highly recommended.
This was a great little find and this is one place that you need to add to you list if your a genuine 🥧 lover. With seating outside it’s a great place to sit and relax and enjoy quality food.
A massive thanks to Norma and Curtis for there incredible hospitality, and showing me around this amazing building. Norma has done a wonderful job with this place. This 90 year old should be well and truly enjoying the fruits of retirement, but she’s in here most days and has a huge involvement in the day to day running of the store. Curtis you absolute legend, keep up the great work mate and you should be very proud of the products you produce. Interviewing Norma and hearing her 🥧 journey was up there with one of the most memorable reviews I’ve done. If I’m down this way again, I would definitely pop in again.
As always thanks for the ongoing support and keep supporting 🇦🇺 bakeries and don’t forget to invite all your friends to the page.
