Dad's Pies - Steak and Cheese product reviews

The two types of pie I loved while growing up were Mince & Cheese, and Steak & Cheese, so I was interested to see how this pie would fare compared to the large variety of others I've had before, and this pie didn't disappoint. One thing I love about this flavour of pie is that it has nice chunks of meat, which feels, and for some reason tastes, a bit better than mince. The Steak chunks in this pie had an extra thing going for them: they were good quality.

By this I mean that the steak was juicy, tender, it wasn't stringy, and it had little to no gristle content. On top of this, the actual flavour of the steak was awesome, it had a bit of a refined salty/smokiness to it, which I'm guessing came from the Worcestershire sauce, and it also had a very strong amount of your typical steak flavour. The cheese of course made up the other major half of the fillings, and was also fine quality, it was nice and gooey without needing to be piping hot, and it had a very appealing flavour compared to some cheeses that just give you too much of an oily taste and leave you feeling a bit sick.

The pastry was lovely, it had a nice sweetness to it that really complimented the savoury of the mince, and it also had a good amount of firmness. The pastry casing was not like some of the pies from the brands that you can buy at truck stops where the crust is so firm that it is like trying to bite through plastic, but it was also not all floppy and sucked at keep the fillings INSIDE the pie. The firmness was, as they say, "just right".

Overall, I think that this pie is very high-quality compared to most, it is easy to cook, only needing 2:30 in our microwave (cooking time will vary between microwaves of course). I think that the chefs have done a great job of choosing the right ingredients and I love their method of presentation where they sprinkle some of the herbs and spices along the lid, it's very stylish. So, I would recommend this product to just about anyone, it really is worth a try

In reviewing this pie, I decided to share it with extended family and everyone was keen to try this flavour which meant dividing it 6 ways... so a small bit each, but lots of opinions for me to include in this review!

Even Miss 7 was keen to try this one and declared it, "yummy!". My father was also very keen on this one and as a lover of pies, I know he's tried a fair few steak pies in his time. Everyone noted how tender the steak was and how generous the filling was, with the proportion of filling to pastry being noticeably favourable and the pie being a decent size. The cheese is obvious and I have to say that this is one of the nicest steak and cheese pies I've had - with not a single grisly piece of meat in sight!

The pastry which I first saw as a tiny bit dry, has really grown on me and I love that it feels fresh and not at all greasy, and the others really enjoyed it too and agreed it was a very good pastry. This was one of my favourites from the range, but I love that the range has other flavours that aren't so common too. This pie cooked up well in the oven, in the bag and I'd definitely buy this pie again.

This has always been the hangover cure. Replacing the electrolytes, with the purchase of a Powerade and a Steak and Cheese pie, this has been a staple in my diet for many years. But it is what it is. This is the flavour of pie that is most common, and created by all other pie makers, and as a result, it has kind of flooded the market. By that, I mean that anytime I have wanted a pie, a Steak and Cheese has been there. And that has been it's downfall. While I enjoy the flavour, I love it, but I've had them so many times before that I just want to have some variety, and try something new.

This is the pie that has the proper "pie" consistency for me. The meat and gravy mix that lends to it dropping fiery blobs of intense pain into your lap if you aren't paying attention. I have always enjoyed that consistency in a pie, as it means that I know the entire pie is coated in flavour, unlike the drier varieties, that have areas where the filling has never touched the pastry. The wetter mix that this pie has, means that I prefer this product oven baked; I need this pie to hold its shape, and not to have the lid come loose and spill its contents on me. While microwaved is fine when consumed from a plate, if eating in the ol' paper bag on-the-go, it really needs to be firm and that lid needs to stay attached.

With reasonably large chunks of meat, this product will satisfy many a carnivore, with a good enough portion of cheese to provide an accent to the flavour (though I wish they could come up with a better way of spreading the cheese about. More often than not, you get one intense bite of cheese, and the rest of the pie is nearly empty).

This product is the one that will always hold a place in my heart, and will always be my first port of call if I am feeling a little bit worse-for-wear from the night before, but in all other situations, I'll be looking for variety, for something new, and the Steak and Cheese will stay in the pie cabinet.

My son took one look at this pie being served up and the wrapper I had on the table and announced "yummy, I will definitely eat that". He has had some of Dad's Pies previously to try and he loved them (at least the more kid friendly flavours). He knew that the pies tasted good and that the family enjoyed them too.

We found that this pie had Dad's Pies usual quality pastry. It was nice and firm and not at all greasy. We often find that pastry is soggy, oily or too crunchy. This pie had the perfect balance. This perfection has become very familiar to us as we make our way through a number of Dad's Pies products.

We enjoyed the fact that the Steak and Cheese pie had nice sized pieces of steak. They were good bite sized pieces. The fact that the meat was nice and tender impressed the family as well. My father has false teeth and he found that the meat was easy for him to eat.

The gravy didn't have the gelatinous texture that many pies have. It was more like a sauce which was designed for the purpose rather than filled and thickened just to make something that resembled food. I am not generally a steak and cheese pie eater but I have to say that this one was worth eating. I usually find the meat too tough and prefer a mince and cheese option. I would consider eating this one again. I also found that the pie wasn't too rich and I felt good after eating it. It wasn't sickly or stodgy. The funny thing is that as I write this, I am saying lots of things that the pie is not. I think that we have accepted that pies are a junk food item and therefore the quality is low. Dad's Pies raise the bar when it comes to the quality of pies. My dad actually mentioned that this pie is quite good and noting like the cheap rubbish we are normally subjected to.

The cheese. I can't forget the cheese. There is a lovely layer of melted cheese on top of the meat and gravy layer. I love this sort of cheese and it was so well melted I could almost have drunk it.

This is yet another Dad's Pies product that was a family favourite. Well done to this company for creating a pie that is worthy of being on the dinner table.

I have tried several Dad's Pies varieties now, and have been impressed by the firm's innovative approach to new flavours and combinations. But the ultimate test has got to be what they can do with a more traditional product - the good old basic Kiwi meat pie! So yesterday was the day I got to try their Steak & Cheese variety.

On first tasting it, I knew it was going to be another success story. The flavour was quite strong with a distinctive cheesy tang mingled with the full beefy flavour. I had seen on the packaging that the contents were actually 30% beef so I was surprised to find that my portion contained only one piece of beef - tender and flavoursome, but a bit solitary. However, I then found out that my friend (who was eating the other half of the pie) had no less than four pieces of beef, so clearly the meat distribution was a bit uneven.

For those who are "old-fashioned pie" aficionados, this variety would go down a treat. It has a nice thick gravy and crisp, light crust, and plenty of tasty filling. I have tried other brands of steak and cheese pie, but this is the first time the crust has come up to expectations. Many commercially available pies tend to go soggy when there is a gravy filling, but the crust on this one was crisp on all sides including the underneath.

Will I buy it again? That probably depends on who is coming for dinner. I would go for this one if I had a range of ages to cater for as I can see it appealing both to the very young (who might not want highly spiced foods) and the older generation (who might prefer a pie whose flavour they recognise). For myself, I have yet to find a variety of Dad's pies that I don't enjoy.

I enjoy a good steak and cheese pie so I knew I wanted to try this pie. I had a look and decided to put this pie in the microwave as I can't justify warming the oven for a single pie and I usually want to eat my pie in a few minutes. I forgot to defrost but that didn't seem to make any difference. I did notice that the instructions did mention to warm the pie in the bag in the microwave but nothing was said about cooking in the bag in the oven.

I had to share with my kids so cut the pie into quarters and noticed that the cheese wasn't evenly distributed and I am sure one quarter had no cheese at all. I was happy to see big chunks of meat that were nice and tender when I bite the pie but found that the pie tasted just like a lot of the cheaper brands , nothing in the pie made me think I would spend the extra cash to buy this one. My kids loved their quarter of the pie but to be honest I will not be buying this pie again as for me it didn't stand out from the cheaper brands at all.

On Friday's my husband usually calls into the bakery on his way home and grabs a pizza loaf for the kid's dinner and we grab leftovers for ourselves. This was the perfect time for my to have another of Dad's Pies. Tonight I selected steak and cheese. I have fond memories of steak and cheese pies as a child so these have always been a comfort food for me.

I heated it in the microwave so I could eat with the rest of the family. I peeled off the pastry lid and saw a layer of cheese. This was pleasing to see they weren't skimping on one of the key ingredients. Miss 5.5 saw what I was eating and grabbed a teaspoon so she could have some too. "It's fantastico!" she declared and prompted ate at least half of my dinner.

I liked that it wasn't big chunks of steak. It was tender, shredded and easily eaten. There was just a little gravy unlike a lot of cheaper varieties that use the gravy to stretch the meat out. It had a great taste which reminded me of the ones my mum used to make for our family. It is an affordable quick meal for anyone either from your freezer or the pie warmer at the service station. It certainly got the thumbs up from both of us.

I'm not a huge steak person, too often have I found it to be chewy and lacking in flavor but the great thing about being a reviewer is that I can try things without having a big affect on my wallet or bank balance. This, like all the other pies, presents well when you take it out of the packet and it is a good sized pie, I could have this for my dinner and feel wonderfully full afterwards. I needed to put this on for thirty minutes in the oven for it to be hot through but it was worth the wait.

The gravy was nice and thick, it looked good and the good thing was that it tasted nice as well. I had given my husband the bulk of this pie but once I had a little taste I knew that I needed to have a bit more and so we split the pie between us. The bits of beef were beautifully tender and didn't require a huge amount of chewing, which was a great change and I thought that there was a good balance between the gravy and the meat and just the right amount of cheese.

Not a huge steak and cheese pie fan but this one was delish and I would happily share this with hubby in the future.

I consider myself to be quite experienced when it comes to Steak and Cheese pies - in my university years it was almost considered a food-group of it's own. It certainly had pride of place on the 'affordable food pyramid', above 2-minute noodles and 'student spag bol', which was horrific to eat, I must say. Since then, everywhere I go I stop and seek out the local Steak'n'Cheese Pie master and taste their wares.

This is a very respectable player in that arena, and while not the most stunning, intriguing or even compelling version I have tried, it still stands tall above so many of the contenders (pretenders?) to the name. Even when cooked in a microwave, using my own tried and tested timing/power programme customised for my microwave, the pastry stayed soft and eminently edible - no chewy, tough rubber sheeting here, no sir.

I was unsure whether this bag was a 'tear a hole' or 'leave as is' type bag - and the directions aren't specific on that point, but I found that there are more than enough holes punched in the bag already that you are quite safe doing nothing to it - just toss it in the nuke box and let it spin as needed. I personally found that in my 1100W microwave, if I put it on 50% power for 3 minutes I got wonderful pastry, and fillings hot all the way to the centre. You could let it run for 2 minutes at full power... but I wouldn't advise it myself - it's really hard on the pasty to do it that way.

Big chunks of steak, lots of lovely, flavoursome cheese, a really tasty, fairly thick gravy that didn't splooge out everywhere at the first cut of the knife or bite of teeth... what more could you ask for. I detected the faint hint of the Worcestershire sauce in the gravy, but to be blunt I couldn't be entirely sure of it. I would have liked a tad bit more... so I added a wee dash from the last of my bottle in the pantry. Perfection!

Overall, this is a winner for me. Not the first flavour I will buy if I see any of the more exotic flavours in the pie warmer when out and about, but if this is all that is available, I will happily shell out my dollars for it, knowing it to be a worthy pie that won't let me down.

I have seen the Dad's Pie range in the frozen section of my local Pak N' Save a few times before and have often looked at purchasing them, though I always tend to change my mind due to the price and thinking that they would probably just taste the same as any standard brand microwave pie that you can pick up for a lot cheaper. Seeing the Dad's Pie range available for review was the perfect opportunity for me to sample the pies in the range, and I can happily say that I'm very pleased that I did... they certainly are far from your average microwave pie!

After defrosting my pie I popped it into the oven without leaving it in the bag (I just couldn't decided whether leaving it in the bag was a good idea or not). 20 minutes later my pie was crisp and golden and smelled delicious, the pie was still in one piece with no cracks in it and no fillings oozing out of the sides. The pie looked really appealing with a tidy pattern around the edge of the crust and a dollop of cheese on one top portion of the pastry, which left me with the hope that the pie would be nice and cheesy.

After reading the list of ingredients on the back of the packet and seeing that they were all ingredients which I was familiar with I was intrigued to cut my pie open and see how it looked from the inside. Cutting the pie open the first visible thing I saw was the generous amount of cheese that flowed out from the top of the pie, the gravy was a dark colour and contained lots of chunks of steak. The pie was starting to look really good it certainly didn't look fatty and gunky like many microwave pies do.

When I first bit into the pie I thought the pastry was cooked to perfection it was light and crunchy which I liked and was just the right thickness. The flavours of the gravy, steak and cheese were of a perfect ratio and there was just the right taste of herbs. My partner said that this was definitely one of the best steak and cheese pies that he had tasted, much better than those of bakeries and also of other microwave pies in the market.

I can happily say I would purchase this pie again, it is totally worth it even with the high price tag than other microwave pies, I delicious tasty pie full of lots of yummy cheese and flavours.

Following the very clear instructions on the back of the packet, I defrosted this pie and popped it into he oven for 20 mins. I like the way that I could leave the pie in the bag while heating and on opening the bag the filling had not oozed everywhere. The pastry was crispy and it looked appealing.

I decided to cut into this pie and see how much 30% beef really was, and also how much cheese inside. I am use to cheaper pies having quite a bit of gravy with very little cheese. I was surprised to see that their was a very dark rich gravy with chunks of real beef. The cheese was nicely spread over the whole filling - this made my day.

Taking my first bit of this pie I notice a buttery pastry which was not too crunchy or soggy. I would not of liked to of left it much longer in the oven. You could really taste the rich flavour of the beef, garlic and herbs and the cheese just topped it off. Mr 4 and 1 also enjoyed the few bites I gave them. Looking at the nutritional information I could see that this pie is higher in salt than the other pies in this range, but compared to the cheaper versions it was quite low.

I would quite happily pay a bit more for this pie as it was full of flavour and a delight to eat.