Last night hubby and I made the trip from Keelung to Yonghe to try out Frankie’s pies, and I am glad we went.
In my post about the Pie Boy Cafe I strongly complained about the lack of meat in their gravy pies AND how Pie Boy Cafe uses this same gravy for both their steak and mince pies.
This is NOT the case with Frankie’s pies. Each pie sold in Frankie’s pies has its own unique filling, and there is PLENTY of meat in each one.
I had the Italian steak (which is show in the picture in a previous post), the chicken curry, bacon quiche, and a sausage roll. My hubby had the steak and mushroom meal set with the (awesome) french fries.
The flavors in all pies were plentiful and diverse and he is VERY generous with the meat content ( I must emphasize this, take note David). The bacon quiche was perfect, and the french fries were awesome: firm, crispy, not greasy (take note Yuma) and covered with Frankie’s own mix of spices and herbs.
There were a few small gripes. They heat their pies in the microwave, which totally ruins the pastry. I understand the reasons: it is NOT good (or safe) to have pies sitting in a warmer all day, and it would take far too long to heat a pie in an oven and most local customers would not be wiling to wait for that.
However, a good alternative would be to give it a quick boost in the microwave and then finish it off in a proper oven.
I bough a few pies to take out, reheated them in my little ‘toaster oven’ this morning and they were beautiful.
The puff pastry for the sausage rolls was really terrible, and ruined the beautiful flavors of Frankie’s meat filling. The puff pastry is is the same used in most restaurants for their ‘pastry covered soups’. There is only one company in Taiwan making this, and it is therefore the same puff pastry used by Pie Boy Cafe for their pie toppings (David from Pie Boy mentioned this in his post).
Now, my dad used to have his own bakery and I spend most of my school years helping him before and after school. So, I know how much effort is required to make puff pastry (mixing, cold storage, rolling, folding and more rolling etc.), but I really think that NOTHING beats a pastry made with real butter.
However, Frankie does NOT use puff pastry on his pies and I think that is a wise decision, the pies may not be 100% authentic, but at least the taste is not ruined.
About authenticity, I mentioned in my review that I though there was nothing "New Zealand’ about Pie Boy’s ‘New Zealand Pies,’ a few other Kiwi’s jumped in and (surprisingly) disagreed.
Well, Frankie’s pies are exactly what the name suggests, they are FRANKIE’S pies, and there is no other claim. The range of flavours is diverse and original, and they really work well.
Yonghe is quite far from Keelung, so i won’t be making many trips back there. I WILL start placing large orders with Frankie and have them delivered to my house. Frankie explained that if I email him my lists, he will make the pies fresh and freeze them immediately overnight. They will then be delivered the next morning using a local, cold storage courier, the same system Eddy (Eddy Burritos) uses.
I also met Frankie last night and he is a friendly and pleasant guy to talk with. He told me that they will be moving to a bigger location soon and will offer more indoor seating.
I highly recommend Frankie’s pies, and if the trip to Yonghe seems too far, then the delivery is a great option.
frankiespiestw.com/
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