In response to Duchess:
I judge a pie on both the quality of the pastry and the taste and quality of the filling, with the pastry slightly more important (there are many different fillings but only one pastry). The pastry case should be short, but not so short that it breaks and crumbles when you try to eat the pie, and the top should be flakey (but preferably not so flakey that you get little flakes all over your shirt. The filling should be good quality (nothing worse than finding chunks of gristle in a pie), well cooked, and the gravy should be tasty and just thick enough to ensure it stays inside the case when you eat it. I don't care whether the filling is chunky or minced as long as it matches what I expect from the menu, and the top may also be potato rather than pastry.
Any pie that needs tomato sauce injected into it to make it eatable has already failed the test, as has any pie where the base of the case is shiny and undercooked (a baker would describe it differently, but you know what I mean). For factory pies, Beefy's is the best I've found with Vili's second (but from their 24 hour factory cafe in Adelaide, not from a corner store). I've also had good pies from various country bakeries but haven't ever kept a list of them! Ones that have disappointed me as not living up to the hype have been Fredos and Yatala.
