A Thing for Pies

First published in The Edge (Malaysia), Options, on 30 August, 2014

Whereby it is demonstrated that a restaurant serving only pies is not a pie-in-the-sky idea

The three youthful co-owners of A Pie Thing have a thing for pies, because that’s all they serve – savoury pies and sweet pies.  It’s something of a gamble, given the lack of a tradition of pie-eating in this country, but it seems to have paid off handsomely, judging by the crowd when I went over one weekend.   What’s more, A Pie Thing is only open from 4-11pm, while you’d think that pies would be more suited to brunch or lunch than dinner or supper.

A lot of thought seems to have gone into the restaurant, which is fashioned after a fast-food outlet, with orders placed at the counter and collections made at a separate counter, both for takeaways as well as eating-in.

The décor is a minimalist, clean style with bare cement floor, counter and wall bench, with generic aluminium chairs and stools for seating at small faux-wood toppped tables.  The ceiling is black and the lack of adornment contributes to the clean bright theme.

There are half-a-dozen types of savoury pie on offer, with a vegetarian option – the Creamy Spinach.  Pies can be ordered in a variety of configurations – pie with gravy, with peas and gravy,  mash potatoes and gravy, or the whole hog, called a ‘mashacre’, being a pie with peas, gravy and mash potatoes. 

According to Alex Yeo, one of the owners, the word ‘mashacre’ is a mashup of the word ‘massacre’, with ‘mash’, which occurs from their use of mashed potatoes and mashed peas, which is a nod to the English tradition of pie topping.   Prices vary by the combination ordered rather than the type of pie.  And why ‘massacre’?  Presumably another way to say going for the full works.

A plain pie with gravy only costs Rm12.90, while either peas or a mash potato topping adds an additional Rm2 to the price before graduating on the the Mashacre. The Mashacre costs Rm16.90 with no drinks, Rm17.90 with bottled water, and Rm19.90 with a soda. 

We ordered 4 types of pies for sharing.  When ready at the counter, the order was served in a wire basket.  The pies looked indistinguishable with their mashed peas and gravy topping, but the cardboard containers they were served in had little logos on them, corrrsponding to the logo on the sign declaring the pie type in the food display, so a logo of a cartoon sheep face meant it was the Pulled Lamb pie, while the chicken logo meant that a Chicken-Mushroom pie lurked below the topping.

A disposable wooden fork, of the same material you find in traditional ice-cream sticks, and embossed with the restaurant name, served as cutlery.

Within the cardboard containers, the pies were served in waxed paper, but after a while, these became soaked so that pie consumption became a somewhat messy affair – apparently not a problem with the young and very informal crowd.

You’d think a small pie would hardly suffice for dinner, but you’d be wrong, because small as they are, the pies are rather dense, and with the mashed potatoes and mashed peas, make for a surprisingly filling meal.  No two ways about it – brown gravy, green mashed peas and potatoes and pie all mixed together look like a mess.

The pies are made on the premises with shortcrust pastry rather than the more familiar puff pastry, both as a way to distinguish the offering as well as to avoid the greasiness sometimes associated with puff pastry. 

The Pulled Lamb pie and the Chunky Steak pies were the most appealing, and not surprisingly, also the top sellers. The meat was tender and tasty and chunks of soft carrot added variety.  The lamb meat was lean, and not gamey in the least, while the beef in the Chunky Steak was moist and flavourful.  The pastry was thin enough to add substance without being doughy or getting in the way of pie enjoyment.

Of the other two pies, the Chicken-Mushroom had chunks of chicken contrasting with chunks of smooth button mushroom – not quite as flavourful as the red meats but still good. The Chili-Cheese, meant to be a take on Chili con Carne, inexplicably tasted as though it had a tinge of curry in it, but thankfully wasn’t very cheesy at all.

We had to try the sweet pies as well but could only manage a couple of the intriuging pies on offer, which included the enigmatically named “The Elvis”.  We settled for a more conventional Apple Crumble Pie (Rm9.90) and a Peanut Butter Brownie Pie (Rm11.90).

Both were very good – the Apple Crumble Pie was served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream over the top.  The pastry was lightly crunchy and chunky.  The Peanut Butter Brownie Pie wasn’t too sweet, and had the distinct taste of peanut butter beneath a luxurious layer of dark, rich chocolate, and only a thin pie crust.

Besides pies, the restaurant offers a variety of teas, coffees and sodas to wash down the rich pies, and it also has a counter of jewel-like Leonidas chocolate offerings in case you feel that you haven’t indulged enough after the pies. 

There are some thoughtful touches in the restaurant.  The pie theme is carried through to the wifi password, which is the first nine digits for Pi, the mathematical constant of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.  Brown paper napkins and plastic disposable soda cups and cardboard cups for hot drinks carry the restaurant pogo.

Nothwithstanding the single offering type, A Pie Thing seems to have struck a chord with the young and selfie generation, but there were older family patrons as well.  Whether this is a passing phase with the crowd for something new and different, or whether there is a hitherto untapped lode of latent pie-fanciers in our society, only time will tell.

A Pie Thing,

No 128G Jalan SS21/35

Damansara Utama

Petaling Jaya, 47400

Open from 4pm-11pm, everyday except Monday.

https://www.facebook.com/apiething