Old Bakery Stone Hut

If you're driving through Stone Hut in South Australia, the bakery is easy to find and hard to drive past. Old Bakery Stone Hut draws a mix of locals and travellers, and plenty of cars and bikes pull up outside. The pies are the main reason.

These are homemade pies, pinched together and loaded with big chunks of meat rather than a thin gravy and a few scraps. We hear the flavours go well beyond the usual: a chunky beef pie, steak and mushroom, lamb and rosemary, a red Thai beef pie and even a chicken korma. One traveller who rates pies wherever they stop said these jumped straight to equal first on their long list. Pasties and sausage rolls get the same enthusiasm, and there's vanilla slice and cookies if you want something sweet. Everything comes across as fresh from the oven, and the pies are generous in size.

Part of the charm is the setting. Out the back there's a walk-in aviary, and Charlie the cockatoo can say a few words. Kids love it, though one visitor noted it won't suit everyone's feelings about birds in aviaries. There are tables inside and out, so you can sit down with a pie and a coffee, or take it away. You can also pick up pies from the fridge to heat up later, which is a smart move if you have room in the esky. If you're after a custom cake, the bakery takes orders, so ask at the counter.

The staff earn a lot of praise for being friendly and welcoming, and one visitor mentioned Johnno's kind service. Value gets a good word too. Coffee is a little more mixed: it's there and it's fine, but locals will say the pies are the reason to stop. It also helps that parking is free, either street or car park, with a wheelchair-accessible entrance and car park, and cards and mobile payments are accepted.

The pies can sell out over lunch, so earlier is safer. It's worth checking the hours before you head in.