Tallangatta Bakery

Tallangatta Bakery is the kind of busy country bakery you spot in the middle of town, and locals will tell you it earns its crowd. The pies are what people talk about first: the traditional steak pie, a slow cooked beef and bacon number with a chunky filling and flaky pastry, and the chunky pepper pie all get a mention. Sausage rolls and coffee scrolls turn up in the chatter too, and the cabinet runs well beyond that, with sandwiches, toasted options, cakes and sweet treats.

Fresh from the oven is the feel here, and it's a bakery with plenty to offer a hungry traveller passing through. Portions are generous and the prices are known to be fair for what you get. We hear the coffee is reliably good, and there's locally sourced flavoured milk and softies for the kids.

You can eat in, grab a table out the front, or take it across the road to the shady park in the town centre, which makes a pleasant spot for a snack. It's also a popular meeting point for car and bike cruises. Takeaway and dine-in are both on offer, along with coffee and breakfast, and the entrance and car park are wheelchair accessible. Free street parking helps, and they take cards and mobile payments.

Custom cakes are a strength too. One local who needed a dozen cupcakes for a themed baby shower rang a few days ahead, left the design to the bakers and ended up with bright, fun cupcakes that tasted as good as they looked.

The staff get plenty of praise: friendly, welcoming and quick, even with a large group, and one visitor was kindly let in to buy something after closing. Another local spoke warmly of the thoughtful, dignified way the team looks after customers who need a little extra help. One customer was let down by a sausage roll, but that's the exception in what we hear.

It's open daily from morning through to early afternoon, so check the hours before you head in. If you're after a bakery in Tallangatta, Victoria, start with a pie and a coffee.