Hot and Crusty Country Bakery

We found this bakery , the lunch was hot, the coffee hot, and the cakes, to many to choose from. The place was clean, the staff were friendly.yum yum!!

Had lunch twice from this place during my trip to Castlemaine for work.Had the Steak and Mushroom Pie, Chicken Curry Pie (had it by chance when given the wrong pie after ordering takeaway) and Sausage Roll. The pastries for the pies and roll are soft and reasonably done. Taste and ingredients are of average quality.Staffs are friendly and helpful. Generally this place is for takeaways. However there's two sets of table and chairs available at the front of the shop. Opens early at 7.00.a.m everyday for early risers for breakfast. As most cafes in Castlemaine does not open until 7.30a.m.

Very disappointed with our visit here, the cakes and slices look nicely presented however we were sold a pre-packed box of extremely stale cakes. I asked if they were fresh and the lady replied yes. They must have been a week old as the vanilla slice had formed a dry layer on the custard with soggy chewy pastry and the carrot cake was unbelievably dry and dense. It had nice flavours and I'm sure would have been delicious if it was fresh. These items should have been thrown away and not sold as "fresh" items.

After arriving by train we decided to have pies for lunch at the Hot and Crusty Bakery. The pies were reasonably priced. We found the potato pies to be no better or worse than other bakeries (meat mixture a little tasteless); the curry pie was very spicy making me wonder if an error had been made with the mixture; and the sweet and sour pie was bland (didn't taste sweet or sour) and well below what I would consider "average". The staff were friendly but seemed unfamiliar with their product as error had been made by the staff member with an onion type pie. To the staff member's credit the pie was swapped for the flavour originally requested. I will try the other pie shop in town on my next visit.

Very nice food both savoury and sweet, good prices. Small shop and busy with people but be patient its worth the wait x