Dundee Pie Shop

The Dundee Pie Shop trades from a small unit on the Hilltown — the long working-class artery climbing north out of the city centre — and carries on a Dundee tradition that the local press still write about: the city's historic pie-shop culture, of which the original Auld Dundee Pie Shop on Hilltown was for generations the most famous example. The current shop is a small bakery-and-takeaway counter rather than a sit-in cafe, with mince pies, mutton pies, bridies, scotch pies and Forfar-style bridies sitting alongside sausage rolls, sandwiches and a short hot-tray range.

The Hilltown itself is one of the densest residential strips in the city — Stobswell and Coldside terraces packed up the hill on either side — and the shop draws steady walk-up trade from the surrounding closes alongside the lunchtime workers and the bus passengers passing through. Reviewers describe the pies as old-fashioned in style: short shortcrust on the bridies, hot-water-crust on the scotch pies, fillings cooked on the premises rather than bought in. For Dundee residents who still want a pie of the kind they grew up on, the Hilltown shop is one of the few city-centre options trading that tradition forward.