Chicken pies are the perfect lunch time snack; when they’re steaming and stuffed with creamy filling I don’t think there’s any other savoury item that can be so yummy and also fill you up! They’re also available in pretty much any bakery/snack shop and this also means there’s quite a varying degree in quality.

BreadTalk (No 525, Union Place, Colombo 2)

Price - 100
Value for Money - Low
Taste - **
Overall - It’s a basic fact that chicken pies taste better when they’re hot, so when they were not served warm there was an immediate drop in overall taste. This was the most disappointing pie we came across. Meagre filling, creamy without taste, even the pastry was just a pastry.

Coffee Stop (Cinnamon Grand, 77 Galle Road, Colombo 3)

Price - 100
Value for Money - High
Taste - *****
Overall - Our pick for the week! It had soft flaky pastry and a delicious filling of devilled chicken. It tastes like a lasagne or a pizza in a pie, and we were sold! It even had a bit of a sweet and sour taste, it was warm and also quite a decent size. There was a regular chicken pie as well, so points for variety! At that price too, we’d definitely go back for this (again and again, because did I mention it tasted of pizza?)

The Chariot (Odel, Alexandra Place, Colombo 07)

Price - 80
Value for Money - Average
Taste - **
Overall - This one was pretty bland, and the filling was mostly potatoes. There was hardly any chicken, and it needed a bit more salt perhaps. While we didn’t hate it, we didn’t find it all that appetising either.

Keells (89 Galle Road, Colombo 03, Kollupitiya)

Price - 90
Value for Money - Average
Taste - ***
Overall - This one was better than the previous one, but still wasn’t very tasty compared to the one we got from Coffee Stop. The pastry was nice and flaky, the filling had a healthy dose of chicken and mushroom but there was a certain tang missing.

By Marissa van Eyck and Sindhu Ratnarajan