The Big Apple (Pie, that is)!
A little while ago I went on a mini-road trip to Kingston, and one of my friend’s asked me (okay, she practically threatened me) if I could stop at this place called The Big Apple on the way and pick her up some apple pies. I’m thinking, what’s so special about this particular apple pie that you’re telling me to veer off the highway and make sure I get you a couple boxes when I get back to Toronto?
Boy, did I sure I find out when I tasted a juicy morsel. These pies were delicious!
The Big Apple is easy to see off the 401. About 1 1/2 hours from Toronto, there’s a giant apple that can be seen from the highway once you reach the city of Colborne and a short drive to the front doors from there. There’s a small petting zoo outside the grounds (including ducks, llamas and goats) and even a mini-putt golf course.
When you get inside the restaurant, you go through a couple of turn-styles and greeted with a large menu sign that lists all the pies available. The kitchen is also right there, so you can
view the bakers making the pies. Once baked, the pies are put into colourful boxes and rested on the counter for customers to choose from. They go for a whopping $10 each, but it’s so worth it. Took me about a week to polish one off… that pie was huge.
There’s also non-apple things on the menu, such as fries, burgers and hot dogs. And of course they have candied apples. The only thing I still don’t understand which my friend had warned me about was their reluctance to provide forks to people who purchase whole pies. When my mom had ask for a fork the cashier had said that they were only for people who buy slices to eat in the restaurant. They’d probably make more money selling forks for 0.25ยข than by losing business of people who’d opt to buy a slice over a whole pie just to get a fork. I had to wait until I got home to eat my wonderful-smelling pie, but it was well worth the wait.
There were about 20 different types of flavoured apple pies to choose from. I purchased Apple-Maple (my favourite out of the two I got) and a Mumble Crumble. Others I was tempted to get were Apple-Strawberry and the Caramel Apple pies (next time!).
So if you’re in the GTA and planning a road trip east to somewhere like Ottawa or Montreal via the 401, make sure you make a stop at The Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario.
that apple pie and icecream is making me hungry. Do you still have those pictures you took of me and dad?
I stopped in here n the weekend and bought a pie for the first time. Opened the box and found a long black hair on top and cooked into the pie. Searched on the WWW to find a thread where most people were trashing this establishment. So you might want to reconsider the recommendation. I personally would not recommend a stop here to anyone.
Hairy pie? I’ll be sure to be more careful about purchasing my pies there in the future (but I still think they taste delicious)! I found a hair baked into a donut from Country Style once before… never ate there again, so I see your point.
I bought a Mumble Crumble apple pie. What did I find? Bananas!!! Huge chunks around the edge inside the pie obviously used as a filler. It was disgusting. I will nevery buy from there again.
After driving right by the Big Apple on the 401 for more than forty ywears, finally stopped in this week and bought an Apple Raspberry pie
We were disappointed – there was absolutely NO raspberry to be found, the apples were OK, the crust so-so.
Overall, at $10 a very poor value – next time we want pie we’ll go to a local bakery for fresh-baked goods.
Hey Maxie! Yes, I do agree that those pies are rather pricey. Especially for the cheesecakes! I guess I’ve lucked out whenever I purchased my pies, b/c they all have been delicious. They should cut the price by at least 30% though!
ive visited twice and I am never going back….The food that they serve there was disgusting and over priced. I paid 4.59 for a ham and swiss sandwhich that was so stale and dry, the bread was hard. The french fries were cooked in old grease. The pie was good except for the fact it had apple stems in it and that is not great for a two year old….I will never go back and do not recomend this place for anyone unless you enjoy looking at the sad little petting zoo in the back, or the over priced mini put and bumper cars.