Harry’s Cafe De Wheels

Harry’s Café de Wheels is a Sydney institution. It has even been given the thumbs up by none other than street food guru Anthony Bourdain. It is also famous for the Tiger — a meat pie topped with mash potatoes, mushy peas and brown gravy. It has become a ritual to those needing a hangover cure in the wee hours of the morning.
The original Harry’s is a caravan on Cowper Wharf Rd in Woolloomooloo but over the years it has branched out into various parts of Sydney and its surrounds for those who want their pie fix.
For someone who originally hailed from Adelaide the caravan selling a pie is nothing new. For over a century (from the 1860s) Adelaidians were treated to the pie cart which would attract all classes of folk — from politicians to labours. It was the Adelaide pie cart which gave to the world the pie floater — an overturned meat pie in a bowl which then had pea soup ladled upon it and then a squirt of tomato sauce.
I like a good pie and when I moved to Sydney in the late 1990s I discovered Hannah’s pies which has a factory outlet (still there) on Harris Street at Ultimo. They serve fantastic pies and pasties — the beef one has chunks of beef in a peppery gravy. It wasn’t after some years (and some kilos heavier) that I found out that Hannah’s supplied (and was owned by), Harry’s Café de Wheels.
It has taken me close to 20 years to try the Tiger and I had it at this outlet.
The small diner features a black and white chequered floor and a 1950s retro milkbar chrome interior. It has all the various Hannah’s pies for sale plus hot dogs and the Tiger.
I may be missing something with the Tiger (maybe I wasn’t hangover), but as my girls would say «meh»! In future I would just stick with the excellent Hannah’s pies (and they are excellent), without the flavourless peas and mash.
My advice: come for the pies but without the toppings.