[info]
When? - 2nd of March, 2011
Where? - The Peacock Inn Hotel, 210 High St. Northcote.
Price? - $17 Wednesday Trivia Players Special, $21 normally
Barry? - No
Website? - http://www.peacockinnhotel.com.au/
Reviewers - Lee & Nikki[/info]
I will start this weeks review by reporting a tragedy.
A few blocks from the Peacock Inn, one of my favourite pieces of street art used to reside -
I only discovered this gem a couple of months ago, and on the drive past on the way to the Peacock Inn last night I saw that someone had torn off all the girls cards, legs and most of her torso. You will be missed, Random girl dropping playing cards… You will be missed.
We arrived at the peacock just on 7pm, it was a little hard to find a park on High St. itself so we wound up parking a little bit down Bastings street, the corner of which the Peacock resides on. On the walk from the car to the pub I got a glimpse of a very impressive looking beer garden before walking around the front of the pub and through the front doors, into the first room of the Peacock - the Cafe. I initially mistook the cafe for a gastro-pub dining room, much like the one at the Metropolitain, as it has the same classy look & feel to it, but a check of the website moments ago proved me wrong. We headed through the back of the cafe into the main bar. I was impressed, heaps of space, fireplace, pool table, couches and an abundance of table space, the Main bar at the Peacock has an old school pub charm but at the same time has been beautifully renovated to a great little space, and I haven’t even gotten to the amazing beer garden yet. We didn’t spend much time in the beer garden as it was getting rather chilly, however it was definitely impressive. Heaps of tables, an abundance of space, even speakers & TV’s out there to broadcast the Quiz Meisters trivia (that would soon be kicking off) right out to the back of the garden.
We took our seats and got a gander at the menu, $21 for a choice of chicken or veal parma. However we weren’t sitting for more than 3 minutes before one of the staff members approached and asked if we were partaking in the nights trivia, we said yes and he handed us a little sheet of paper with the following information on it…
“TRIVIA PLAYERS SPECIAL FOR 2011
Chicken or Veal Parma & Pint of Bulmers, Carlton, Cascade Light or Softie
$17.00”
Friggin score! A pint of Bulmers on its own can run around $7.50 these days, which means the Peacock parma’s price point (unintentional quadruple alliteration FTW) hit just under $10 including free trivia! it was settled, I loved the pub, I loved the special, I love trivia, It was on. We ordered our parmas, collected our pints of Bulmers and awaited their arrival.
In the time it took us to discover all this, the Peacock had filled up fast the place was packed so I would definitely recommend a booking if you were planning to give it a try.
We signed up for trivia. Trying to stay anonymous as we always do, we avoided calling ourselves ‘Team Parma Daze’ or anything like that, so Team ‘Fist pumping like champs’ was the obvious second choice. With 15 minutes before trivia kickoff our parmas were delivered.
The first thing that hit me about the Peacocks parma was the colour - it was very dark and looked as if all the crumbs had been burnt. I really wanted to like this parma so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and hoped they had just put a different spice in the crumbs to give them that dark colour, Unfortunately I think both outcomes were true.
The edges, where there was a little nudity, were burnt, I believe the crumbs were naturally dark in some places due to the types of crumbing used, but there were definitely some burnt edges, The chicken underneath the crumbs was fantasic, pure chicken breast - thick and juicy. There was plenty of cheese, ham and napoli on top of the breast, however I have a suspicion that our parmas had spent some time in the tanning salon (aka under the heat lamps) as the cheese had gone a little hard and rubbery. The parma had a good flavour, but the crumbs are definitely where it lost points, they didn’t have any hold on the chicken and just flaked off whenever they were touched, leaving a slowly growing pile of crumbs to the side of the plate.
The chunky chips were very well salted and in a pretty decent serving, and if that wasn’t enough there was a table at the front of the bar that held caddies of salt, pepper and the sauce trifecta (Tomato, Mustard & BBQ). Unfortunately they were served underneath the parma (a tactic that is unfortunately commonplace these days), I tried to save them by lifting the parma off as soon as it had arrived, but the damage had been done and a few had already gone soggy. Most of them had avoided the sogginess however and the ones that came out unscathed were pretty damn good.
The salad was one of the most imaginative we have seen in awhile, a welcome change from the standard garden salad we seem to have been stuck with, served to the side of the parma was a mixture of Lettuce, onion, cucumber, tomato, capsicum and olives, served in what I could only describe as a very sweet, almost honey soy-esque dressing.
As we finished our meals the Quiz Meisters kicked off their trivia night, The last time we encountered the Quiz Meisters was at Sentido Funf, and they never fail at putting on a good show, definitely worth sticking around for trivia if you are there on a Wednesday night. Unfortunately team ‘Fist Pumping Like Champs’ didn’t do to well, as there are clearly some people there who take their quiz meisters very seriously. Also, people who use their iPhones at pub trivia comps are total cheaters, I mean c’mon guys, I walked into the dunny to find 3 people on their phones looking up answers!
I really wanted to like the Peacocks parma, and if it weren’t for the overcooked crumbs and the heat lamps it would have been an amazing night! the Wednesday deal of $17 Parma, pint & Trivia is very tough to beat and it still wins points on value, the salad was different but by no means bad, and the chips had potential. I would definitely come back and give them another chance, hopefully they just had an off night. I definitely recommend ducking in, if only to check out the beer garden. Everyone loves a beer garden!
Parma - 6.00
Chips - 5.50
Salad - 5.00
Value - 7.50
Total - 6
The search continues…
It has definitely been a big week for the Parma Daze twitter, lets check in with the official ‘Parma Daze Twitter Situation’
It has been a great week for the Twitter Situation, since last weeks post we have jumped from only four followers to NINE! that is over 100% growth, but sadly the Situation is apparently a hard one to please. While being firmly out of a sad situation he is seems to still be very confused as to why more people aren’t following the Parma Daze Twitter, I mean I know we aren’t Charlie Sheen or anyone cool like that, but if you could find it in your heart to follow us you will make The Situation a very happy one!