Attempt #24 - 'The Union'

image [info]

When? - 22nd of September, 2010

Where? - 252 Union Rd. Ascot Vale

Price? - $19.50

Barry? - Yes

Website? - http://www.unionhotel252.com.au/

Reviewers - Adam Y, Bec, Cale, Emma, Grace, Kathleen, Lee, Luke, Maz, Nikki, Pat, Stefo, Tony Q, Wade[/info]

We viisited The Union again in April 2013 - Check out the re-review here after you’ve finished with this one.

The Union holds a special place in my heart, as it my Dad’s watering hole when I was a kid. I remember my Mum sitting out in the car while she sent me in to drag him out after he had some post-work drinks with his mates. His claim of ‘I’ll just finish this pot’ was made every week, then after he finished I’d see him sneakily order another one so he could spend more time with his buddies while my Mum got more and more angry waiting for him in the car. It was the first pub I can really remember being in, and the smell of spilt booze and cigarette smoke filling the place is something I can still remember to this day.

Fast forward about 15 years and I’m walking up those stairs again, this time to review the Union’s Chicken Parma. The bistro is virtually unrecognizable, totally renovated with a massive outdoor dining area, cosy lounge area and bistro bustling with patrons.

we had a table for ten booked, but when 14 reviewers rocked up we had to move out into the beer garden. I was worried it was going to be freezing but to my surprise the industrial strength heater they have mounted on the wall was more than enough to keep us warm … it even bordered on getting too hot at times.

Drink selection was standard, they had Bulmers cider on tap, my personal favourite, which has pretty much become standard at Melbourne pubs, a fact I couldn’t be happier about. They even offered me a glass of ice on the side when I ordered a pot. Perfect! This is how Bulmers should be served and the only thing that is annoying about how readily available it is getting is that its very rare to find a place that know how to serve it correctly.

We ordered our parmas and took our seats - there was a game of poker going on in the middle of the beer garden which threw me, but it was fun to see something different going on and gave us something to watch while we waited.

Parmas took a little while to come out, but thats understandable seeing as we ordered 14 of the things - they all came out pretty much simultaneously, and a bunch of hungry parma-goers tucked in.

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First of all it was great quality chicken, pure chicken breast, thick and juicy, with a great chip/crumb ratio - the crumbs were a little soggy but thats nothing to really complain about. But there was something wrong with the parma that nobody could quite put their finger on, something either in the cheese, the ham or the napoli tasted, for lack of a better term, ‘funky’. I tried each ingredient separately trying to pinpoint what the culprit was - the cheese tasted fine, the napoli tasted fine, my prime suspect would be the ham - it was the circular, processed ham you get in packs at the supermarket, from what we could tell something about it just wasn’t right and it put a funky taste all through the parma itself. Not a parma killer though - there was a great coverage of toppings with very little nude schnitzel.

The chips were minimal, totally eclipsed by the parma it was rare to find one that hadn’t been smooshed by chicken, they were soggy but not terrible, if there was a bigger serving they would’ve passed muster.

If I had to describe the salad in one word, that word would be ‘Onion’ there was a lot of onion in the salad, mine (in the photo above) actually had a small amount of onion through it compared to some of the other plates. I love onion in my salad, and I love onion on my parma itself (a lot of the time i will take the onion out of the salad and put it on the parma … delicious!) but thirteen other people at the table weren’t as onion mad as I am. Other than that it was a big serving of salad, with shredded carrot, tomato, lettuce, some plates had cucumber and some didn’t, and a splash of balsamic. A little more balsamic and it would’ve scored higher, all the dressing was gone by two fork-fulls in and by the end it was bland and dry.

After our meal we left the bistro and walked around to the sports bar for a post parma pot and game of Barry, where we were dubbed ‘The Untouchables’ for some reason by the locals … interesting.

$19.50 is up there on the parma-price scale, especially without a pot. Apparently the Union does a ‘Parma & Burger night’ on Tuesday nights, with ‘True blue trivia’ and a parma for $12, it definitely would’ve scored higher if that special was on a Wednesday night but unfortunately we missed it by a day, however thats definitely something to keep in mind.

Parma - 5.3
Chips - 5.7
Salad - 3.8
Value - 4.2
Total - 4.84

The search continues…

Union Hotel on Urbanspoon

Be sure to tune in next week for a very special attempt! Cheers, and i’ll see you then!

Attempt #23 - 'The Royal Mail'

 

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When? - 15th of September, 2010

Where? - 519 Spencer St, West Melbourne

Price? - $19.50

Barry? - No

Website? - http://www.theroyalmail.com.au/

Reviewers - Adam, Johnno, Lee, Mel, Nikki, Shanan, Tanya, Tony Q[/info]

 

As most beer drinkers would know, underneath the caps on Carlton Draught stubbies is a trivia question, usually about sports or science or geography, just a little fun fact to make the day a bit more enjoyable. During a drinking session last saturday I de-capped my stubbie of Carlton to find the following question -

It was a sign from the lord, he saw our quest and it was good. I had a feeling that because of this lucky cap (which I carried in my pocket all week so I wouldn’t lose it) that this weeks parma was gonna be a ripper - perhaps the perfect parma? Our quest is now a divine one, lets see if the lord is on our side in this weeks attempt - The Royal Mail.

I Honestly can’t remember how the Royal Mail appeared on our radar, its not in our ‘to be tried’ list, its not in my inbox of suggestions people sent me, it just happened. We loaded up the Parma Bus™, headed to Spencer st. and the Royal Mail.

Parking was a breeze, we normally have trouble finding a spot on Wednesday nights but with an abundance of metered car spots in surrounding streets it was a non-issue (especially since the meters in the area only run until 6.30pm).

We went into the pub-side of the Royal Mail first, for a game of pool and to wait for the rest of the team to arrive. It amazed me the contrast between the two sides of the building, the Pub side was a down to earth Aussie Pub, with Pool table, jukebox, cold beer and pub meals - heaps of character and friendly bar staff made this a great spot I’d definitely come back to for a pot (awesome side note, If you are reading this review before Grand Final Day ‘10, The Royal Mail runs a Grand Final day special that offers free beer between the first bounce of the game, and the first goal kicked. epic deal and I’m definitely considering popping in.)

Our team had pretty much arrived so we headed around the bar to the restaurant and were greeted with a beautifully renovated gastro-pub, with leather couches, big, solid wooden tables and a full body portrait of Kamahl - something every pub needs.

Amazing contrast between down to earth bar on one side of the wall, and gastro-pub on the other

We took our seat and ordered our parmas - $19.50 is a bit up there on the price scale but I definitely don’t mind paying it if its a quality parma. I couldn’t see any mention of a discount parma night running, although Wednesday night is known as ‘Roadkill Wednesdays’ at the Royal Mail, with dishes on the menu such as an Emu Burger, Camel Sausages, Kangaroo Meatloaf, Possum Stew or Ostrich Pudding, not for the faint of heart but something I’d definitely come back to try

After a short wait our parma’s marched out of the kitchen -

One of the waitresses saw me taking the above photo and cottoned on to the fact we were giving it a review, so she gave me a rundown of what goes into it. All the chicken breasts are crumbed in house, with smoked ham, home made napoli and tasty cheese with parmesan. It looked great so we tucked in.

The schnitzel itself was superb, a little on the small size but thick and juicy, pure succulent chicken breast all the way through. There was a bit of nude schnitzel on the edge of mine but mostly I got a good covering of cheese. The smoked ham was tasty and not too overpowing (some parmas that use smoked ham can suffer from an overly smoky taste, but this was good and didn’t suffer from that) The cheese was nice, a little overcooked and burnt in some areas but no real drama.

Now I’ve left the biggest point of debate about the parma itself until last - the Napoli, As the waitress told us, they use a homemade napoli (and I’ve read online that they use Paprika in it as their secret ingredient, although that is unconfirmed). I enjoyed the napoli, it definitely had a different taste to other parmas - my best description would be a combination of napoli and barbecue sauce. The review table was pretty much split, some loved it and others hated it. It comes down personal choice I suppose, it might be nice to have the option of regular or ‘Royal Mail’ napoli when ordering, but all in all it was a great quality parma.

The chips were hand cut, beer battered and set to the side of the parma - delicious, My only complaint is that there just weren’t enough of them, an extra handful and they would’ve been looking at a 9 for score I reckon.

The salad was fresh, but a bit of an afterthought - a fairly small basic garden salad with lettuce, onion, tomato, cucumber & a splash of balsamic. Although I did like the care that was taken with the preparation of the cucumber, the seeds were cut out of the cucumber slices leaving little ‘C’ shapes of cucumber through the salad. C for cucumber. Ha!

A lot of care is taken in the production of this parma and it shows. A little pricey for what you are getting but I was definitely happy to pay it. The major downfall of this parma would be the home made napoli that was just a little too different for some reviewers (you don’t need to mess with a classic!) but if you like barbecue sauce, this is definitely a parma for you. See you on Grand Final Day!

Parma - 6.9
Chips - 7.2
Salad - 5.4
Value - 6.5
Total - 6.51

The search continues …

Royal Mail Hotel on Urbanspoon

Attempt #22 - 'Sam's Café'

Google street view saves me again. I’ve really gotta start getting to these places in daylight hours so I can take my own photo!

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When? - 8th of September, 2010

Where? - 1/344 Keilor Rd, Niddrie

Price? - ‘Parma O’clock’ Tuesday & Wednesday nights, whatever time it is, thats how much the parma costs. Other times, $17.90

Barry? - No

Website? - None

Reviewers - Bec, Brendan, Cale, Emma, Lee, Luke, Matt, Ness, Nikki, Tanya, Tony Q, Tony S[/info]

Bending an unspoken rule a little in this weeks review, at Parma Daze we more often than not go to Melbournes pubs to try and find the perfect chicken parma - this week however, we have gone for a café. Purely for their ‘Parma O’clock’ pricing gimmick and recommendation from a couple of friends.

Sams Café, hidden down the Niddrie end of Keilor rd always has a different variety of specials and deals to get you in the door, Tuesday and Wednesday are no exception, as they offer ‘Parma O’clock’ nights, at which the price of the parma you order is dictated by the time at which you order it eg. if you order at 7:00, the parma will be $7.00. if you order at 8:00, the parma will be $8. got it? good. The deal runs from 6pm to 9pm, so dont get any crazy ideas about going in at one in the afternoon and getting a parma for $1.

If we sold Parma Daze merch I would SO sell this clock. just sayin.

We arrived at Sam’s just after seven and were directed to our table … time was of the essence here as every minute we waited would cost us precious cents of the cost of our parma. But Sam’s are a devious bunch, We were given such a diverse variety of novelty parma choices it took a good few minutes for everyone to decide what they wanted!

I wasn’t prepared to write down every variety of parma they had, So I swiped the menu and scanned it (Im sorry Sam’s! I hope you can forgive my thievery). See below for the complete listing, be sure to take note of the additional charge per variety.

Parma with Banana chunks and Kahlua? hmmmmm

Nobody was brave enough to order anything too outlandish, In the end most people got a standard parma, about three went with the Californian, one went with Le Spinach, another with the Waltzing Matilda and one more went with Meat Lovers (because he, quote “Loves meat on meat action”)

Our orders went in at about 20 past 7, so the cost was $7.20 each (not including extras on the novelty parmas).

It’s hard to judge Sam’s alongside our other reviews, being a café there was none of the usual entertainment options we are accustomed to, no Barry, pool, jukebox or pokies to whittle the time away, so we had to resort to *shudder* conversation to pass the time (what fresh hell is this?!)

After a short wait our parma’s arrived - with the exception of Lukes Waltzing Matilda, which we watched sit under the heat lamps for a good five minutes after everyone else was served waiting for someone to bring it to our table, That is pure torture for a hungry parma goer!

My Regular parma, I didn’t get a photo of every variety, but I managed to get a shot of my neighbours Californian before he tucked in, see below.

Dream of Californicationnnn

The Schnitzel was big, covering a lot of the plate (and everything else on it) some people got two schnitzels crammed into one. mine was big and even curled around on itself in some places, making it seem like I had a double parma in some spots. No slice of ham to speak of and lots of nude schnitzel, but the chicken was thick enough with a tolerable crumb/chicken ratio. In my opinion it could’ve used more cheese and napoli, or some sort of spicing. Although it was a big parma, it was rather nothingness when it came to taste. Very bland and the fact it was only luke-warm when it was served didn’t help matters.

The Chips were McDonalds style fries, The serving differed from plate to plate and I think I did pretty well from the draw, the ones on the outer edge were crispy and salted well but their major failing was the size of the parma sitting on top totally killed them. By the time I got to the remainders in the middle they were practically soggy mush.

The salad was basically an afterthought, like the chips the size of the portion varied from plate to plate and this time I definitely got the short end of the stick. A couple of rocket leaves, a single slice of tomato, a single piece of onion, a slice of cucumber splashed with some balsamic. everything looked wilted and unappetising.

For the price of this parma you can’t really complain though, I left with a full stomach and a smile on my face. at only $7.20 it gets points for Value and the whole ‘Parma o’clock’ gimmick definitely adds to the fun of the meal. If I went back I would definitey try one of the novelty ones, maybe the meatlovers or the Parmarama, something to give it a little more taste - The regular was just a little too bland for my liking

Its amazing the wide array of scores this parma got, I don’t think we’ve ever had the group so divided on the score lines, be sure to check out the full run down in the link below the final score to see who scored what, and what variety of parma they ordered.

I have one request before I wrap this up, if anyone ever goes to Sam’s and orders the ‘Go Bananas Parma’ with Bananas and Kahlua, Take a photo for us and email through your thoughts. I Can’t imagine it possibly being good, but like the ‘Deep Fried Oreos’ I had in America, I’ve been fooled before.

Parma - 5.17
Chips - 5.7
Salad - 3.9
Value - 7.4
Total - 5.48

The search continues …

Sam's Cafe on Urbanspoon

 

Attempt #21 - 'The Donnybrook Hotel'

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When? - 1st of September, 2010

Where? - 825 Donnybrook Rd, Donnybrook

Price? - $18.90, $12 ‘Parma Night’ on Mondays

Barry? - No, but EVERYTHING else!

Website? - None

Reviewers - Adam Y, Bec, Lee, Luke, Nikki, Shanan, Tony Q[/info]

 

I have often started a parma review saying that the place we were reviewing that week was ‘like a country pub’, Well this week we went to a real country pub - The Donnybrook Hotel.

Now I’m unsure as to whether it is the Donnybrook Hotel, or the Donnybrook Springs Hotel, Google seems to think its the Donnybrook springs, but I couldn’t see the word ‘springs’ anywhere on the exterior, either way, we hopped in the parma bus and drove the relatively quick 40k’s from Northern Melbourne, where the majority of the review team reside (took about half an hour, quick sticks!)

As soon as we arrived at the Donnybrook I realised one thing straight away - we should’ve come on Monday, a quick look at the menu showed that Monday night was their parma night, $12 and nine different varieties of novelty parma (Including ‘Volcano’, ‘Seafood’, ‘Bolognese’, a few more I can’t remember and the ‘Double Decker’ for $20) definitely worth a look.

We ordered our parmas at the regular price of $18.90 and grabbed some drinks, as this is a true blue country pub there isn’t a huge selection of beers available, but they had the basics and thats all that we needed! There was no Barry at this pub but it wasn’t missed as the range of things there to keep one entertained whilst the parma is being created is phenomenal, from what I saw there was -

  • Candy/Claw machine
  • Pinball
  • Pool
  • Mr Cashman (Last seen at the Mona Castle Hotel)
  • Paper ticket machine (Last seen at The Rose Hotel)
  • Digital Jukebox
  • One of those machines where you put in $2 and get a little toy

Mr. Cashman is a favourite of ours, so we played that for awhile, won a few bucks which we promptly put back into the Candy machine and won our desert.

Before our parma arrived our entree of communal garlic bread and bowl of chips arrived, the chips were fresh and crispy and the garlic bread was delicious (who doesn’t love a good slice of GB), but the communal bowl of chips brought up an interesting discussion on putting condiments on communal chips.

Not long after the entree’s were polished off, the main course arrived -

Nom Nom friggin’ Nom! This parma looked amazing when it arrived, points for presentation Donnybrook! The schnitzel was of a decent size, real chicken breast and acceptable thickness (not massive, but pretty good). The crumbs were processed and a little thick for my taste, but they weren’t off-putting at all and complimented the chicken very well, the obligatory slice of ham was absent from the donny parma, but there was a generous coating of a napoli and a very sharp tasty cheese, it was well cooked with some very attractive green bits sprinkled on top (as you can see)

You can’t quite tell from the above photo, but I got a massive serving of chips on my parma, I can’t really fault them for stacking the parma on top as there was simply nowhere else for them to go. Other reviewers at the table didn’t quite get the generous serving that I did (pfff, who cares about them anyway) but the chips were fresh and crispy, they were unseasoned, however there were salt shakers on the table and tomato sauce readily available.

The salad was presented amazingly (as you can kind of see) each parmigiana’s salad was served inside a lettuce leaf, with capsicum, carrot, cucumber, tomato, onion, lettuce and (a true sign of a country pub) an orange slice on top. As far as garden salads go, this one is the prettiest i’ve seen in a long time, Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of dressing and while looking amazing, fell short a little in terms of flavour.

We promptly polished off our parmas, then we noticed the kids at other tables drawing on the butcher paper laid out on every table, I won’t go into detail, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when we left the table looked something like this …

The Donnybrook is a great little pub, very busy so be sure to book in advance! There was a roaring open fire to warm up on and flat screen TV’s around the dining area to entertain while eating, There was lots of discussion on the drive home about it and the general consensus was it was a damn nice parma! I’m a little shattered that we didn’t come down on mondays parma night as one of the novelty parmas listed on the menu wouldve gone down a treat - I’d especially like to give the Double Decker a try, seeing as at $20 its only a dollar less than what they charge for the weekday parma.

On the way out I put $2 into the toy redemption machine and picked up this little ball of awesome …

Thats Marvin the friggin’ Martian!!!

Going rural was good, and we are gonna try and occasionally hit up more country Victoria pubs, so stay tuned for that in the future, although next weeks will be closer to home… so keep an eye out Melbourne restaurants, you never know when and where we might turn up!

Parma - 7.1
Chips - 6.7
Salad - 6.1
Value - 6.4
Total - 6.69

The search continues …

Donnybrook Hotel on Urbanspoon

Attempt #20 - 'The Queensberry Hotel'

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When? - 25th of August, 2010

Where? - 593 Swanston St. Carlton

Price? - $15 for standard parma, $16 for novelty parma

Barry? - No

Website? - http://www.queensberryhotel.com.au

Reviewers - Lee, Luke, Nikki, Shanan, Tony[/info]

We came across The Queensberry Hotel just before last weeks review of Pugg Mahones. A few of the reviewers stopped into the pub for some pre-drinks before heading up the road to Puggs for the weeks review, and noticed the very appetising looking menu of parma varieties, the delicious looking parmas and the tantalising drink specials! A tick in every box in theory, so we decided to hit it up the following week to see what was on offer at the Queensberry Hotel.

The Queensberry is a great pub, just outside the CBD its definitely one for the Uni students in the area, with some amazing specials if you carry a valid Uni card, such as:

  • $10 Parmas
  • $10 Cheeseburgers
  • $5 Pints of Carlton
  • $10 Jugs of Carlton
  • $5 Basic Spirits
  • $4 House Wine
  • $8 Jäger bombs

Available all day, every day - thats a damn good deal in my book! Unfortunately only a couple parma reviewers there that week carried a uni card, so we didn’t get to take advantage of the cheap parma’s, but we did get a couple of $10 jugs out of the deal - delicious!

The pub is well laid out, An open front bar area has a plethora of tables and stools available, as well as a great atmosphere set by about a hundred tea light candles scattered all over the place, walk around the side of the bar through a cosy little lounge area with leather couches, past that is a great looking beer garden with lots of heaters for those chilly nights and past that is the bistro, where we found the below note on our reserved table and took our seats.

I thought the note was a nice little touch that got the evening off to a good start, Myself and my happy little human friends sat down and perused the menu - The Queensberry has a regular parma, as well as a variety of ‘Novelty’ parmas to choose from, our choices were -

 

  • Chicken Parmagiana - $15
  • Aussie Parmagiana With egg and barbeque sauce - $16
  • Mexican Parmagiana With chorizo, jalapeno peppers and salsa - $16
  • Hawaiian Parmagiana With pineapple - $16
  • Italian Parmagiana With olives and salami - $16

Decisions decisions! I normally don’t go for novelty toppings on my parma, but the mexican option looked too scrumptious to pass up, so thats what I went with. The other reviewers went for different varieties but I’ll cover those later in the review.

Warning - extremely petty complaint to follow - As the warning just stated, I am completely aware of how silly I am about to sound, feel free to skip to the following paragraph. Queensberry hotel, do you have to print everything, Your menus, your bar specials, every notification or sign posted is done in the font ‘Papyrus’. This is a terrible, TERRIBLE font and must die, there are even Anti Papyrus Websites about this very issue. Please Queensberry, change your font, I cannot stand the eye-rape of Papyrus any longer.

After a short wait our parma selection arrived - I took photos of all the varieties we had so you can get an idea of the difference.

Reviewer Nikki had the original

Both Myself and Reviewer Shanan had the Mexican

Reviewer Luke had the Hawaiian, with a side of BBQ sauce 

Reviewer Tony had the Italian

Reviewer Carly had nothing, as she decided to eat before she came. Fail.

I was a little scared when the parmas first arrived, the schnitzels looked processed and the cheese looked rubbery and un-appealing.

But I must admit, my first impression was wrong! The chicken was a quality breast, not overly thick but thick enough. There was plenty of salsa on my mexican, a few areas of partial nudity on the cheese part of things, there was a good covering of chorizo under the cheese, but I couldn’t really detect the jalepenos. Unfortunately there was the slightest burnt edge around the side of the schnitzel, not a hellworthy sin but also not the best. All in all the parma was a great feed, Like I said before i’m not big on novelty parma toppings, but this one could definitely convert me, also, halfway through my parma looked like Africa, so I took a photo

The chips, although served under the parma, were crisp and nicely seasoned, I wouldn’t have minded a few more though, as the serving was a little small.

I was not a big fan of the salad. The other reviewers rated it higher but I think that was because they simply got more stuff in theirs than in my serving. My salad consisted of lettuce, a couple of slivers of cucumber and a single piece of onion, with some balsamic dressing. I am all for a simple garden salad with a splash of balsamic, but this was a little too simple for my tastes.

All in all the Queensberry served up a decent parma - Definitely worth the trip if you’re a Uni student and can get the discount to $10, Also, if you go on a Tuesday night, the Parmas are $10 for anyone with the purchast of a drink, or if you go on a Thursday night, the Parmas are $13, no drink purchase necessary.

One more thing I thought was worth a mention was this machine

Yum, I just love hot nuts in my mouth (You know that she said it, do I really need to point it out?)

Parma - 7.1
Chips - 6.3
Salad - 5.6
Value - 6.9
Total - 6.6

The search continues…

Queensberry Hotel on Urbanspoon

Attempt #19 - 'Pugg Mahones'

 

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When? - 18th of August, 2010

Where? - 175 Elgin St. Carlton

Price? - $12.50 Wednesday Parma night, $15 with a pot.

Barry? - Yes

Website? - http://www.puggmahones.com.au/

Reviewers - Cale, Lee, Ness, Nikki, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya, Tony Q[/info]

**EDIT** Just got word that Pugg Mahones has closed it's doors as of January 2014. You will be missed Puggs! I never got my name on your 100 pints club wall. What a shame...**

We haven’t done too well with Irish pubs in the past - Bridie O’reillys, The Quiet Man & Dan O’connell’s parmas have ranged from ‘not great’ to ‘okay… I guess’, but when we heard that Pugg Mahones in Carlton were running a $12.50 parma night it was something we had to try (it also helped that Puggs is one of my personal favourite bars in Melbourne)

We rocked up at about seven to a fairly empty pub, we took our seats and one thing struck us instantly… we were in PRIME Barry playing position - our table was just feet from the machine we all love. Points already, Puggs. I took a photo to illustrate just how close we were to Barry.

I don’t think we could have gotten any closer - people who didn’t want to stand could yell out their answers from the table!

We ordered our parmas and settled in front of Barry while we waited. we were there on ‘Parma Night’ so they came to $12.50 each, or $15 with a pot. According to the menu the parmigiana they serve on non-parma nights comes to $18.90 and is served with ‘seasonal vegetables and creamy potato gratin’. Ours was served with chips & salad, so just be aware of that.

Before we get to the chicken, I should talk about the pub itself. Puggs is a great example of a faux Irish pub, but what caught my attention the first time I was there was the ‘100 pints of guinness club’. Fill out a quick sign up sheet and minutes later you will be presented with a card (great quality ATM style card, complete with magnetic strip down the back). Every time you order a pint of guinness, hand over the card and they will give it a swipe, get to 100 and you will get your name forever immortalised on the walls along with all the other champions who have completed the challenge. Last checked I was sitting at around 25 pints, but one day my name will be up there with the other champions.

It will be mine … oh yes … it will be mine

Puggs have a great array of beers available as well as a decent wine list - there is a different event on every night of the week, I suggest you either check out the Thursday student night for a great night of drinking and good music, or the day of days for Irish pubs - St. Patricks day, which well and truly goes off. Although last time I was there on St. Pats someone through a potato from the street through the open roof of the second floor and I nearly got beaned, but that kind of thing is bound to happen once in awhile!

Oh, I also should mention that Puggs have a second location in Hardware St. in the city - another fine establishment, but make sure you don’t confuse the two in regards to this review, as it would seem they do different specials on different nights.

After a bit of a wait the parmas arrived, the place had gotten a bit busier so we tore ourselves away from Barry and sat down to our meals …

Mmmm Guinness and Parma - a winning combination!

The photo is a tad misleading I think, this parma wasn’t big - it was actually quite small and there was a bit of a burnt edge around one side of the chicken. But there was semi decent cheese coverage, a slice of ham and the parma was set beside the chips.

The chicken itself was very thin in places, even though it was small the parma was tasty - one reviewer picked up a hint of parmesan cheese in the cheese mixture, which was rather tasty. there was a slice of ham on board but it was rather low on the napoli (I can barely remember it at all, but I can see it in the photo, so I guess it was there).

As I said earlier, the chips were set aside from the parma, as opposed to below - there was a decent serving, they were crispy and seasoned well … VERY well, a few reviewers complained that they were too salty, but in my opinion the saltier the better. (theres a ‘thats what she said’ in there somewhere)

The salad was your basic garden salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, shredded carrot, mustard seeds & balsamic dressing, It was tasty and served its purpose, but nothing to really write home about.

All in all it was an okay parma, especially for only $12.50 (and pints of Guinness and Kilkenny dropped to $5.50 after 8 o’clock) but unfortunately it was a very small parma - everyone at the table was still hungry after and probably hit the drive through on the way home. But if you are looking for a cheap, decent tasting parma with (in my opinion) great chips then definitely give Puggs a shot. I’d be very interested to come back on a non-parma night to try their $18.90 parma with veggies and potato gratin, just to see the difference in quality (and who doesn’t love potato gratin!?). I’ll be sure to get the table next to Barry.

Parma - 5.8
Chips - 5.9
Salad - 5.5
Value - 6.4
Total - 5.90

The search continues …

Pugg Mahones Irish Pub on Urbanspoon

 

Attempt #17 - 'The Laurel Hotel'

 

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When? - 4th of August, 2010

Where? - The Laurel Hotel, 289 Mt. Alexander Rd. Ascot Vale

Price? - $25 in Bistro for ’ The Laurel Massive Parma Challenge’ with a free drink if you finish the entire meal.

Barry? - Yes, But it crashed every time we tried to play.

Website? - http://www.laurelhotel.com.au

Reviewers - Adam, Cale, Lee, Luke, Ness, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya, Tony Q[/info]

This weeks review is literally the next closest pub to The Prince of Wales Hotel, a block-and-a-bit from the front door of the Prince you’ll find The Laurel Hotel. The scientific theory of Locatio-Parmo-Geography states that a pub so close to the building that once housed the best parma in Australia must, due to residual parmigianite-radiation, serve up a good parma itself (science is fun!). When we heard word that the Laurel was serving up a ‘Massive Parma Challenge’ we knew we had to give it a go.

The Laurel is split into two halves, one side has the public bar, TAB & beer garden the other is a totally separated Bistro area, a large spacious room with central bar and small outdoor eating area. We chose to eat in the bistro, - the bistro menu is available in the bar (as well as a cheaper bar menu with a cheaper, lower quality parma), but with 9 people at the review we opted for the spacious bistro to give ourselves room to stretch our legs

We took our seats and checked the menu - $25 for the Laurels ‘massive parma challenge’, with a reward of a free drink if you finish the entire meal. A bit pricey for a parma but if you factor the free pot into the price it takes a little bit of the sting out of the meal.

We ordered our meals at the bar and awaited their arrival - There was a large TV playing music videos to keep us entertained while we waited. Interesting to note for the Bulmers cider lovers (such as myself) who read the site, Bulmers is available on tap in the public bar, but not the bistro. I had to walk around to the front of the pub a few times throughout the night to get my cider fix, a slight annoyance but the pints were cheap, cold and tasted damn good.

After a fairly short wait, our parmigianas arrived -

I’ve gotta say I was impressed! The chicken came out on a veritable mountain of chunky beer battered chips and a large serving of salad. It was nowhere near the scale of The Hotel Albion’s Grandeoso Parma Challenge, but it was pretty darn impressive.

The Laurel’s schnitzel definitely takes the rating of ‘Scarlett Johansson’ - as it has a very juicy breast. The chicken was big, thick, succulent and didn’t taste at all processed, my one gripe with the schnitzel would be the crumbs they are using are standard processed crumbs, they would be kicking goals if they used home made crumbs, or even chucked some herbs in there, but that is a very minor complaint for a great piece of chicken. The parma came with ham and a good coating of cheese with very few nude areas, they were a little short on the napoli in my opinion, but not by much. all in all this is a great piece of meat.

A visual representation of the Laurel’s Chicken Schnitzel quality

I will preface the next bit by saying I’ve never seen the group so torn on the quality of the sides, some loved them and some hated them - I’ll try to cover both opinions below.

My parma arrived on a mountain of chunky beer battered chips, they were hot, crispy and well seasoned - other reviewers didn’t get a mountain as big as the one I recieved, and thought that they were skirting the line of being more like potato wedges than they chips. I thought they were delicious and some of the best chips we have come across since the Prince of Wales parma was available

It was the same split opinion with the salad - it was a large serving simple garden salad of Rocket lettuce, onion, tomato and balsamic vinegar - simple and tasty, yet some reviewers thought it was too simple, and compared to the Princes selection of garden salad, potato salad & pasta salad, it just didn’t rate.

With little effort (we aren’t exactly amateurs here) the parma ‘challenge’ was complete

Challenge = Complete

We collected our free victory pots at the bistro bar, and headed into the public bar for our post-parma game of Barry

This is where the night took an unfortunate turn, while playing the Monopoly game on barry, we were very close to finishing the round and claiming the cash prize which could have been anywhere up to $100 when …

This is why I use Macs

BARRY FAIL! the game simply died on us and reset to the home screen, we tried again a few minutes later and it was again in crashville. not. happy. Laurel. 

We were heartbroken. downtrodden. beaten down shells of parma reviewers until we noticed the below sign on the wall 

Lucky for us it was Wednesday, I hate when I have to pay for my hugs. We all engaged in a group hug to lift our spirits, and parted ways until next weeks attempt.

The Laurels parma is damn good, but a little pricey - at $25 it’s up there with the most expensive parma we have reviewed behind the Hotel Albion’s Grandeoso for $30, but that was TWO parmas stacked on top of one another, totally worth it.

But if you are in the mood for a great tasting parma and don’t mind the sting in your wallet, the Laurel should definitely be on your list, to get full value for money be sure to finish it and claim your free drink. Just be sure to avoid Barry.

Parma - 7.4
Chips - 7.8
Salad - 5.9
Value - 6.0
Total - 6.89

The search continues …

Laurel Hotel on Urbanspoon

Special Attempt - 'The United States of America'

For those among you that have been with Parma Daze from the beginning will remember the reviews going quiet between the end of March to late April, during this time I was away on a quick tour of that little country on the opposite side of the globe known as the United States of America.

Las Vegas and California were the two places I visited on the trip, and while in both locations I made a point of seeking out a parma to see how well the yanks do ‘Chicken Parmesan’ (Pronounced how us Aussies would pronounce ‘Parmigian’, not like the cheese). I’ll do a review for both, lets start with the Rainforest Cafe, at the MGM Grand Casino, Las Vegas

Part restaurant, part bar, part gift shop, The Rainforest Cafe is located within the MGM Grand casino on the Las Vegas strip. While there was no Barry, there were at least ten million pokies, roulette wheels, table games or hookers to chose from along the Las Vegas strip - an acceptable alternative.

If you hadn’t guessed by now, the Rainforest cafe is themed (drumroll) like a rainforest, with anamatronic animals everywhere, massive aquariums, real water falling from the trees and a planetarium style false sky in the roof (complete with thunderstorm every hour), its really something you need to experience.

Elephants, Gorillas and Monkeys … oh my!

I looked through the menu and found the closest match to a parma I could find - the ‘Parmesan Chicken Expedition’, The drinks menu was quite interesting, offering something called a ‘Cotton Candy Martini’ which looked as if they soaked Fairy Floss in various alcohols and served it in a martini glass, this was a little intimidating so I went for a beer instead.

Noticing (as I have with American parma’s other times I have had them) they do not come with the usual chips & salad, There were no chips (or ‘fries’) on the side menu so I opted for a bowl of onion rings as a side to try and compensate - this backfired however as the ‘side’ of onion rings came out a good 20 minutes before the parma, I was already finished them before the chicken even arrived.

This is the parma as it was put on the plate in front of me, complete with splatter of already dried hard (under the heat lamps no doubt) spaghetti sauce across a plate that would look at home in my grandmas kitchen, even the sprinkling of garnish on top of the cheese looked sad and withered. With much hesitation I grabbed my cutlery and started my Parmesan Expedition.

Its a good thing I was in Sin City, as there was enough full frontal schnitzel nudity to make me think I’d wandered out of the Rainforest Cafe and into Holly Madison’s Peepshow. The chicken itself was as thin as a credit card, but the crumbing had some herbs mixed through it so it wasn’t that much of a fail in the taste department. The Napoli (or ‘Marinara sauce’ - which amazingly contained no seafood) was extremely sweet, almost sugary, and the cheese was absolutely tasteless, extremely rubbery - probably as a consequence of sitting under the heat lamps.

As I mentioned earlier, there were no chips or salad to speak of, in its place was a pile of linguini with plain napoli sauce and two small pieces of garlic bread that were so hard that I think I chipped a tooth attempting to eat one. Pasta is an ok side, but not in place of chips or salad - this isn’t a one off either, this is how they do parma’s across the pond, always served with a pile of pasta. Sorry America, but you need to get on to this, Parma with Fries! you won’t regret it.

The venue is spectacular, absolutely no place like it, unfortunately they seem to be a major tourist attraction and thus SO busy that the food has greatly suffered. on the way out you are ushered through an immense gift shop, so you can buy a memento to remember your meal. too bad it was a parma I’d rather forget.

This frog was pretty happy though.

On to the second attempt from my American holiday! ‘Louie’s Pizza & Pasta’ at Universal Studios, Hollywood.

I will start off the review by stating the following - I was under no illusions that this was going to be a good parma, I was at the Universal studios theme park, had just come off ‘The Simpsons Ride’ (The most amazing roller-coaster simulator experience I have ever had) and was feeling a bit peckish. ‘Doc. Brown’s Chicken’, the ‘Jurassic Cafe’ and the ‘Flintstones Bar-B-Q’ all had hideously long queues - Louie’s queue was only just out the door so it seemed like the best option (as the above photo shows).

There is no restaurant inside, through the door pictured above, the queue continues to snake around inside the building before you find yourself in front of a counter length heat lamp, divided into three sections - PIZZA, PASTA and in a small section in the corner by the soda fountain, CHICKEN PARMESAN. I knew it would be terrible, but I took an oath when I was a young boy that I would never turn my back on a parma if it were available. I wasn’t about to break my sacred vow so I picked up the plastic plate of parma, filled my paper cup with Coke, paid for my meal and took a seat in the outdoor eating area

Mmmmm Mmmmm! looks tasty doesnt it!

I feel as if i have run the ‘shnitzel nudity being an adults only thing’ well and truly into the ground by now, but come on Louie’s! this is a family place!. I don’t even think I need to go into how the parma was, there was a light dusting of barely melted cheese - the photo is misleading as you may think all that napoli is covering more chicken, you are mistaken, that napoli is the napoli for the pasta - the schnitzel itself had barely any napoli OR cheese on it at all. it did have a couple of pieces of penne on it is a garnish, I am unsure as to whether this is an American serving variation, or some pasta just rolled on top when it was served, either way it was appreciated.

As with the rainforest cafe, the napoli was amazingly sweet, but actually didn’t taste too bad, parma aside, the pasta was actually pretty tasty. Again it was served with a piece of garlic bread, this was the hero of the dish, it was fresh, (they put it on seperately instead of letting it sit under the heat lamps) cooked just right, and I would actually consider adding a piece of GB as a serving suggestion to Aussie parma’s, very nice addition.

I’m not going to score either of these parmas as it wouldn’t be fair, its kind of like comparing apples and oranges. Americans, you do a lot of things right, but parma just isn’t one of them. Before you send me hate mail I will say I am aware that I didn’t select the most reputable businesses for review and I wouldn’t take what I have written as a judgement on the American parma scene as a whole, on previous trips I’ve sampled the Chicken Parmesan at places such as Maggiano’s or Buca Di Beppo and was not disappointed.

You guys really need to get on to the chips & salad though … seriously.

The search continues …

Rainforest Cafe (MGM Grand) on Urbanspoon

Attempt #14 - 'Mona Castle Hotel'

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When? - 7th of July, 2010

Where? - Mona Castle Hotel, 53 Austin st. Seddon

Price? - Wednesday $12 ‘Pot n’ Parma’ night, $17.90 all other times

Barry? - No, but ‘Mr. Jackpot’ Machine is almost as entertaining

Website? - http://www.monacastlehotel.com.au

Reviewers - Cale, Grace, Lee, Matt, Ness, Nikki, Tony Q[/info]

 

Hidden away in the back streets of Seddon (much like The Rose Hotel in Fitzroy) you’ll find the Mona Castle Hotel, an old school watering hole that hasn’t gone the way of the gastro-pub, where you’ll find down to earth food at a very fair price.

The main bar is full of character, with full TAB, TV’s, and more Western Bulldogs paraphernalia than you could poke a stick at, its a pub for the locals that definitely has that ‘family’ feel. Advertising themselves as ‘the coldest beer in the west’ isn’t far off either, with their pot glasses kept chilled in a fridge below the bar. My pot of Bulmers stayed icy cold and delicious the entire way through. With a great selection of beers on tap for a local pub (Pure Blonde, Carlton Draught, Tooheys Old, Cascade Light, and of course Bulmers Cider) it’s definitely a pub I would stop into again for an ice cold pot or two.

We booked the Mona Castle for a much larger table than could actually make it to the review, but it wasn’t a problem for the friendly staff who were happy to re arrange the tables after we told them only seven people would be eating. We ordered our parmas at the table and as it was Wednesday ‘Parma & Pot’ for $12 night’ the waitress went and gathered our included pots straight away. The Dining area we were in (there are a couple) had a very warm open fireplace and entrance to a massive outdoor beer garden/dining area - enclosed in a marquee with outdoor heaters, this also looked like a cosy little spot to enjoy a beer and parma

While we waited we took some time to play what looked like a lone pokie machine sitting in the corner, but what turned out to be a ‘Mr. Jackpot’ machine, something we were yet to come across in our travels

The ‘Mr. Jackpot’ machine is hard to describe, imagine the love child of a standard pokie machine and the Joker Poker machine we encountered at The Rose. 20c buys you one ‘ticket’ and if you match the three symbols on the ticket you recieve a prize corresponding to the pictures, this time however the tickets are displayed as digital tickets on the screen, and you can purchase up to five at a time.

I’m aware what I’ve described sounds pretty much exactly like a regular pokie, but trust me its different! you’ll have to seek out Mr. Jackpot to see what I mean.

After a few turns playing the machine unfortunately broke down and refused to take any more coins, not to worry though, because our parmas arrived soon after.

Apparently these parmigianas are so fresh they are reproducing … mine had a baby

The Parmas arrived after a short wait, there was a little bit of size variance with mine (pictured above) being the smallest of the bunch, but they seemed to compensate that buy giving me a larger serving of chips and a smaller, baby parma alongside the main event.

The schnitzel was barely crumbed, only the slightest dusting of crumbs made this a very different parma, I was a little turned off at first but quickly realised I would much prefer a thick piece of chicken with few crumbs to a wafer thin fillet with crumbs thicker than the chicken itself. The chicken was thick, juicy and seemed to be herb encrusted, the Napoli was very thick and rich, but maintained a good flavour that wasn’t too overpowering. There was a slice of ham hiding at the bottom that I barely noticed and had to check for, with a healthy coating of cheese and sprinkling of parsely it was definitely a different, but tasty parma.

The chips were served to the side of the parma instead of underneath (as they should be! no more soggy chips) Mine were a little overcooked but well salted and a hearty serving - although as I said before I got more chips than the other reviewers, possibly as compensation for having a smaller parma.

The garden salad was also a decent serving, which seemed to be about the same sized portions all round, containing rocket, cucumber, tomato, onion, capsicum, mustard seeds and a lot of grated carrot with a light balsamic dressing, it was fresh, tasty & a great accompaniment to the parma.

The Mona Castle is a great little pub, a well hidden little gem in the backstreets of Seddon. At only $12 on Wednesdays with a free pot this parma is outstanding value, I’d be more than happy to come back on another night of the week and pay the full price of $17.90, The atmosphere in the main bar is great, if I had the choice I would definitely eat out there next time where I can have a parma, punt, an ice cold brew & pump a few more bucks into Mr. Jackpot … love that guy.

Parma - 7.7
Chips - 5.8
Salad - 6.3
Value - 8.0
Total- 7.10

The search continues …

Mona Castle Hotel on Urbanspoon

Attempt #13 - 'Bridie O'Reilly's'

 

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When? - 30th of June, 2010

Where? - Bridie O’Reilly’s, 29 Sydney Rd. Brunswick

Price? - $15.00 Tuesday & Wednesday, $19.90 usual

Barry? - Yes

Website? - http://brunswickrd.bridieoreillys.com.au/

Reviewers - Adam Y, Bec, Cale, Emma, Grace, Janet, Kathleen, Lauren, Lee, Luke, Ness, Nikki, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya, Tony Q[/info]

*update* If you're looking for a review of the Bridies new $4.50 parma special you can check it out by clicking Here.

‘Bridie O’Reilly’s’ (or ‘Bridies’ to the locals) is a tough place to categorize, is it an Irish pub? a restaurant? a nightclub? sometimes all three at once and with three separate locations in Melbourne alone (all with almost identical decor) it seems to be becoming a bit of a pub franchise.

We chose the Brunswick Bridies for this weeks challenge as it is fairly local to all the reviewers, and was the standard place to kick on to after the Prince of Wales closed on a Friday night. Open ‘till all hours of the morning, Bridies gets absolutely packed on weekend nights, with a queue sometimes extending well out on to the street. But will this bode well for the food? After last weeks Grandeoso parma challenge at The Hotel Albion this would be a tough act to follow.

Bridie O’Reilly’s is a huge pub. Entering past the large beer garden would normally put you in the center of the pub, but as the ‘club’ half of the pub is closed off during their quiet hours, we took a right, past the open fire place, couches, row of booth seating, Barry machine and immensely long bar to find the restaurant area. We took a seat, had a chat, and went to the bar to place our order.

There was a little confusion as to the cost & deal available to us on Wednesday night, All the posters and specials boards listed Tuesday night as their ‘Pot, Parma & Trivia - $15’ special night, and Wednesday night as ‘Wing Night’, offering a huge variety of American style chicken wings at 75c a piece. I placed my order only to discover that on the menu itself it is printed that Wednesday night is ‘Parmarama Night’ - $15 with  a supposed free pot, which some of us who were unaware of the deal didn’t receive, a few others did because they specifically asked for it. This was a little off putting and definitely hurt the ‘value’ score for Bridies.

The famous ‘Barry’

After we placed our orders a few reviewers wandered around to the ‘Barry’ pub trivia machine that I make a note of in every review. With a lot of interstate (and international) readers now I thought I’d take a minute to clarify what exactly ‘Barry’ is. As you can see from the photo above, Barry is an electronic touch screen video game that is found in a majority of pubs around Melbourne, on it you can play a variety of games such as “Cluedo”, “Monopoly”, “Who wants to be a Millionaire” & “Deal or No Deal”, all the games have been altered slightly to turn them in to multiple choice trivia games, the great part about Barry though is if you are lucky enough to win the game, you can win a cash prize - usually enough to buy a round of beers or even pay for your parma!

After a few games we managed to take $10 out of the machine, with another group scoring $20 earlier in the night, it killed enough time before the parmigianas started arriving.

The Parma looked good on arrival, a sprinkling of shaved parsley always does wonders for the look of a parma, I had a few concerns though as parts of it looked overcooked, and there was enough full frontal schnitzel nudity to give this an MA15+ rating, diners under the age of 15 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian if they want to eat this parma.

On first cut the chicken seemed a thick, but on closer inspection I discovered it was the age old trick of coating it with an obscene amount of crumbs to make it appear bigger than it is. The breast (which was a little pink, and I am dubious if it was breast at all) was a little stringy. It was an edible piece of schnitzel, but it wasn’t great. The napoli sauce was a little rich, but had a good taste to it, very flavoursome and complimented the parma well, same goes for the cheese and the slice of ham - The ham had a very lightly smoked taste which can be a welcome addition to a chicken parmigiana if you like smoked ham, if not it can put you right off.

I’m not sure how they accomplished this, but when the parma arrived it was stacked high on the chips, so much so it was difficult to cut without first pushing the chips aside and taking it down from the pile, however when the parma was removed I discovered that even though it was stacked high on the chips, there were very few under there, I’m sure this breaks a few laws of both physics and nature, but they managed it. The chips themselves were standard pub chips, they arrived with no seasoning whatsoever, but there was Salt, Pepper & Tomato sauce already on the table.

The standard garden salad of rocket, tomato, shaved carrot, cucumber, onion and a rich creamy dressing, it was a perfectly acceptable side dish to the parma, but nothing outstanding.

The Bridies parma is 100% average, it was totally acceptable as a by-the-books chicken parmigiana but there was nothing remarkable about it at all. I suppose it is to be expected from a franchise pub such as this, its kind of like comparing a McDonalds hamburger to one you would get from a restaurant. Not good, not bad, just average.

Sure, they are both technically ‘Hamburgers’ … but which would you prefer?

Parma - 4.6
Chips - 4.1
Salad - 4.3
Value - 4.7
Total - 4.48

The search continues …

Bridie O'Reilly's on Urbanspoon

Attempt #11 - 'European Bier Café'

 

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When? - 16th of June, 2010

Where? - European Bier Café, 120 Exhibition St. Melbourne

Price? - $13.00 Wednesdays (parma night), $18.00 Lunch menu, $22.00 Dinner menu

Barry? - No

Website? - http://www.europeanbiercafe.com.au

Reviewers - Adam Y, Cale, Grace, Lee, Pete, Tanya, Tony Q, Tony S[/info]

I’d often said to my friends that ‘The Euro is like the Prince of Wales, just in the city’ it played the same music, drew the same kind of crowd and even shared some of the same cover bands - so when we found out that the European Bier Café also put on a Wednesday parma night, we just had to go and check it out.

As the name suggests, the European Bier Café is all about the Bier, um, I mean Beer. The Bar is lined with taps, I counted no less than Forty different varieties of beer available either on tap or bottled, as well as a few drink specials, full spirit selection and even my personal favourite on tap - Bulmers cider.

So with a pint o’ cider in hand ($9 for a pint, very reasonable) we ordered our parmas - The Euro website advertises their wednesday parma night as $12 all night, but in actuality it was $13 - still a well priced parma, but be weary of that. There are a couple of options you can choose from: Traditional Parma, Hawaiian Parma (with pineapple) and Italian (with fresh tomato, rocket lettuce, prosciutto and parmesan)

We all ordered Traditional Parmas, kicked back and waited for them to arrive, there were a few big screen TV’s scattered around so we rarely found ourselves without entertainment, while waiting I noticed that Wednesday is not their only ‘special’ dining night - The Euro also offers a ‘$12 Pie Night’ on Mondays, and a ‘$14 Steak night’ on Tuesdays, an interesting option, but this isn’t Pie Daze, nor is it Steak Daze …. it’s Parma Daze.

One reviewer was particularly famished and ordered himself a bowl of wedges as an entree - which were promptly seagull’ed by the rest of the table - they were good wedges with the standard sour cream and sweet chili sauce, if they were any indicator as to the quality of the parma we were about to receive, we were in for a quality piece of chicken.

Apologies for the iPhone photo - I couldn’t find my usual camera nor the memory card for my backup camera - I swear there are gremlins living in my house sometimes

It was a good looking parma, nice and big no nude schnitzel - there was a portion with no cheese, but it still had napoli and ham, so it wasn’t full frontal schnitzel nudity.

The parmigiana was well cooked and of a good thickness, a little thin in some places but real quality chicken breast. One complaint about the schnitzel is that the crumbs were rather soggy all over, the chicken had no crispness at all - but this is a minor complaint as the rest of it was delicious, there was a generous coating of flavoursome napoli. The cheese was spot on, golden brown and not in short supply - under which was a much appreciated (and different) serving of shredded ham, which I would have thought would be too much ham - but it worked very well with the dish.

The chips were shoestring (a.k.a McDonalds) fries, they were many in number though, with a majority of them not sitting underneath the parma, if they had have been under those soggy crumbs it would have been a disaster - but they were cooked well, crispy and generously salted (perhaps a little too much - could have been backed off a little).

The garden salad consisted of Rocket, red cabbage, tomato, shredded carrot, capsicum & a balsamic dressing, it was a large serving and very tasty, complimenting the meal beautifully.

If you come down on a Wednesday, this is a great value parma - especially for an inner city restaurant. Their prices for dining on any night other than Wednesday are a little high however with the parma running up to $22 for their regular dinner menu, i’d feel a tad ripped off paying $22 for this parma knowing it is available $10 cheaper on a different night of the week. That being said if you DO catch parma night its tough to beat the value of this meal, It’s big, juicy, delicious and comes with admirable sides. The atmosphere of the Euro is great, and the beers are spectacular.

Parma - 7.9
Chips - 6.9
Salad - 6.8
Value - 8.3
Total - 7.61

The search continues …

European Bier Cafe on Urbanspoon

Attempt #10 -'The Windsor Castle Hotel'

 

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When? - 9th of June, 2010

Where? - The Windsor Castle Hotel, 89 Albert St. Windsor

Price? - $20.00

Barry? - No

Website? - None

Reviewers - Adam Y, Cale, Emma, Lee, Matt, Nikki, Tanya, Tony Q[/info]

Its hard to imagine, but the three giant pink elephants on the roof of the Windsor Castle Hotel is not the strangest thing you will see on your visit to this cosy pub tucked away in the backstreets of Prahran. Walking into what seems like a newly renovated bar (as none of the photos I’ve found online look anything like what I saw when I walked in) this dimly lit pub has its walls adorned with an eclectic array of paraphernalia, in other words, there’s lots of crazy shit on the wall. While standing in the front bar waiting to order a drink I managed to document the following things in various display cases and areas scattered over the bar and around the pub:

  • Various animal horns & antlers
  • A full sized stuffed peacock
  • A ventriloquist dummy’s head
  • A variety of different sized test tubes, beakers and glassware
  • at least two owls
  • a range of different sizes & breeds of stuffed chickens (I’m hoping our parmas didn’t come from these guys)
  • Gary Coleman’s face on a speaker
  • An indoor room roofed with what looked like vine leaves.

Im sure there was a lot that I missed, the above is what I managed to remember to write down on my trips to the bar. In short, theres never a shortage of things to keep your attention while waiting for a drink.

When the crew arrived we moved out of the front bar to the back of the pub, where the dining room is located, we took our seats on their super comfy red velvet booth chairs around a massive round table. I’ll make a note of saying its very dark in this pub, my notes are rather scribbled as I could barely see what I was writing, but it all adds to the mood. I counted no less than three open fireplaces on my walks through the pub, and the wireframe elephants head mounted above the fireplace in the dining area made this area as interesting to sit in as the front bar.

We ordered our chicken parmigianas (of course) from the attached kitchen and took a seat, it didnt take too long for them to come out -

The flash on the camera gave us the best look at the parma we got all night … so dark!

The parmigianas arrived and my first impression was that it was small - big serving of chips and a mound of salad, but the parma itself fell short in the size department, and at $20 (not too expensive, but not exactly cheap) I’d expect something a bit bigger.

The chicken, however small, was tasty - real unprocessed chicken breast was used and there was no nude schnitzel, not a tough feat considering its size but a relief none the less, the cheese was well cooked, a little burnt on some parmas but nothing too sinful. The napoli sauce tasted as if it had a bit of red wine tossed through it, an addition I really enjoyed. There was debate as to whether or not this parma came with ham - we all could taste the ham, but for the life of us couldn’t actually find any! as it was so dark we even resorted to trying to use our mobile phones as a light source as we dissected the cheese looking for ham, but none could be found!

The chips were crinkle cut, salted and fried, there was a decent serving on each plate and they were a great accompaniment to the parma - even though they served the parma on the chips, the parma was small enough that they didn’t sweat at all and loose their crispness, very good.

The salad had a delicious dressing on it and there was a lot of it, but it was all rocket with a sliver or two of onion tossed through… nothing more! no cucumber, no tomato, no carrot, capsicum or celery - Nada!

The parma was flavoursome, with real chicken and a lovely napoli, there might have been ham, we couldn’t tell. The chips were delish and the salad, while bare, was-good tasting. It fell short on the size of the parma, it was just small, and for $20 a piece I’d expect a bit more.

The Windsor Castle is definitely an experience, with cosy open fireplaces and enough ‘stuff’ everywhere to keep you entertained its definitely worth a visit, just look for the pink elephants.

Parma - 6.3
Chips - 7
Salad - 5.8
Value - 5.5
Total 6.21

The search continues …

The Windsor Castle Hotel on Urbanspoon

Attempt #9 'Sir Charles Hotham Hotel'

 

[info]

When? - 4th of June, 2010

Where? - Sir Charles Hotham Hotel, 3 Brougham St. Geelong

Price? - $12.00 (from the bar menu)

Barry? - No

Website? - http://www.hothamhotel.com

Reviewers - Beth, Brett, Cale, Lee, Stefo[/info]

Not long ago we received word that Geelong radio station 94.7 ‘The Pulse Food & Wine Show’ was hosting a competition to find the best pub meal in the Geelong area - The station then contacted us and asked if we would like to appear on the show, talk about parmas to the fine folks of Geelong, then go and sample the parma of the pub they had judged to be the best pub meal in the Geelong region! an opportunity we jumped at.

So last Friday a few of us road-tripped down to Geelong, met with Brett, Beth & Jenni of the Food & Wine show and talked on the radio for awhile about the greatest food to grace our fair planet - The Chicken Parmigiana.

While we were on the show the winner of the competition was announced - The Sir Charles Hotham Hotel. We promptly piled into the car and headed down to see what Geelong had to offer.

The Hotham is the classic country pub. Pool table down one end, packs of chips hanging over the bar, horse racing on the TV and (according to the pictures on the wall) has been run by the same family for 3 generations - as we were there at 1 o’clock on a Friday afternoon the place was pretty much deserted save for a few regulars at the bar, we took a seat in the bar (I didn’t get a chance to peek into the bistro over the other side, the bar seemed a perfect choice).

The bar menu was classic country pub fare, with choices such as Rissoles, Lambs Fry or Meat Loaf all at a very reasonable price. The Parma was one of the most expensive meals on the menu but at only $12.00 I was more than happy to give it a go. We ordered our parmas along with a few schooners of ‘Diggers Draught’ - a very tasty beer I hadn’t had the pleasure of trying before, definitely recommended.

Before we got our mains the staff brought out a plate of complimentary garlic bread, I can’t say whether this is a standard freebie or it was purely to butter us up so we give them a good review, but it was greatly appreciated.

The parmigianas arrived promptly and looked delicious, no nude schnitzel and a good layer of bubbling golden brown cheese. There was a slice of ham but it wasn’t too overpowering as some ham can be, so it was a welcome addition

The chicken was of good quality, not winning any awards for size but it wasn’t too small, a little on the thin side of the chicken breast scale but nothing scandalous.

The chips were pretty standard, a smallish serving but fresh & crispy, unseasoned but salt & pepper were readily available. One reviewer ordered a tartare sauce as a side for chip-dippage and that wasn’t a problem for the very friendly staff.

I can sum up the salad in one word - Fresh. the lettuce was crisp, the onions were delicious, there was even the inclusion of diced celery sticks thrown in the mix everything in it seemed like it was plucked from the garden minutes before and drizzled with a light mustard dressing. A few other reviewers went the steamed vegetable option instead of the salad & they weren’t as impressed, I didn’t try any myself but they all looked a bit limp & lifeless, nothing near the freshness of the salad.

This parma screams home made, it (and the rest of the menu) is exactly what you’d expect your mum to put out on the table when you got home from school - or your nan to serve you when she was looking after you on the school holidays while your parents had to work. Its a quaint country pub with an equally country menu - Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that in a negative light, its great that family run pubs like this still exist! The staff were friendly & obviously loved their work.

A big thanks to the people at The Pulse 94.7 for having us on the show, and an even bigger thanks to Brett & Beth for coming down and reviewing their contest winner with us.

Oh, and apologies to any Geelong residents who might take offense at me referring to them as a ‘Country Town’. You don’t need to send me abusive emails.

Parma - 5.8
Chips - 5.4
Salad - 5.2
Value - 7.6
Total - 5.96

The search continues …

Attempt #8 - 'The Rose Hotel'

[info]

When? - 2nd of June, 2010

Where? - The Rose Hotel, 406 Napier St. Fitzroy

Price? - $13.00

Barry? - Yes (although out of order when we visited)

Website? - None

Reviewers - Adam Y, Bec, Cale, Grace, Janet, Kathlen, Lauren, Lee, Luke, Matt, Nikki, Pete, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya, Tony Q, Tony S[/info]

**EDIT** THIS REVIEW IS NO LONGER VALID, WE RE-VISITED THE NEWLY RENOVATED ROSE HOTEL 6 YEARS LATER, CHECK OUT THE DETAILS HERE

Walking into The Rose is like travelling back in time, its old school Aussie pub through and through. From the vintage ‘Joker Poker’ card machine to the Fitzroy football club team photos adorning the walls, I was having flashbacks to when I was a kid in the 80’s getting sent into smoke filled haze of the local watering hole to pick up my Dad on a Friday night while Mum waited in the car.

Tucked away in the backstreets of Fitzroy, it’s definitely a pub for the locals to go for an after work pint, decent selection of beers on tap and very reasonably priced, The Rose gives you the feeling that you are having a drink in your own loungeroom. A couple of TV’s up on the wall in the front bar played foxtel, meanwhile out in the back dining room we were stuck with ‘Hey Hey it’s Saturday’

We picked The Rose mainly because it was in Fitzroy (an area we have wanted to do a review in for a while) and it had Barry the pub trivia game. But tragedy struck on arrival when we saw the ‘out of order’ sign stuck on the Barry machine. Devastating.

The menu had a decent selection with nothing going higher than the $13.00 mark, we ordered our parmigianas and took a seat in the back dining room (a cozy little nook away from the main bar). It wasnt too long till our meals arrived

Apparently The Rose enjoys serving a loaf of bread with their parmas

As you can see from the above photo, the first thing that struck me was the generous serving of breadstick that accompanied the parma, a welcome addition that I haven’t seen on a parma plate for quite a while. The second thing that struck me was the rather black burnt edge around my parma itself, I looked around and saw I wasn’t the only one to have a blackened parma, but there were many who didn’t so it was the luck of the draw.

Apart from the burnt bit (which was only on one edge) the schnitzel was fairly thin and heavy on the crumbs. There was a rather large portion of nude schnitzel, but the area where there was cheese had plenty of it, there was plenty of napoli sauce, but it too tasted as if it had been left on the stove a little too long. A few of the other reviewers said that their parma was fine & they enjoyed the taste, so I possibly just got an unlucky draw this week.

The chips hiding under the parma were decent, a little soggy after living under the chicken for awhile. they were unseasoned but there were both tomato sauce and salt & pepper shakers readily available. Classic pub chips for a classic Aussie pub.

In the ratio of chips/salad on a parma plate, this parma is definitely skewed to the salad - there was lots of it. A typical garden salad of lettuce, tomato, carrot, capsicum, cucumber, sprouts & onion - LOTS of onion with what tasted like a garlicy cream dressing, not too shabby, unless you don’t like onion, then you may not be a fan.

Having Barry out of order was a let down, but the old school ‘Joker Poker’ machine provided some laughs, I think I pumped about $6 into it and won 2 x 50c prizes, but it was fun none the less.

I felt like a major tightarse claiming my two 50c winnings from this machine, but hey! winners are grinners! 

I loved the atmosphere of The Rose Hotel, they have kept the charm of an old school Aussie pub and resisted the current trend of swankifying (that is too a real word - if it isn’t I’m coining it right now) old pubs into high class establishments (last weeks review of The Metropolitan is a perfect example of this). I’d be happy to go back on a sunday arvo for a chat and a pint, its the perfect pub for that. The Parma’s were cheap in price and cheap in quality, but I suppose you get what you pay for. Another thing worth noting is that it is definitely a pub for locals of the area - almost every car park for a 2 block radius is a permit zone for residents between 7pm and 6am, so be prepared to walk!

I wasn’t a huge fan of the parma, a few of them being burnt was inexcusable,  but some other reviewers enjoyed it, at only $13 it wont hit the wallet too hard if you get a bad one. The drinks are cheap and I really liked the addition of the slice of breadstick to the plate, but it wasn’t quite the best thing since sliced bread.

Parma - 4.6
Chips - 4.9
Salad - 4.7
Value - 5.6
Total - 4.90

The search continues …

Rose Hotel on Urbanspoon

Special announcement!

If you happen to be in the Geelong area this Friday (the 4th of June) be sure to listen to THE PULSE Food and Wine Show 94.7 FM from 12 noon till 1pm, Myself and a few other members of the Parma Daze crew will be on as guests talking about who we are, what we do and judging the parmigiana of their ‘Best Pub Meal in Geelong’ competition winner. Be sure to tune in!

Attempt #6 - 'The Quiet Man'

 

[info]

When? - 19th of May, 2010

Where? - The Quiet Man Irish Pub, 271 Racecourse Rd. Flemington

Price? - $18.90

Barry? - No

Website? - http://www.thequietman.com.au/

Reviewers - Adam Y, Adrian, Bec, Cale, Daniel, Emma, Glen, Janet, Jarrad, Kathleen, Lauren, Lee, Luke, Matt, Nikki, Pete, Rob, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya, Tony Q, Tony S[/info]

Top of the mornin to ye! and welcome to our review of The Quiet Man Irish Pub, located just a stones throw from where we recently sampled The Doot’s parma, The Quiet Man was an easy choice, nice and local to a majority of the reviewers (a welcome change from last weeks hike to Kew to try the Skinny Dog’s offering).  We had heard a couple of recommendations in favour of it, so off we went to see if The Quiet Man could deliver us a pot o’ gold … in parma form.

The Quiet Man is all Irish from the moment you walk in the door, complete with Irish bar staff, ‘100 pints of guinness’ club & copies of the ‘Irish Echo’ newspaper available in the lobby, this place is exactly what you want from an Irish pub, in fact …

Just some music to get you in the mood (I am aware this is Boston-Irish and not Irish, but its still a bloody good song)

We took our seats in the bistro and waited for everyone to arrive, the menu had an interesting little story about the history of the pub on the first page which made for some good reading … probably the only thing I read on the menu as we all knew exactly what we were getting. The Parma.

I thought our review team at the Skinny Dog was big, but this one tipped the scales at 22 reviewers, so understandably it took a little longer for our parmas to arrive, but that wasn’t much of an issue as the pints of Bulmers and $6 pints of coopers (their ‘beer of the month’) were going down very well, we also lucked out as we happened to be there on the same night as a local live music/poetry reading class were having their monthly meeting in the bistro, good old fashioned entertainment!

Damn thats a lot of cheese!

Parmas on the table, full pint of Bulmers beside it, it looked a little on the small side, but that is definitely an excusable sin if the parma is quality. I was feeling good until (while taking the above photo) I heard one of the other reviewers say ‘wheres the chicken?’ not a good sign!

I cut my first slice, and I assure you the chicken was there, a little on the thin side of things but an ok quality piece of breast, the problem was in the crumbs though, they were very processed and seemed to fall away from the chicken at the slightest movement, leaving exposed breast and crumbs on the plate - a sure sign of pre-processing. But it wasn’t all bad, it had a decent taste to it, some nice tomato salsa (according to the menu),plenty of mozzarella cheese and a hearty slice or two of virginian ham, some bites were a little overpowering on the cheese/ham front with no taste from the chicken. but it was an ok parma … not bad, but not great.

The chips hiding under the parma were again, so/so. The menu clearly advertised them as ‘chunky chips’ which they were definitely not, just standard chips. Tasty, but no chunks at all.

The salad is a very hard one to judge at The Quiet Man, purely because of its inconsistency - My serving was very nice, a mixture of rocket, lettuce, onion, tomato, capsicum & carrot which (while a little oily) had a great taste to it and complimented the meal very well. However other reviewers seemed to get different salads, ranging from one missing ingredient to one that was purely rocket and nothing more inconsistency killed it unfortunately, if the other reviewers had’ve gotten the quality salad that was on my plate I think it would’ve scored much higher!

This review seems to have come off pretty harsh, so I’ll clarify by saying it wasn’t a bad parma, its just not great! it has some issues but overall it had a good taste to it. There were a few issues with consistency of size (some people got small parmas, other people got, um, very small parmas) and salad so it was definitely a tough one to review as there were many varying opinions!

The one thing I love about the quiet man is the pub itself, it has a great atmosphere, delicious (and sometimes very cheap) drinks on tap and is definitely a cozy place to gather with your mates and enjoy a pint. The parma isn’t bad but it could be better, it seems to be a gamble when you arrive whether or not you get a good one …  just hope the luck of the Irish smiles upon you.

Parma - 5.9
Chips - 6.2
Salad - 4.6
Value - 5.9
Total - 5.74

The search continues …

Quiet Man Irish Pub on Urbanspoon