Where - 260-262 Ferntree Gully Rd. Notting Hill
Price - $26.50
Website - www.nottinghillhotel.com.au
Reviewers - Lee & Nikki
Don’t you hate that person that is annoyingly organised with their Christmas shopping? You’ll be out at the shops at 11pm on Christmas Eve battling the throngs for that last set of Galar region Pokémon cards that your Nephew just has to have - But there’s always that one smug prick sitting there spouting “Well I got my Christmas shopping done in November so I didn’t have to deal with that hassle”.
Screw that guy.
Anyway I was at Chadstone last weekend finishing up my Christmas shopping for the year when I got a hankering for a parma. We don’t get out that side of town too often, so I figured it’d be a perfect time to sample one of the pubs that we wouldn’t normally tackle on a Thursday night. I did a quick Google for pubs in the area and when the Notting Hill Hotel popped up I immediately recognised it as one that has been sitting on our recommended list for a while. Rather than dive deeper into further research before heading over I decided we’d just wing it. Pop on over to the Nott and see what all the fuss was about.
I’m not sure what I expected when arriving at the Nott but I didn’t expect this. The Eastern suburbs must be keeping this one a secret because the Nott is flippin’ awesome. A classic, old school pub at the front gives way to a TAB, a pizzeria, a steakhouse, a taproom, bottle shop and an impressively huge beer garden out the back, complete with big screen TV’s and outdoor pool tables. I wasn’t expecting such a cool spot to be stuck (seemingly) in the middle of nowhere. Then it hit me … Monash University is just up the street. This is a Uni pub, and a damn fine uni pub at that.
It was a lovely day so we grabbed a table in the beer garden and checked the menu -
After which I went into the taproom and placed our order, taking note of the salad bar, which I will definitely get to a bit later.
On tap they had Bad Shepherd, Panhead, James Squire, Kosciuszko, Little Creatures, White Rabbit, Brooklyn, Furphy, Guinness, Heineken, Carlton, Hahn & 5 Seeds Cider, with Hop Nation, Dainton, Balter, Stone & Wood, Mountain Goat, Feral, Kaiju and more in the fridge - Something for everyone.
Our buzzer buzzed and we collected the parmas, stopping off at the salad bar on the way back (soon…soon).
The chicken schnitzel was fantastic quality. Pure white, juicy chicken breast. Just have a look at the cross section photo below and you will see what I mean. The crumbs were perfectly crunchy, slightly thick for me but not insanely so. Reviewer Nikki had no crumbs on the bottom of her schnitzel at all, but these are minor complaints - Overall it was a great schnitzel and a solid foundation for a parma.
Side note - I have noticed that if a pub offers a schnitzel on the menu, just a plain schnitzel with a lemon wedge and coleslaw, that is a fantastic sign that they are putting effort into the schnitzel they are using for their parmas and you are, more often than not, gonna get a good one. Just an observation!
Toppings were good, but not without some minor quibbles. Great cheese coverage, cooked to golden brown, and the fresh parsley shavings on top made for a damn photogenic parma, which is great for me.
There was a slice of ham but it wasn’t very flavoursome, I had to dig through the cheese and check if it was there. Nothing wrong with it at all, but something a bit smokier would have really been great.
The napoli was fresh, chunky and flavoursome if a little watery, but again, minor complaints of an otherwise top quality dish.
The chips were probably the weakest element of the plate. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t that special. A big enough serving they could have used a bit more seasoning. I’m sounding a bit harsh on them. They were fine, I just haven’t got much to say about them overall.
Okay. So. The salad. On the menu, next to the title for the “Mains” section are the words “Help yourself to salad garnish”. On ordering our parmas we were presented with a small bowl each that I’m sure you already saw pictured above. What does this mean? well next to the ordering window at the Nott is this…
A full on salad bar. Now we arrived just as the pub opened so we got to the salad bar when it was virtually untouched, but goddamn what a sight. I don’t think we’ve ever given a perfect score for salad, but to be honest I cannot fault it. We always maintain that we judge our parmas against the original Prince of Wales Hotel parma, which came with garden salad, pasta salad and potato salad - Well the Nott offers those three as well as coleslaw. That has got to be a perfect 10 right? I don’t know how it couldn’t be.
“Nice crunchy schnitzel and salad bar was a lovely surprise! Could have used more napoli but otherwise delicious. Love the beer garden”
The Nott offers a $21 parma, pot & free trivia night on Wednesdays, which sounds like a fantastic value proposition to me. I’d imagine this is a busy one so probably best to call in a booking if you’re thinking of heading down. As for the full priced parma I’ve got no issues paying another $26.50 for what we received, it might be a little pricey, but I don’t mind paying for quality (and theoretical unlimited salad)
Coming into summer is the perfect time to drop into the Nott and checking out what they have on offer as their beer garden is nothing short of spectacular, and I’m honestly jealous that this pub isn’t closer to my side of town so I could call it my local. I don’t think it’ll disappoint, definitely worth a visit.