Where - 14-20 Nicholson St. Coburg
Price - $21.90 with one side. Toppings extra (see menu grab below)
Website - https://oldschoolpizza.com.au
Reviewers – Lee & Nikki
I’m getting a bit of Deja Vu writing this review. Last month we visited Albion Pizza, a pizza place at the base of an apartment block next to an IGA Express with a pink neon slice of pizza as their logo. This week we visited Old School Pizza in Coburg, a pizza place at the base of an apartment block next to an IGA Express with a pink neon slice of pizza as their logo.
Old School Pizza seems to be a restaurant designed for the “influencer” crowd, serving up larger than life, insane food products that look just great in an instagram post. Stonegrill steaks, freak shakes, “donut snack packs” and their signature giant “jawbreaker” pizza slice (which I know technically not a slice as it is made that size, not cut from a larger pizza - Don’t @ me).
Day after day I would see new bizarre creations pop up on my Instagram feed from Old School Pizza, so when I found out that they also served up a parma I figured it was definitely an interesting one to check out, so last night we loaded up the parma bus and headed to Old School Pizza in Coburg.
While Albion Pizza was relatively empty when we arrived for the review, Old School was absolutely packed when we walked in the door to the point I was worried we wouldn’t get a table. We pushed our way through the throngs of take away customers, the dine in patrons and the deliveroo drivers to find a table and check the menu for our target…
A few choices to be made here. The standard parma comes with one side included (chips, salad or veg) with an extra costing another $4. Napoli or bolognese sauce is included with the price but Mexicana toppings will cost you $3 extra.
We placed our order, two parmas, one with napoli, one with bolognese and both with chips and salad.
Those feeling like an alcoholic beverage will be disappointed as Old School does not currently hold a liquor license. The glass bottles of Coke went down a treat though (doesn’t Coke just taste better out of a glass bottle?)
about 20 minutes after placing the order the parmas arrived from the kitchen.
First up the schnitzel is real, pure chicken breast. Not the biggest in circumference but thick enough to make up for it. The double crumbing was fantastic - Giving the parma a solid crunch that lasted throughout the entire meal. It was cooked to perfection and served piping hot. A wonderful foundation to the parma.
The toppings are where we stumble a little. Both the Napoli and bolognese were fine. They were there but in the scheme of things a little flavourless. The cheese melt was great. Plenty of cheese and grilled to a perfect gooey golden brown.
The Old School parma, like the Albion, did not have ham, a decision that baffles me.
Update: It has been brought to my attention that Old School Pizza is 100% Halal, hence the lack of ham. The Mexicana does come with Sujuk, which might be worth a try! (Always love a good Mexicana), which they were kind enough to send through a photo of…
The Mexicana at Old School Pizza
All in all I really enjoyed the schnitzel, just wish the toppings had a little more kick! Maybe the Above Mexican is the one for me.
The serve of chips with the Old School parma was quite possibly the most generous serving of chips we have ever gotten with a dine-in parma. Absolutely massive, served piping hot and dusted with chicken salt. I regret not ordering a side of aioli to help them along but they were pretty great as they were. Could not get through them all as there were so many. Very well done.
The bowl of garden salad was fresh and crisp with the surprise addition of olives. seedless olives at that, I cannot stand when pubs leave the seeds in the olives they put in salads - Luckily Old School had the foresight to not leave tooth-cracking seeds in their salad. It was a fine salad, unless you aren’t a fan of olives, then you would probably be disappointed.
“The schnitzel was tasty and great quality however the toppings let this parma down a little. Could have definitely used a bit of ham to liven things up”
Value is a tough one to judge here. With chips and salad our parmas came to $25.50 each, which is a wholly acceptable price, however I’m not a huge fan of places that nickel-and-dime the sides the way that Old School does. The giant serve of chips was definitely $4 worth, however the bowl of salad, while tasty, was not $4 worth of salad. If the parma was just $25.50 it would have been easier to accept however charging for the items separately draws extra scrutiny on the value of each individual element. No special parma nights as far as I’m aware.
The parma at Old School doesn’t have the outrageous flair that their other items like the Jawbreaker Slice or the Donut Snack Packs have, and I think they could benefit from it. All up it was a decent parma with a massive serve of chips and a pretty good salad but it lacked that “wow” factor that would have really driven it home.
I wouldn’t go out of my way for it, but worth a visit (would be a great one for a delivery order) if you’re a local.