Attempt #43 - 'The Penny Black'

 

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When? - 16th of March, 2011

Where? - The Penny Black. 420 Sydney Rd. Brunswick

Price? - $19.90 regular menu, $12 Parma Monday

Barry? - No

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

Reviewers - Bec, Brad, Lee, Luke, Nikki[/info]

 

I’ll start by saying I really like The Penny Black. As a pub I frequent quite often I was really hoping they served up a good parma, as I would feel ashamed turning up this weekend after giving them a bad review.

The Penny Black is an interesting pub, Situated inside a building that was once a post office - hence the name of the pub being taken from the name of a vintage stamp. Upon walking in the door it could easily be dismissed as ‘just another indie pub’ complete with a selection of board games or Kurt Vonnegut books available behind the bar, but through the doors by the bar there hides a massive beer garden, easily twice the size of the indoor section, complete with an outdoor bar, and heaps of tables.

I would say that The Penny Black is a well kept secret, but in recent months the word seems to have gotten out and its hard to get in the door on a Friday or Saturday night. Luckily Wednesday was pretty quiet and we got a table easily, we took our seats and placed our parma orders - $19.90 off the regular menu, but The Penny Black also offers a $12 parma Monday that would be good to keep in mind.

Wednesday night was $12 steak night (apparently a tradition on Sydney Rd) and the steaks coming out of the kitchen looked pretty damn appetising, as did the burgers (Thursday is $12 Burger night), hopes were high for this weeks chicken parmigiana.

After a short wait the parmas arrived…

Parmas always look worse in photos when I have to use the flash - It was dark at The Penny Black, so flash was necessary, but I assure you it looked tasty in reality

For those curious, the photo without flash looked something like this -

mmmm… delicious

The schnitzel, while a little small on circumference, was thick as buggery, over an inch thick of pure breast for the majority of the parma. The topping coverage was great with almost zero schnitzel nudity and a slice of ham that didn’t overpower everything else, the napoli was a little bit thick and tomato paste-ish for my liking but it held together well. The only complaint would be the parma was bordering on overcooked, not burnt, but getting there. This made the cornflake crumbs it was coated in very hard, almost rough on the tongue. I also want to issue an official checkyatemps.org warning on the Penny Black parma, this thing was bloody hot, so much so I had to let it cool for a minute before I could properly dig in, not that this is a negative, I’d rather a parma that is too hot than one that is too cold.

The chips were shoestring, McDonalds-esque fries. There was a big serving (both under the parma, out on their own, and even a little under the salad) and very well seasoned. I’m not normally big on shoestring fries with a parma, but if they all came out like this I could definitely be persuaded to convert.

The salad was also a big serving, but there wasn’t much of it. Consisting of rocket, onion, tomato, a single slice of cucumber and a splashing of dressing it was tasty but not really substantial, not bad but not wow’ing us either. Although in saying that Reviewer Bec made me promise to not that the tomatoes in the salad were particularly good, so yay for the tomatoes.

As I said at the start of the review I love The Penny Black, and I am so glad that I wasn’t disappointed by their parma - If they serve up the same quality parma on their Monday $12 special it would be one to put on your ‘must try’ list, but at $19.90 it is a little on the expensive side. The pub itself is a great live music venue with what is possibly Melbourne’s best beer garden out the back. Whether its for a sneaky pint after work or dinner on either Parma (Monday), Pizza (Tuesday), Steak (Wednesday), Burger (Thursday) or Roast (Sunday) night, its definitely a place you should check out.

Parma - 7.5
Chips - 7.7
Salad - 4.9
Value - 6
Total - 6.72

The search continues…

The Penny Black on Urbanspoon

Attempt #42 - 'The Carron'

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When? - 10th of March, 2011

Where? - The Carron, 398 Spencer St. Melbourne

Price? - $12 Parma Thursday, $18 regular menu

Barry? - No

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

Reviewers - Cale, Emma, Janet, Lee, Nikki, Pat, Stefo[/info]

** NOTE - This pub has closed! Parma no longer available - Review will stay up for posterity. Enjoy!

The last time I was at the Carron was for pre-drinks the last time AC/DC were in town. The Carron, as a pub, is perfect for times like this - A stones throw from Colonial Stadium Telstra Dome Etihad Stadium, The Carron is a great little pub for pre footy/concert/Disney on ice drinks. I had heard they offer up a pretty decent parma, and as icing on the cake the Carron offer up a $12 Parma Thursdays. So we delayed our usual parma Wednesday 24 hours and headed to the Carron to see what they had on offer.

Other than some people sitting out in the sun on the little balcony thing they have going out the front, the Carron was pretty quiet when we arrived. We claimed our table then went to the bar to place our order - one thing I would suggest to the Carron management is to put more staff on. Every time I went to the bar to either order our meals or get a drink I found the bar unmanned and had to wait valuable minutes for someone to come out of the kitchen and serve. frustrating. However we ordered our parmas and in a fairly short time they were marched out of the kitchen.

I was pleasantly surprised when the plates hit the table, discount parma nights have a habit of being sub-par but the golden brown beauty that laid before me begged to differ. One or two out of the 7 parmas that were served suffered from slight slippery cheese, there was extremely minimal schnitzel nudity and it was a little on the small side but other than that the meal that laid before us was damn appetizing. The schnitzel was of decent thickness, nothing special but certainly nothing to complain about. There was a hearty coverage of napoli, ham and golden brown cheese. My only complaint would be that at times the crumbs tasted a little processed, but it was all in all a great tasting parma

The chips were standard chunky chips - middle of the road (a trait that has been common with chips lately) a little on the minimal serving scale but nothing to really complain about here, although they could have used a bit of seasoning

The salad was big and salubrious, taking up a large portion of the plate. It looked very promising as a mix of Lettuce, cucumber, capsicum, tomato, carrot and onion. Unfortunately there was no detectable dressing other than a splash of oil and it left what could have been a fantastic side dish wanting.

The Carron has a great atmosphere, a great location and on Thursday nights a fantastic parma! A glance at the website tells me that on their non-parma nights the meal goes for $18, a price I’d happily pay for what was served up, having it for $12 on Thursdays is just gravy, It only lost points for the run of the mill chips, a schnitzel that was a little on the small side and a beautiful looking salad that squandered its potential. Don’t let that put you off though, The Carron offers up a fantastic parma that I’d be happy to try again any day of the week.

Parma - 7.79
Chips - 5.21
Salad - 5.14
Value - 8.57
Total -6.90

The search continues…

Carron Tavern on Urbanspoon

Attempt #41 -'The Peacock Inn Hotel'

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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…

Peacock Inn on Urbanspoon

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!

Attempt #40 - 'The Sugar Gum Hotel'

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When? - 23rd of February, 2011

Where? - The Sugar Gum Hotel, Cnr. Melton Hwy & Gourlay Rd, Hillside

Price? - $19.50 in the Bistro

Barry? - No, but lots of other entertainment

Website? - None

Reviewers - Adam, Bec, Lee, Luke, Nikki, Tanya[/info]

I remember back when they built the Sugar Gum it was in the middle of freakin nowhere - Urban sprawl hadn’t quite reached it yet and I remember my parents saying ‘Why would you want to go to a pub all the way out here?’ Fast forward a few years and it is surrounded by suburbia. With Watergardens shopping center down the road and houses as far as the eye can see, The Sugar Gum is a pub in prime position for the locals of the area. Having seen it many times on drives up to the country, it stuck in my mind as a place to try where they might do a good parma, So we loaded up the parma bus and headed down the Melton Hwy. to the Sugar Gum Hotel (Or ‘tavern’ depending on who you ask)

The place is huge, with ample parking, large sports bar, TAB, pool tables, jukebox, pokies, spacious bistro and kids room full of arcade games, there are a plethora of options for entertainment (except for Barry, unfortunately). The staff are extremely friendly and helpful, however the drinks range is pretty standard, no Bulmers on tap unfortunately and the Jim Beam stubbies were bordering on criminally expensive ($10.50 each - I don’t like paying over $10 for a drink if it doesn’t have at least one piece of fruit & an umbrella in it)

We took our seats in the bistro and ordered our parma’s at the bar ($19.50 with a Thursday $15 parma night). I was freaking starving so the wait seemed a little long, but it could’ve just been my hunger distorting my perception of time - it happens.

When it first arrived, the parma looked pretty good, there was some minor nude schnitzel around the edges and the cheese was a little overcooked (bordering on burnt around the edges) but so far no unforgivable offenses, the schnitzel was big and thick, so we tucked in. Unfotunately the whole parma smacked of being processed, the chicken, the crumbs, the napoli, the ham and the cheese all tasted pre-packaged. All the ingredients of a parma were there on the plate, however it had no soul, no flavour and in the end it left us wanting. also, towards the end of the parma (after it had a few minutes to sit) the cheese turned into Mr. Fantastic from The Fantastic 4, extremely rubbery.

While we’re on the subject, how much of an ego must this guy have to name himself ‘Mr. Fantastic’ just because he can stretch. All the other members of the Fantastic 4 chose names that reflected their powers, I can imagine the meeting in which they chose their superhero names going something like this…

“Okay Sue, you can turn invisible so we will call you the ‘Invisible Woman’. easy. Johnny, you can burst into flame at will so ‘The Human Torch’ is pretty self explanatory, Ben, you got turned into an orange-rock-thing, lets go with ‘The Thing’ for you and me … well, I can stretch my body parts like an elastic band, hmmm, Elastic Man? no … Rubber Man? nahh, I know!, seeing as I am pretty fucking fantastic, I’ll just call myself ‘Mister Fantastic’. perfect. Any complaints? Ben, stop crying…”

Moving on.

The chips hidden underneath the parma were great, toeing the line somewhere between shoestring fries and regular chips. They were fresh, crispy, well seasoned and in abundant supply, the chips were definitely the star of this meal.

The garden salad (made up of lettuce, carrot, onion, cucumber & tomato) looked great when it landed in front of us, however it didn’t really hold up when it came to taste, much like the parma itself there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, but it just came across as bland and flavourless.

The Sugar Gum is a great little spot and some of the other meals I saw going past while waiting for ours looked pretty damn impressive. Unfortunately as I said earlier, the parma offered up by the Sugar Gum lacked any flair, It was a cookie cutter parma that didn’t quite carry any flavour and for $19.50 I expect something more. I would definitely consider going back for a $15 parma on their Thursday parma night, as from what I could gather they do some novelty parmas on occasion then, perhaps some extra toppings would give it the flair it needs to get over the line. you do want to express yourself don’t you Sugar Gum?

Parma - 5.75
Chips - 7.17
Salad - 3.33
Value - 5.50
Total - 5.50

The search continues…

Sugar Gum Hotel on Urbanspoon

The Parma Daze Twitter is still going strong! we have a few more followers now so it isn’t as much of a sad situation as it was last week, lets check it out on the newly created…

As you can see its almost out of the ‘Sad Situation’ category, however its still a pretty unhappy and somewhat confused situation, please follow our twitter and do your part to help the situation.

 

Attempt #39 - 'Cushion Lounge'

Photos of this place are frakking impossible to find online, so I snapped this while crossing the road, narrowly avoiding getting cleaned up by an oncoming tram

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When? - 15th of February, 2011

Where? - Cushion Lounge, 99 Fitzroy St. St. Kilda

Price? - $10 ‘Parma n’ Pot’ Tuesdays, $17 regular menu

Barry? - No

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

Reviewers - Adam, Lee, Nikki, Tanya, Wade[/info]

My memories of Cushion are a drunken blur, an establishment that I have only been to as an after-bar after a long, long night on the town. I have vague memories of shots, cocktails and floors so sticky that I lost my shoes on multiple occasions.

However a couple of weekends ago I was attending my sisters wedding at the lovely Circa on Fitzroy St, and on the way to the reception the cab happened to pause at the large specials board outside Cushion, advertising their Tuesday night special - Pot n’ Parma for $10. The challenge was set, We moved our usual Wednesday parma night to a Tuesday one and last night we headed to St. Kilda to see what they had to offer.

We were told on the phone the night before that Cushion don’t take bookings, so we rocked up a little earlier than usual to ensure we got a table big enough for all the diners - carparking was an issue, but we managed to find a handy underground park at the nearby Metropol building and walked down - the five large outdoor tables were already packed with people getting their after work parma fix, so hopes were high that we would finally find the elusive combination of both cheap and good.

Inside the pub was relatively empty, apart from a few groups scattered around, who were also munching on chickeny goodness (chickeny is too a word!) we managed to score primo seating at the large wooden table to the left of the entrance, perfect.

I downed a pint of Bulmers while waiting for the team to arrive, and once they did we ordered our parmas at the bar, the ‘free pot’ extends to either carlton draught, soft drink or house wine, so beers were poured and we returned to our table to await our meal.

While waiting I had a chance to try and classify what exactly Cushion was… its not a pub, nor is it a restaurant or even a cafe, although it borrows aspects from all three. I think the best thing to call it is a nightclub on a quiet night - the concrete floors (not as sticky as I remember them), the boarded up DJ booth, the shiny disco ball hanging above the tables, the signs directing patrons to the smokers area and the cocktail list with entries such as ‘Love Potion 69’ are all hallmarks of the club-turned-restaurant to fill seats on an off night. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, The Prince of Wales had all of these features and yet we still rate it as the best parma we have ever eaten.

After a short wait, our parmas arrived

The schnitzel was kinda small and devoid of ham, I have been trying to avoid the whole ‘schnitzel nudity as people nudity’ joke lately as I think I’ve kinda been running it into the ground, but the lack of cheese on this parma pushed this thing to X rated, full frontal, with penetration, nudity, I would call it the Jesse Jane of chicken parmas, but the breasts weren’t that big, so lets call this one the Jenna Haze of schnitzel nudity

Okay that was the bad, the good however, is that the schnitzel, while kinda small was actually real chicken breast, the napoli sauce was delicious and the cheese that was there was pretty tasty, as a whole the parma worked well.

Before I get to the chips, I was thinking about this as I was writing the review - why is it there are so many porn stars who have names starting with the letter J - Jesse Jane, Jenna Jameson, Jenna Haze, Jill Kelly, Jordan Capri, Jenavive Jolie, Jayden James … I’m sure theres four or five out there with the sirname ‘Juggs’, the list goes on! I’m sure theres a scientific reason for it, maybe its just a mystery for the ages.

But I digress…

The chips were one of the few we have come across that were actually set beside the parma as opposed to underneath, This kept them hot, fresh and crispy the entire meal, a decent serving and seasoned with chicken salt, the chips were fresh, crisp, thick and tasty.

The garden salad seemed a bit of an afterthought, comprising of lettuce, onion, carrot and cucumber, we had to struggle to determine if there was dressing on it. The veggies were fresh but as a whole it was a bit dry without dressing, and although I’m not a fan of tomato myself, I was surprised to see it not included in the mix.

The Cushion parma, while a bit on the small side, was actually pretty damn good! the chips were great, and apart from some minor cheese related issues so was the parma. We had this parma on their Tuesday night special of $10 with a free pot, on their regular menu this parma clocks in at $17, which, to be honest, I would be less than stoked to pay for what we got. But as far as budget parma nights go, this is pretty damn good and I would definitely recommend stopping in for dinner if you are in the area on a Tuesday - for only $10 its great value and hard to go wrong.

Oh, one last thing - I’d normally put this after the scores, but the situation is getting kinda sad (not the guy from Jersey Shore, he is always happy)

The Parma Daze Twitter has been going for a week now and its only got three followers (one of whom is my personal account, the other is one of the reviewers and the third is some sort of german spam site) I see the google analytics stats guys, I know there are a lot of people reading this! go check it out and follow (please … this isn’t doing good things for my self esteem)

Its good! I swear!

Parma - 6.9
Chips - 6.4
Salad - 4.6
Value - 8.1
Total - 6.58

The search continues…

Cushion Lounge on Urbanspoon

Attempt #38 - 'The Blarney Stone'

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When? - 9th of February, 2011

Where? - The Blarney Stone, 35 Anderson St. Yarraville

Price? - We paid $17.50 but there are other options, check the review for more info

Barry? - Yes

Website? - None

Reviewers - Cale, Lee, Ness, Nikki[/info]

**UPDATE** The Blarney Stone has closed its doors, and been replaced with the newly redone Railway Hotel. Luckily, we've had that one too! Check out the full review of the Railway Here

At the start of the review I would normally give props to whomever it was that recommended us to a venue for a parma, but I can’t for the life of me remember how the Blarney Stone entered our radar. So whoever you are out there, mystery recommender, I thank you for recommending.

I was unsure how many reviewers would be attending this weeks review, so we went to the Blarney Stone without a booking (the last two times we have done this have been disasterous, so I was on edge). We entered via the side entrance straight into the relatively empty bistro (phew) and took a seat at the first available table, Checked the menu and the parma was there ($17.50), however when I went to the bar to order some drinks I noticed the bar menu was completely different to the bistro menu, and the bar menu offered both a $13 Chicken Parma and a Bolognaise sauce variety known as the ‘Blarney Parma’ (not quite sure of the price of this one, I want to say $14.50, but don’t hold me to that). The bar meals were not allowed to be eaten in the bistro, so we had a choice to make.

On further inspection of the menus we noticed that the bistro’s parma was called ‘Chicken breast chicken parma’, however the bar menu choices made no mention of chicken breast. Being a breast man myself (ba dum ching!) I was more than happy to pay the extra $4.50 for the chicken breast, as opposed to the mystery chicken served on the bar menu. Oh, and they also do a $10 parma night in the bar on Thursdays … confused yet? I know I am!

We ordered our parmas and grabbed our first pints. The Blarney is a huge pub, With a massive public bar area (with Barry & TAB at the front) and equally spacious bistro it would be hard to fill this place up. It is Irish-themed (as the name would suggest) but not as ‘in your face’ Irish as some other pubs we’ve visited. The staff were friendly & the place had a good vibe, I’d be happy to return for a pint or two some other time

Some of the reviewers ordered a pre-parma garlic bread (always a good decision), shortly after they had polished that off our main course arrived.

I have upgraded a little from iPhone cam…

The parma’s arrived and the first thing I noticed was a bad case of slippery cheese on mine (for the newbies, “slippery cheese” is when the cheese re-melts and slides off the ham if the parma is set at too much of an angle) The other reviewers weren’t as affected by this, so we tucked in.

The chicken breast was real chicken breast (as the menu suggested) while a little small, it was thick, juicy and, other than being slightly undercooked, hard to fault. unfortunately after that it starts to fall apart, the crumbs were extremely soggy, so much so that when I made the initial transition of my parma off the chips to level ground, many of the crumbs from the underside of the chicken stayed behind, having firmly fused themselves to the chips. The napoli was extremely minimal, when you have to resort to lifting up the ham to check if there is any napoli there at all you know you’ve wandered into bad territory. I can’t complain about the ham, it did its job perfectly, except (as I mentioned earlier) it failed to hold my cheese in place, and most of the cheese ended up in the south western quadrant of my parma - although this may have been an isolated incident as other reviewers didn’t seem to be as afflicted as I was by the slippery cheese menace.

There was a decent serving of well cooked (and somehow crumbed) chips hiding under the parma, they were crispy, tasty and pretty much served their life purpose of chips very adequately, nothing really to write home about with these boys! standard middle-of-the-road chips

The garden salad, consisting of rocket, lettuce, tomato, cucumber & onion was well portioned, however one thing put us off … the dressing. It is a little blurry, and hard to describe, but imagine a substance that tastes like balsamic vinegar, yet has the consistency & look of the peanut satay sauce you get at Thai restaurants as an accompaniment to chicken skewers. looking through the photos I snapped last night, this seems to be the clearest shot of it I got

We had never come across it before, and it tasted fine, but the look of it put some reviewers off.

After our parma we moved into the public bar for a couple of games of Barry … We were friggin close to winning $100 on a game of Cluedo before getting a freaking impossible question, something about the date of formation of the Canadian Orchestra if I remember correctly, then calling an end to our evening!

The Blarney Stone parma has so much potential, the chicken breast they are using is absolutely fantastic, all they need is a few minor, yet very important tweaks to their parma construction process and they would have a great meal on their hands, unfortunately they aren’t quite there yet. But a great pub that I’d definitely stop back into for a pint and some Barry.

Parma - 6.25
Chips - 5.25
Salad - 4.13
Value - 4.75
Total - 5.33

The search continues…

Blarney Stone Irish Pub on Urbanspoon

Attempt #37 - 'The Cornish Arms'

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When? - 2nd of February, 2011

Where? - The Cornish Arms, 163A Sydney Rd, Brunswick

Price? - $18 (With a $12 ‘parma night’ on Sundays)

Barry? - No

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

Reviewers - Carly, Giese, Kylie, Lee, Matt, Shanan, Tanya[/info]

I was thrown when I called to reserve a table at the Cornish Arms as I was asked if I wanted to be seated at the 6:30 or 8:30 sitting … seeing as our weekly review traditionally starts at 7 I went for the 6:30 session and asked the reviewers to attend a tad earlier. Why the restricted seating options you may ask? Well unbeknownst to me Wednesday night is the Cornish Arms’ ‘$12 steak night’, and I must say the people of Brunswick must love their steak, because this place was packed.

The Cornish is an impressively renovated pub, with leather bench seats across the walls, a beautiful beer garden out the back and a spacious, well stocked main bar manned by casual and friendly staff, really adding to the laid back atmosphere of the place.

The menu is impressive, Apart from nightly food specials (including a $12 ‘Parma Sunday’) the bar toes the line between a gastro pub and friendly local, I must say the steaks looked delicious and I have it on good authority that the pizza nights are equally impressive.

However we weren’t there for pizzas or steak, we were there for parmas. We placed our orders at the bar ($18), collected our drinks and took our seats - one oddity was that after we placed our order a staff member came to the table to also take our order, Reviewer Matt who arrived late placed his order with her, and he was given the option of veggies instead of salad - an option we were not offered when ordering at the bar. This prompted Reviewer Carly to change her order to veggies as opposed to salad, no dramas there.

After a fairly short wait, our meals arrived (I had heard rumors of slow service at the Cornish, so I was pleasantly surprised at how promptly our parmas arrived, especially since the place was quite busy).

I’m always amazed at how much a few green flakes makes a parma look so much more appetising. The Schnitzel was fairly wide and pounded flat, not too thin though however they were a little bit heavy on the corn-flake crumbs. When it first arrived I thought it looked rather standard in size however this is the first time in awhile that I’ve actually struggled to clean my plate, somehow this entry is amazingly filling without appearing so!

There was minor schnitzel nudity around the edges but the areas that had cheese had a lot of it. The napoli was good but there wasn’t enough of it, and it left the parma a little dry in areas. The star of this meal however, was the substitution of bacon instead of ham - an option we haven’t come across in our reviews as yet and I must say I was impressed! It is a well known fact that bacon makes everything better,( see bacon soap, bacon vodka and bacon lollipops ) parmas are no deviation from this rule and the inclusion of bacon on the parma is a stroke of genius. Although in saying that I know some people in the world don’t have the same love of bacon that I do (weirdos) and it might be nice to be given the option of bacon or no bacon.

There was a pretty big serving of chips hiding underneath the parma, however they were totally unseasoned and went a little soggy after living underneath the parma for awhile, salt shakers were provided on the table to remedy this and they were able to be partially brought back to life.

The salad was also supplied in a hefty serving, a garden salad served with Lettuce, sprouts, cabbage, tomato, onion, cumber & balsamic. Opinion was varied on the salad as it seems some people got more dressing than others, and the dressing really has the power to make or break a garden salad.

The Cornish serves up a damn tasty parma, I kind of regret that we didn’t hit it on their Sunday parma night, as if what we were served last night was the same as what would come out on a Sunday for only $12 it is definitely a winner. I highly recommend a reservation if you are going down on a Wednesday or you run the risk of not getting a seat, but it is worth it.

Parma - 7.79
Chips - 5.29
Salad - 5.21
Value - 6.43
Total - 6.5

The search continues…

Cornish Arms Hotel on Urbanspoon

A big thanks to the guys over at Melbournepubs.com for giving us yet another plug on their facebook page, you guys are the best and thanks for the support!

For all those who haven’t heard, Cyclone Yasi is currently wreaking havock to the north coast of Australia in the worst storm of this kind to hit the area in 100 years, our thoughts go out to all those affected by this disaster, stay safe guys!

Finally for the past few years (long before this little parma site was around) Myself and a couple of mates have been running Inner Coma, an online T-shirt store. I’ll be your bestest friend if you click over and take a look!

If you have read this far you are a true fan - here are some boobs for your effort  (oYo)

damn thats hot, I should mark this entry NSFW.

Attempt #35 - 'Sentido Funf'

[info]

When? - 19th of January, 2011

Where? - 243 Gertrude St. Fitzroy

Price? - $9 Parma Wednesday ($17.50 all other times)

EDIT 21/09/11 - Sources inform me that this parma Wednesday deal now sells for $10, still great value!

Barry? - No

Website? - http://sentidofunf.com.au/

Reviewers - Adam, Cale, Lee, Matt, Ness, Nikki, Tanya[/info]

When I told the group we were going to ‘Sentido Funf’ for a parma there were a lot of blank stares followed by ‘…where?’ but this little pub in Fitzroy has a big secret.

From the outside you wouldn’t look twice at Sentido Funf, as you can see from the photo above it doesn’t look like much, inside there is an unassuming little bar (with a great beer selection as well as a stellar cocktail list) and some tables scattered around. We took our reserved seat inside and sat for all of 60 seconds before deciding that we should move, where? to Sentido Funf’s best feature - The beer garden.

Following the door past the bar will lead you out the back to the beer garden, an indoor/outdoor expanse easily twice the size of the front bar itself, the beer garden is the place to be.

We ordered our parmas at the front bar and took our seats out the back amongst the trees, after a few minutes of waiting we realised that as well as being $9 Parma night, it was also Quiz Meisters Trivia night. Free to enter the Quiz Meisters put on a great trivia comp, the perfect accompaniment to a chicken parma (other than garlic bread … I love garlic bread).

It took a while to get all the teams sorted for trivia so by the time the competition started we had mostly all finished our parmas - so lets review!

The perspective of the photo may be confusing, but this parma is served on a skinny, oval shaped plate with salad to the side and a decent heaping of shoestring fries under a massive hunk of chicken.

The parma was wide but fairly thin with a minor case of slippery cheese and minor burning around the edges, not a hell-worthy tresspass. The schnitzel was pre-fab chicken that to be honest was a little disappointing, the breast was dry, stringy and at times was rather hard to cut through (although dull knives and being perched on the chips didn’t help with this issue). The toppings for the parma, however, were very good - with generous helpings of napoli, ham and cheese they were the saving grace for this meal.

The skinny plate made it hard to maneuver the chicken around to be eaten properly without losing chips to the table, but being rather experienced at this we managed to get it done. 

The chips that were hiding under the parma were surprisingly good, there was actually a decent serving of fries hiding underneath the chicken - well seasoned, fresh shoestring fries that are very similar to those served at McDonalds … not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The garden salad to the side was simple and fresh, with actual lettuce as opposed to just wilted leaves as well as cucumber strips, onions and shredded carrots. I couldn’t quite pick what dressing was used, but it had a very refreshing citrus tang.

After the food, team ‘Jimmy Rowes’ kicked off trivia, the Quiz Meisters do a great job of keeping things different and interesting with their variety of media questions, we managed to win a free jug of beer in the ‘Pick the Wags’ competition in which we had to identify Ten male celebrities based on photos of their wives/girlfriends, we got 9/10, I’m not sure whether to be proud or ashamed that we won that round.

Reviewer Tanya enjoys our winnings

In the end I think we came in about 4th or 5th, no prize but we had an awesome time playing, it was fun, exciting and (most importantly) kept us drinking!

For only $9 with free trivia its very hard to complain about Sentido Funf’s parma, and if it weren’t for the disappointing schnitzel quality they would be serving up a stellar meal in a very impressive gem of a pub!

Sentido Funf is one of those pubs that you wouldn’t know existed if you didn’t know it existed … if that makes any sense. It is a wonderful little spot and I definitely recommend going down before word gets out and it gets insanely popular - which will definitely happen. I saw some of other meals going past as we played trivia and they looked pretty amazing - the burger in particular looked legendary, definitely one I would try in the future.

In the end the meal was secondary to the fun we had playing, when you are in a good mood everything seems better and it made the poor quality chicken actually seem not as bad. 

I took this picture of the beer garden/trivia game in action and couldn’t find a way to work it into the article … so its going at the end!

Parma - 5.07
Chips - 5.86
Salad - 5.36
Value - 7.14
Total - 5.70

The search continues…

Sentido Funf on Urbanspoon

Attempt #34 - 'Coopers Inn'

[info]

When? - 22nd of December, 2010

Where? - 282 Exhibition St. Melbourne

Price? - $17.50 (Tuesday $12 special available

Barry? - Yes

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

Reviewers - Cale, Janet, Lee, Ness, Nikki, Stefo[/info]

 

The old saying goes ‘better late than never’, I really hope that is true and you don’t all hate me for getting this review up so unbelievably late.

Cast your minds back to the Wednesday before Christmas. There was excitement in the air, as well as a lot of hangovers as the work Christmas party season was upon us, and it was no different for the Parma Daze team. We rocked up at the Coopers Inn for our last parma of 2010.

We arrived at the relatively empty pub and took our seats, a glance at the menu revealed a surprisingly great range of pub meals that almost lured a few reviewers off the path of the chicken parmigiana, but parmas are what we were there for, and parmas are what we ordered  (as well as a bowl of delicious wedges to nosh on beforehand - which came out piping hot and fresh).

price wise the parmas came to $17.50 each, we heard word of a $12 parma night on Tuesdays but unfortunately we were 24 hours late.

As it was our kind-of-Christmas-party we did what anyone would do … disrupt the whole pub by popping Christmas crackers!

The aftermath of the Christmas crackers

The ridiculously bad jokes kept us so entertained while we waited - comedy gold such as …

What do you get if you cross a bell with a skunk? Jingle Smells!

Why do ghosts live in the fridge? Because it’s cool!

And who could forget the classic…

Why did Santa’s helper see the doctor? Because he had a low “elf” esteem!

It’s a good thing our parmas arrived after that last one, otherwise we may not have been able to continue with our review due to a severe case of split sides!

My first impression was that it was a big schnitzel, thick and juicy with a good covering of cheese (apart for some minor nudity around the edges after the ham had curled under the grill) On closer inspection the chicken breast was actually two schnitzels fused together with cheese, I have absolutely nothing against this move - the more chicken the better in my book!

The parma tasted great with a lot of cheese, subtle hint of ham and a decent amount of napoli between the two - and the sprinkling of herbs atop the cheese added an extra level flavour that we don’t often get with a parma.

The chips that were hiding under the massive parma were of a minimal serving, unseasoned and pretty much standard un-exciting chips.

The garden salad to the side was there for looks only, A few lettuce leaves with some sliced onion, cucumber and tomato on top (and when I say sliced I mean sliced  - so thin they barely held any taste).

All in all it was a great piece of chicken but was let down by little effort put into the sides. I would definitely go back to the Coopers Inn however, They have a great range of beers on tap and behind the bar, a great looking menu and if I were there on a Tuesday a piece of chicken that big is hard to beat for only $12.

So from myself and everyone else and the Parma Daze team we wish you a (very belated) Merry Christmas, an amazing new year, and I want to thank you all for making 2010 an absolutely awesome year. Thanks heaps for reading and we should now be back to our regular update schedule in what promises to be a parma-packed 2011!

Parma - 7
Chips - 3.92
Salad - 3.00
Value - 5.92
Total - 5.37

The search continues…

Coopers Inn on Urbanspoon