Eatons Hill Hotel

This is one of those great weekends where there will be two chicken parm reviews. Today (Saturday) the plan was to go into the Valley and check out Fringe Bar. I'd heard (read on the net) from a reputable source (a comment on urban spoon) that someone from Melbourne said they do a great parm, and that's enough for me to want to check it out. So we get to Fringe Bar after a monster flash storm care of QLD's weather only to find it is closed for lunch on Saturdays.

So, after walking around like lost sheep for a while we decided to get out of the Valley and go to Eatons Hill Hotel for lunch. Eatons Hill came onto my radar a few years back (before this little parm blog) because a work colleague said they had 100 beers on tap. Turns out it's 100 beer taps (slightly different) but it's enough to keep it in the back of my mind as somewhere to go.

We rocked up to the bistro and I ordered the chicken parm. What was it like?

For $22 it was on the higher side of average priced but the service was great and the meal came out relatively quickly. Can't fault the ambiance of the Bistro either, overlooking a golf course and a big grassy photo area (for weddings and crap).

Size: Large chicken parm, was thinish on the outside but the middle was a solid piece of poultry meat. Not many chips but the salad was quite large. Definitely enough food though, I failed to finish the parm with a small square of chicken left over.

Chicken: Well cooked, juicy and succulent in the middle. The crumbing was great, it even had some herbs on there. I am pretty sure I tasted sage (or my better half point out it was sage, one of the two). It was a bit tricky to cut and a steak knife would have made it easier to eat, but that's a minor issue.

Sauce: Sitting on top of the cheese, which was a little strange. The sauce was very sweet and there was a lot of it. But that's not a bad thing, it was nice and suited the meal well.

Ham: A couple of thin slices of ham under the cheese, didn't really get much of a ham hit while eating it. Could have done with another layer all over.

Cheese: Best cheese I've had on a chicken parm so far. Went to the edge of the chicken pretty much all over, and was cooked perfectly. Golden all over, and crispy on the edges. This is what made the meal. Though I left some chicken at the end I didn't leave any cheese and had one big mouthful of cheese and sauce by itself.

Chips: Standard pub chips here, nothing to raise the desk over. They were cooked well and were nice, could have done with a few more though.

Salad: Boring. Way too much cucumber and the dressing was unexciting.

All in all, this is a great chicken parm and I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area. Definitely in my top three since this blog was started.

-Dave the Parm-Minister