Sunday 7 July 2013

Shafston Hotel

Mrs In-Parms-Way and I used to live in East Brisbane, but for some reason during the year we lived there we never visited The Shafston Hotel. That changed today as we visited for a Parma for me and a Roasted Lamb Rump for Mrs In-Parms-Way.

We got there at about midday and inside the place was already pretty busy. Not sure if it's because there was some sort of UFC fight on the pay per view or if it's because Sunday Crafternoon had begun.


What a great little pun.

Either way it made for a nice and lively atmosphere (and for a cheap James Squire 150 Lashes). We made our way to the outdoors dining room with drinks in hand, passing a cozy looking couch setup facing a good sized TV (prime real estate for a Sunday footy and beer session) and ordered our meals. I liked the ordering process for two reasons, the first is that if the server/order taker doesn't ask you if you want a garlic bread, then you get one for free, the other is that you pay for your meal as you order. I hate when we go out and have to wait for the bill. Granted, that doesn't happen very often when ordering Parms at pubs but I don't eat Parms for every meal (unfortunately).

So, about the Parma.


About 25 minutes after ordering our meal was brought to our table. Here's the picture.


Shafston Hotel's Chicken Parma, see the sprig of Rosemary?

Size: While the picture doesn't show it, the plate was fairly large. It's certainly on the larger size of average, and excellent value at $15.90. There wasn't too many chips sitting under the chicken there, it's just the chicken was really thick. The salad was quite large, I didn't eat much of it.

Chicken: Cooked well and was tasty. Juicy and succulent though the crumbing was a bit soggy. Only the last couple of bites had any crunch to them.


Closeup of the chicken. How succulent is it?

Sauce: Nice sauce, had the taste of a few different varieties of tomatoes in it. Or it could have been the little bits of onion that were in there. It could have done with a bit more sauce to bring its flavour higher in the mix, but it was good.

Cheese: A good amount of cheese, very tasty and cooked really well. No qualms or issues with the cheese in any way.

Ham: Really tasty ham, only problem is that it was only covering half the chicken and on the half it was covering, it was doubled over. My favourite bites of the meal came right at the end as I was having crunchy bits of chicken, cheese, sauce and ham all in one bite. If the whole parma was like those last few bites it would have been amazing.

Chips: Good pub chips. Nice and thin and were fluffy on the inside and had texture and crunch on the outside. Needed salt, but that's a minor issue and really doesn't matter when they put salt on the table. Better to add your own salt than to be saddened with too much. The crunch of the chips kind of helped the chicken.

Salad: In a separate bowl, which is always a massive boon. Had a few bites and took the bowl off the plate. What I had was nice, a good tangy dressing on it too.

All in all, we had a great lunch experience at The Shafston. The service was excellent, the meals were well priced and filling and the atmosphere was nice and relaxing. Perfect kind of place to kick off an afternoon session. Planing to go back some time just to do that ($5 beers and pizza). Very happy we finally made our way to The Shafston.

Mega-Parms plan is to go back on a Wednesday for the Monsta Parma experience.


Lastly here's a picture of the Roasted Lamp Rump. I had a taste, it was pretty awesome! I'm not really a lamb man all that much but I would have scoffed this down without trouble.


Thanks Shafston Hotel, we'll be back.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

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2 comments:

  1. What's the monster parma? A challenge?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I honestly don't know, hope to find out one Wednesday, lol.

    ReplyDelete