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

The Queens Arms Hotel

On a rather pleasant winter's Saturday lunchtime we ventured off to The Queens Arms Hotel on James St in New Farm for lunch. Having never been there before I wasn't sure what to expect, but the restaurant section was very nice.

Already knowing what I was going to have made browsing the menu kind of pointless but they have a good selection of meals to choose from (unless your gluten intolerant, where we saw only one meal that could be eaten). Dave the Mega-Parm isn't gluten intolerant, so the chicken parm was what I had.

At $23 it's not the cheapest parm out there. It's also not the most expensive but it's certainly on the higher side of average. Here's the picture.

We ordered just after 12:00pm and our meal was out to us within 20 minutes. The staff were friendly and polite, and a bottle of water was brought out to the table as we sat down (I like that).

How was the chicken parm though?

Size: It's hard to tell with that picture, but the plate was massive and the meal took up a fairly large part of it. It was one of those funny shaped plates that is impossible to rest your cutlery on when you're having a drink or taking a break from eating. I was pretty full at the end of lunch though. No complaints, was worth the $23.

Chicken: My chicken was well cooked and juicy, though it was large in area it wasn't very thick. Some bites all I got was toppings. Not a bad thing, but one does want to taste chicken each bite. The crumbing was good but towards the end it was falling apart a little bit.

Cheese: Very tasty, though it could have done with a little bit more time under the grill to crust it up a little. There was a lot of it as well.

Ham: Nice pieces of shredded ham, a little bit more ham would have been good (or less cheese/sauce). When I did get a taste of the ham I was happy. Good ham is something that brings a smile to my face.

Sauce: Lots of sauce, and very sweet. Was a bit like tomato paste with its texture. Would have been more enjoyable had there been a little bit less. Or if it wasn't as sweet. 

Chips: Yum, beer battered chips that were cooked to perfection. Crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle. They came out under the parm which made a few go a bit soggy, but not enough to cause any distress. The plate was large enough to be able to move the parm off them pretty easy.

Salad: One of the best parma salads I've had. Lettuce, cucumber (which I managed to avoid like a champ), olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Sun-dried tomatoes are one of the greatest inventions of all time and there was heaps in this salad. Perfecto!

All in all it was a nice meal at the QA Hotel. Would go back again to try the steak (saw two steaks go by to another table and they looked amazing). Plus the guy that brought us our meals carried all three of our plates like a boss!

Until next time.

Dave the Mega-Parm

Elephant Arms - Parmageddon

It was blind luck that I found out about Parmageddon at The Elephant Arms, and I am glad so I did. For the low price of $5 (and any drink purchase) you can choose from six different parms. Only catch is you have to go there on a Thursday night. Not really the best night for us workers, but you only live once. So why not.

We crewed up after work and headed to The Elephant Arms on what was probably the coldest night ever in Brisbane. Got there about 6:00pm and headed to the outdoor area after ordering some drinks. After finally finding the parma menu we ordered our food. With six different parms to choose from it was pretty exciting.

1. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Ham, Cheese and Napoli Sauce
2. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Ham, Pineapple, Cheese and Napoli Sauce
3. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Chorizo, Olive, Fetta and Napoli Sauce
4. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Pumpkin, Chickpea, Cheese, Tzatziki and Tandoori Sauce
5. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Bean Salsa, Cheese, Guac, Corn Chips and Sour Cream
6. Crumbed Chicken Breast with Chefs Famous Gravy

Pretty cool. Enough there to have some important decisions to make. I went with the Chorizo parm while the rest of the crew had the Mexican and Indian parms. How was the Chorizo parm? Picture is below.

I can't really review this like a regular parm, but for $5 it was an absolutely ripping meal. The salad was tasty enough (for a salad). The chicken was really well prepared and cooked and the toppings were pretty good. It could have done with a more generous helping of toppings but really, for such a low cost the meal was great. The chips were pretty boring and there wasn't enough of them. But the quality of the chicken made up for it.

It's probably only the second time I've been to the Elephant Arms (and the first time I've kept my shirt on) but I would definitely go there again. Monday and Wednesday is $5 steak night, and Tuesday is $1 tacos so we might be there again sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the great meal Elephant Arms. Brisbane needs more fun time parm joints, keep it up!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Koala Tavern

Who would have thought, that's a strangely named place called the Koala Tavern in Capalaba would do a nice parm, but they do.

After a morning of playing golf (very poorly) the In-Parms-Way team headed to the Koala Tavern for lunch and beers. The Koala Tavern is a strange little place, we walked around the building a couple of times before we found the entrance, and the setup in the main bar is like a massive lounge room with the UFC on a screen larger than the moon. Would love to have a setup like that at home.

We did however find where one orders food from, and at the spiritedly time of 11:30am we ordered our lunch. As you can see from the picture below, the Koala does a few varieties of parms.

After about 20-25 minutes our meals were delivered to our table. At $16.45 for the normal parm, and $17.45 for the BBQ parm that I ate, it's pretty good value. How was it though, picture is below.

Size: It was good value for $17.45, could probably have upped the price a dollar or two and made the chicken larger and thrown some more chips in there. Had no problems at all finishing the good stuff on the plate.

Chicken: Really nice, seemed like pre-made chicken before I started, but after eating some it was really succulent and tasty. I'd be surprised if it was pre-made. Really good and not a bad size either. Juicy on the inside, and crispy on the outside, can't ask for much more with crumbed chicken to be honest.

Cheese: Not much cheese on top, could have done with a little bit more.

Meat Toppings: The bacon was crispy but didn't have much flavour. The pepperoni on the other hand, was delicious, delectable and delightful. Gave the meal a really tasty BBQ meat lovers pizza kind of vibe. 

Sauce: As mentioned above, the BBQ sauce helped give the meal a nice BBQ meat lovers pizza feeling. Worked really well with the nicely cooked schnitzel.

Salad: Boring and uneventful. Didn't taint the meal in any way however, and was easy to push to the side. Which is a thumbs up to Dave the Mega-Parm.

Overall, the Koala Tavern experience was a good one. Plenty of parms to choose from and $13 jugs of beer, there isn't much to not like. If this was my "local" I wouldn't complain.

Another at the table had the regular parm. Said it was pretty tasty.

As a quick aside, In Parms Way is now on Facebook. If you're a fan of parm (and who isn't), click the Like button.

Looking forward to the next meal!

-Dave the Mega-Parm