Schonell Theatre - Pizza Caffe

It's no secret to anyone that knows me that I like pizza. I really like pizza. Whenever we get pizza bought for us at work (which doesn't happen as much as it should) I smash it. I love it.

So when Mrs Mega-Parm told me about her trip to Schonell Theatre a couple of weeks back I was super keen to go and see it for myself. Not the theatre, I don't really care about that. It's the Shonell Theatre Pizza Caffe that I am interested in.

So on a Sunday afternoon Mrs Mega-Parm, her Mother and I made the trek to UQ in St Lucia on the hunt for pizza.

Unknowing what the parking situation is there we parked a fair bit away, but it was so worth it. They've got 26 "authentic" Italian pizza's on the menu with another bunch of Australian type pizzas. You can see the full menu here with a little snippet below.

We ordered the D and the U and they were both amazing. The marinated mushrooms on the U worked perfectly with the calabrese, and the garlic and oregano just brought everything out. The D kicked ass too, I really couldn't decide which one I liked the most and ate way more than I wanted to.

Here's a picture before we started.


It was a fair trek for us, but it was so worth it. If you're looking for nice, tasty Italian style pizza then I can't recommend it enough. The food came out quickly and was very well priced. Plus they also do schooners of 150 Lashes for $5.50.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Pepe's Mexican

It's not a chicken parm post I know, but I am so excited I just have to get this out. This last weekend we went to Pepe's Mexican in New Market for breakfast. I've never had a breakfast burrito and was really excited to try it...

And it didn't disappoint.

We got there about 10:00am (which was when the booking was for) and they were kind enough to allow us to order alcohol. The food came out in due time though one meal was a little later than the others. Not by much but enough to be noticed.

The burrito I had was the Sepremo and it lived up to its name. All the ingredients in it worked well together, and the serving of hash that was also on the wooden plate was awesome too. You get your sauces in separate bowls too so you don't have to have guac if you don't like it.

Great value for $16.50.

A couple of the guys on the table got the El Ranchero Grande, a huge bowl of Mexican food goodness. I'll be getting that next time.

Lastly, they have a beer on the menu that I haven't had in about 10 years.

Deperados, if you ever see it when you're out and about it's worth trying. Heck, it's worth going to Pepe's to try it!!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Brewhouse Brisbane

Last weekend the In-Parms-Way team went out for lunch and instead of going to one of our normal places we made the trek over the river to the Brisbane Brewhouse. Having been there a few times for beers I was pretty excited.

We got there about 1:30pm and sat down for lunch. Ordering was pretty tough, we had a tight-ass voucher from the Entertainment book but were advised we couldn't use it for the steaks, so two separate orders later we sat down and waited for our meals. They don't do a Parma but there is an interesting chicken schnitzel on the menu. This is what I ordered.

The two steaks came out pretty quickly (one looked perfect, the other was well over medium-rare) and after the rest of the In-Parms-Way had finished their meals, my schniztel arrived on the table.

As far as schnitzels go it was pretty much perfect. The crumbing was delicious and the chicken was juicy and succulent. The warm potato salad was interesting, with huge chunks of bacon and tomato. It worked well though. The slice of lemon squeezed over the chicken brought a great freshness to the meal.

I had a Brisbane Pale Ale to go with the meal which was also excellent. Can't complain about pub with a microbrewery.

All in all my meal was good at the Brewhouse, but one of the steaks being well over cooked and the huge time different in the meals coming out sullied our experience a little bit.

Up until the 30th of September they are running "Rib-Fest" and there is a pulled pork sub that has my name on it. Want to go back for that!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

KFC - Zinger Pie

I know it's not a chicken parma, but one of the first things that springs to mind when I think of chicken is KFC and with the introduction of their Zinger Pie I just had to try it.

So for lunch today I made the trek into one the KFC's in the city and picked one up.

How was it?

Pretty good. I wasn't expecting much from a pastry from KFC but they did a great job. The pastry on top was flaky while on the bottom it was soft. The casing kept the insides in without any issues and ther was no leaking from the top separating from the bottom.

The filling was good too. Had a little bit of spice (not enough to cause anyone any issues I wouldn't think) and the chicken tasted really good. I was expecting larger bits of chicken and less gravy but it didn't disappoint.

I wanted to take a photo with a few more bites taken out but I couldn't stop myself. That's a good sign.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

International Hotel - The Pepperbomb

Last weekend we went to the International Hotel for lunch. I was excited because there's still a few of the new parm/schnitzels left to try. This visit I had The Pepper Bomb.

Here's a picture.

As always, the chicken, chips and salad were good. Unfortunately I didn't find the pepper sauce to be too flavoursome, but the fire roasted capsicum was awesome and the rest of the meal made up for it. Not my favourite schnitzel at the International but that's probably just my taste buds, cause everything was made to near perfection.

While at lunch I tried a different beer as well. Normally I drink only the Indian Chief but this time I finished the visit off with the Noble Pilsner. Pretty damn good! And you can't go past $5.50 pints.

Next time I'll have the Mad Dog schnitzel. Looks pretty impressive on paper!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Random Parm Stuff

Quick and dirty mini-post/update.

A friend of In Parms Way is traveling interstate at the moment and sent me this little pic and review.

This parm from Melbourne Alleyway Cafe, RMB Cafe, smashed my appetite, as much as the Melbourne Storm smashed the Eels, and at $18.50 was worth every cent. The Neapolitan sauce was mostly sweet bit a bit of a spicy bite to it. The chicken was well cooked as my tender love for this great city. What made this parm spectacular was the large chunks of ham. The chips were as crisp as the Melbourne weather and the salad was delightful and tangy.

I've gotta say, one day I will get to Melbourne, the parm capital of Australia and try as many parms as possible. Shame you've got a light beer in the picture there though mate, if you're going to go light though, Cascade Premium is a good way to do it.

In other news, the In Parms Way team went to Irish Murphy's for lunch this last weekend. The atmosphere there on a Sunday is pretty craic'ing but our enjoyment was let down when they weren't able to do a side of vege's for one of us.

The Parm was good, but not as nice as it was when it got Favourite Parm of 2012.

Compare the picture above with this and you'll see what I mean.

I'll be going back there though. Look at this...

I dare to try chilli INFERNO option! I'll review the experience on here of course!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Gilhooleys Steakhouse - City

Gilhooleys in the Brisbane CBD is a pretty memorable place for me. When I first started coming up to Brisbane in 2005 we went there a lot. Many fun nights drinking and hanging out with friends, seeing the Irish dancers come out at whatever time of the night they did and do their jig, all with the backdrop of friendly CBD night time atmosphere.

Now that I've been living here for over 8 years, I still like to get to Gilhooleys and today Mrs Mega-Parm and I went for a nice Sunday lunch. As with most places I drag Mrs Mega-Parm to, they do a chicken parma.

We got there about 1:00pm and the place was pretty quiet. I like the atmosphere in there but when questioned why, I couldn't really answer it. The place feels homely and quaint, and there's no poker machines, which is quite strange in this day and age. Meals are paid for at the counter (which I love) and about 20 minutes after ordering our food arrived at our table.

How was it though? Picture below.

Chicken Parm with half a pint of Guinness 

For $17.90 it's a good value parm. Something you could sink your teeth into after a long days work (and just before a long drinking session).

Size: Quick large piece of chicken, both in area and depth. A fair bit of the chickens thickness came from the crumbing but the chicken itself was also fairly thick. A large salad, shame there wasn't too many chips there thought.

Chicken: Cooked well, juice and succulent. The crumbing was pretty boring and a little soggy on the underside though.

Sauce: Tasted a bit like tomato paste, the kind of stuff you make homemade pizza with when you're not using fancy stuff. There was a good amount of it though and it did work pretty well with the rest of the meal.

Ham: Just one large piece of ham in between the sauce and the cheese. Usually when they do this the ham slides around on the sauce but not here, it stayed in place. Nice ham too, could have done with another layer, or a bit more ham and cut up.

Cheese: Lots of cheese, was melting over the edge of the schnitzel. Could have used just a fraction longer under the grill to give us a bit of a crispy outer later. Can't fault its flavour though, worked well with the ham and sauce.

Chips: Nice pubs chips. Needed a bit of salt or sauce (they supplied the sauce on the plate). Cooked well though could have done with a few more chips.

Salad: Leafy salad with a tasty balsamic type dressing. Most of it was stolen by Mrs Mega-Parm though.

Close up of the half eaten parma

All in all the meal was good. At the end I had polished off everything on the plate and was extremely full. The service was great and our meal was fairly inexpensive. There's also something to be said about Guiness in an Irish pub too, it just tastes better.

-Dave the Mega-Parm