Guest Review: Charles Dickens Tavern - Collins St, Melbourne

Isn't life in the parm lane exciting? A guest review? Opened my mail this morning and was greeted with this.

Dear Mega-Parm...

I would like to submit the following review to be considered for your awesome blog...

Charles Dickens Tavern - Collins St, Melbourne

To keep with the standard review format...

Size: Medium... that is 2 pieces of chicken, palm sized (pardon the pun), a fairly small serve of chips, but for me it was just the right proportion to chicken and salad. The salad was fairly small, which I guess would be agreeable to most Parm lovers.

Chicken: Tender, nicely cooked, not dry at all... can I say juicy? Flavour was on the money.

Sauce: Just the right amount of sauce. It tasted very authentic, almost homemade. There were even chunks of tomato through it. Very tasty, but have a sneaky feeling it may have been a tin of crushed tomatoes with a little salt and sugar added.

Ham: There was ham! This took me by surprise on my fourth bite. At first I thought it was a hamless parm but happy to discover a thin, very tasty slice of good quality ham hiding beneath the cheese. Bad thing about this - the ham should have come right to the edge of the chicken...

Cheese: Very good quantity of cheese. Gorgeous brown colouring. Perfect time under the grill. Was extremely excited to find a super crunchy chip hiding beneath the schnitzel that had soaked up all the juices and had a mass of overcooked cheese all over it.... heaven.

Chips: Only a few chips, may not be enough for some. But they were good, well cooked, crunchy, no soggy disappointments.

Salad: Small, rather limp, salad on the same plate as the rest of the meal. Quite unimpressive. Iceberg lettuce, Spanish onion, 2 pieces of cucumber and some grated carrot... The thousand island dressing really helped. And parsley; I don't care if it looks nice, does anyone actually eat it??? Replace it with something people eat please.

At $20 it was a good price. This included a house wine or pot of beer (only Cascade or Carlton though, a bit disappointing). I would definitely go back again though. Overall, a good parm.

--------------

Dave the Mega-Parm says great review, looks like a pretty tasty parm. That cheese looks amazing, and I agree, the ham (and all toppings) should get pretty close to the edge of the chicken.

If I ever get to sunny-Melbourne I'll make sure to check it out. Oh, I am unsure if the reviewer wants their name on here so I'll check and update if they do :)