Archive Beer Boutique

This isn't the first time we've been to the Archive Beer Boutique, but it's the first time we've gone there with a plan for lunch. For those that haven't heard of the Archive Beer Boutique, well it's as great as it sounds. A fairly large size pub found halfway down Boundary St in West End. What are they known for? Beer of course. With 14+ (constantly rotating) on tap and over 400 in bottles it's where you go if you like beer.

Bridge Road Bling IPA (with the food menu)

They also however, do a pretty tasty lunch. And on Sunday they rock out with $10 schnitzels and live music. We didn't stay long enough for the live music (getting there at 12:15pm and leaving by 1:30pm) but the meal was amazing. $10 is pretty cheap for a schnitzel of this quality. It was fairly sizable and came with a generous serving of chips.

chicken schnitzel 

w beer battered fries, house salad, sauce

The sauce was a really tasty gravy with hints of pepper. The chicken had a delicious crumbing on it and was cooked to perfection. Chips were crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.

The Archive really know their Sunday lunch patrons as you have to pay $2 extra to get it with a salad . A year ago I would have not ordered salad and had been cheering they give this option. Now I am just cheering they give us the option. The salad was good, ate it all (except for the cucumber and tomato that was pinched of my plate, no complaints there though).

We had ordered pretty much as soon as we got there and the food came out soon after, about 15 to 20 minutes after ordering. The ambiance of the place is great too. All the tables outside were taken but there were heaps of tables inside for us to sit at. It's not always like that at the Archive though, been there on Friday nights where the place is pumping and you couldn't squeeze another person in.

Mrs Mega-Parm had the Pork Cutlet which she kindly let me have a taste. If this was "In Porks Way" I'd be writing a pretty favourable review of her my dish.

pork cutlet

w roast potato, apple, fennel, mustard, sage butter

Lastly, I am a big fan of wheat beers and when getting a second drink I asked the barman what he would recommend. After he suggested a few things I went with his last, which was the Moo Brew Hefeweizen. I really can't recommend this enough, it was smooth at first, nice going down and left no bitter aftertaste. Went to the bottleshop there (Next Door Cellars) to see if they have it for take-home sale, and they do!!

I've never had a bad time at the Archive Beer Boutique and once again it was great. I'm thinking of reasons to go back next Sunday...

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

Thank You International Hotel

Not a parm review, just a little story. Caught up with a bunch of mates last weekend for a round of mini-golf and some beers. After we finished our round we headed off to the International Hotel for lunch. My mates all know about this silly blog and a few of them hadn't had been there for lunch so it worked out great.

The only problem is we got there after 3:00pm and the lunch menu finishes at 2:30pm. One of my mates mentioned we'd all gone there for the parms and instead of shooing us away, they turned the deep fryer back on (or whatever they use to make the parms) and let us order.

Was a great afternoon, once again the International has shown me how great a place it is! Thanks guys!

Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. I had the Mighty Wangus Burger and it was very tasty.