Out of Parms Way

This will be a short but sweet post. After "running" this blog properly for about a year, and then half-assed for another year it's finally time to close it up. Thank you to everyone that's read the stuff I've written, thank you to my friends that gave me the idea to do this and most of all thank you to Mrs InParmsWay for putting up with pub meal after pub meal.

I had a lot of fun and ate a lot of good (and some bad) meals but now it's over (I've discovered craft beer, no blog yet though, ha).

Be cool and in Parms we trust.

Dave the Mega-Parm

Bread & Meat Co

Just a quick post today. If you live or work near Fortitude Valley then you owe it to yourself to go to Bread & Meat Co for lunch or dinner (or a post drinking session meal).

Went there today for lunch, here is the Beef Brisket Dip with BBQ Sauce

Forgive the poor picture. I was too hungry and it smelt too good to faff about getting the perfect picture.

Not much else to say about it really, 36 hour slow cooked beef brisket, cheese, aoli and jus for dipping. You just cannot go wrong.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

Statler & Waldorf

I know this is a parm blog, but we haven't been to places that do parms that much lately. What we have done though, is visit the awesome Statler & Waldorf on Caxton St in Brisbane's Petrie Terrace.

What is Statler &Waldorf? They call themselves a "gastronomy pub" on their website, and that seems to be a rather apt description. Excellent (albeit a little eclectic) menu, great selection of beers on tap and what I've been advised is a pretty damn good cocktail list.

This is our second lunch visit to Statler & Waldorf and once again they didn't disappoint. The service is impeccable, the food was absolutely amazing and sitting in the beer garden out the back on a lovely autumn day, well there's nothing else like it.

After umming and ahhing for a while I went with the beef cheek cheeseburger...

Now a few things to say about that picture, the nearly finished cider behind it is a small glass. The burger in the middle of the picture is not enormous.

The first thing that struck me about the meal when it came out was how perfect the burger bun was. The trendy guy that brought our food out said (after we all went oooh when the burger was put down) that the buns are cooked in house and it took them a while to get the recipe right. Boy they did though, the bun was perfect.

I have to be honest, I was expecting there to be a burger pattie in the middle of the burger, but it was more slow cooked and shredded meat that was kind of formed into a burger shape. Really good though, didn't make it bad, just made it interesting. The flavours were spot on too.

It was quite a tall burger, as you can see there is a skewer holding it upright.

The onion rings we also really good, but really anything covered in batter and deep fried is going to work.

I can't really talk about the other meals on the table (as I only ate mine) but everyone had a really good time. It looks like Statler & Waldorf change their menu each season, so it's become a place we're going to go to at least four times a year.

A few more things to add (in point form).

* Some of the meals come out on wooden boards with the cool logo on it. Great touch.

* The staff at Statler & Waldorf are top notch, and that mustache is super impressive (you'll know what I mean if you go there).

* Caxton St isn't that hard to get to.

* I didn't comment on the name of the place (until now). Haha.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

L'angolo Bistro Hamilton

Italian food isn't something that Mrs Mega-Parm (Adrasteia) and I have very often. It's not because we don't like it, we really do. But quite often it's hard to find a place that will cater to Mrs Mega-Parm's dietary needs without her having to settle with what she calls a "boring steak".

The bar with the kitchen in the background

When we were invited to a media night/dinner at L'angolo Bistro in Hamilton, and they said they'd be happy to cater to her needs we jumped at the chance to go. And we weren't disappointed. Instead of picking items from the menu we were given a taste of twelve different dishes. Five entrees, four mains and three desserts. By the end of the night I was surprised I could un-wedge myself from the table and fit out the door.

Entree

For entrees we were given two different types of pizza, a meatball dish with a delicious tomato sauce and bread, baby calamari with a pesto mayo and sardines marinated in chardonnay vinegar with breadcrumbs.

Pizza L'angolo

For me, the highlight of the entree options was the Pizza L'angolo. With mozzarella, pistachios, grated zucchini, diced tomatoes, parma prosciutto and shaved grana it just worked so well. Salty but not over powering. I would probably skip by it when looking at the menu but now that I have tasted it, I'd be hard pressed picking a different pizza to try.

The meatball meal was a close second, there's something really nice and homely about a rich tomato sauce soaking into crusty bread with delicious succulent meatballs on top.

I'm not really a seafood eater, but I had to try the sardines. I'm glad I did, and everyone around the table said they were amazing but I could only manage one bite. Mrs Mega-Parm even said it was her favourite meal of the evening. I'm also pretty sure I heard the waiter laugh at me as he cleared the table after the entrees, my sardine sat there with only one bite taken out of it.

Main

For the mains, we were given four meals to try. A risotto with prawns and a lobster bisque, a lasagne with truffle sauce and spinach, tagliatelle with marinated quail and, what was my favourite, crispy skin pork belly with mashed potatoes and mushroom sauce.

Pork Belly

I've only recently discovered pork belly but what we were served was heaven. A really tasty sweet mushroom sauce and perfectly cooked pork belly. It wasn't chewy or fatty but just melted as it was eaten. And the crackling was awesome. I could hear others on the table eat it, and I am sure they could hear me too. I didn't finish all of the courses during this evening (as it's a lot of food) but I could easily have had a second serving of the pork belly.

The lobster risotto looked pretty epic too, coming out with the lobsters on there with their antennae sticking out everywhere. Was quite the sight.

Dessert

All good meals end with dessert, and this was no exception. We were given a single plate with three different dessert offerings. A dark chocolate tarte with cherry gelato, an Italian donut with chantilly cream and little chocolate truffles filled with nuts.

Dessert



I was a huge fan of the truffles, all decadent and chocolaty with the nuts in the middle. Both of mine were eaten very quickly.

Wines

All throughout the evening they supplied us with wines that matched the meals we were eating. I'm not much of a wine person so I can't really comment on them too much, but it was a lovely touch.

All in all I had a great evening at L'angolo Bistro. The food was amazing, the staff there are very friendly and kind and the place itself looks great. There's even a nice little "glassed" off outside area that would be great to sit on a nice warm day and have a lovely meal.

A few more things for the end of a blog post..

• The beer menu has Peroni Gran Riserva Doppio Malto on it that I had never heard of but want to try.
• L'angolo means "The Angle", named because they're on the corner of a building.
• The menu had dietary info on it too (gluten/dairy free/options), a big plus in this day and age.

I'd like to go back for breakfast one weekend, mainly because of this on the menu.

For two? Challenge accepted!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

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

International Hotel - All Parmed Up!

A couple of weeks ago I learned that The International Hotel has done a revamp of their menu. A fair bit has changed but what excited me most is that they've gone from three parms to a whopping eight different parms.

We went there for lunch today. Having already had The Original, The Ploughman and the Parmigiana previously there was a bit of a decision to make. In the end, I went with The Smoking Hog (what a freaking cool name too).

As far as chicken schnitzel meals go, the Smoking Hog was awesome. The BBQ sauce was sweet and tangy and the bacon was thick and delicious. Chips and salad were standard International Hotel fare and were enjoyed as always. And the chicken was thick and succulent.

Halfway through the Smoking Hog!

Aside from the Buccaneer (not much of a seafood eater), I've got another three parms to check out (though I've had the Mexican before it was taken off the last menu, so I'll have to have it again). As always, the pints of Indian Chief were awesome and the service was good. Will be back again soon.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

The Smoke BBQ - Authentic American BBQ

No one can accuse Dave the Mega-Parm of not taking one for the team. Instead of getting a sweet and juicy pulled pork sandwich while out for lunch today at The Smoke BBQ, I had to get the delicious and tasty pulled chicken sandwich. Ok, so it wasn't much of a sacrifice as the chicken sandwich was awesome and something that is deserving of all the praise I can heap upon it.

Being our first trip to The Smoke BBQ we had to start with an entree; I present to you, The Smoke Onion rings.

I've had a few onion rings in my time but these were really good. They'd just come out of the deep fryer and were hot and crunchy. The flavour was spot on though they could have done with thicker bits of onion in the middle. The dipping sauce was pretty damn tasty too.

After the onion rings and a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (which was nice but nothing to write home to mum about) our meals came out.

The chicken was amazing, tasted really smokey and was juicy and flavoursome. There wasn't a huge amount of St Louis sauce but there was plenty of garlic mayo, that's not an issue though as it was really good. They're not lying when they say "soft bread roll", soft and delicate but kept up to the moistness of the meal and didn't fall apart.

One small gripe with the sandwich though, too much spinach.

Probably the highlight of my meal though, were the chips. They were as good as any I've had from a regular pub type place while out parming. I shouldn't be surprised though, this is an American BBQ restaurant. They're going to get fries right aren't they?

What got us keen to go to The Smoke BBQ was a segment on an episode of Food Safari from 2008 where the host went to The Smoke BBQ (I think it had a different name at the time). Wow it looked good on TV and the food was amazing in real life too. Will certainly be going back!

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. In Parms Way has its 1 year birthday today. Actually it's one year since the first review type post. The site was created a couple of weeks before them. Thanks to everyone who's reading this!

KFC - The Parmy

It's with interest and reservation that I head to KFC to get lunch today. A Parmy burger, from KFC. Can it be good? Can it live up to the high standards of a real chicken parma? At $6.95 for the single fillet it's not too bad value, and as always the service at KFC was fast (though I did get there at 11:00am).

I unwrapped it and this is what looked back at me.

The chicken was fairly thin and looked quite processed. Not to say it didn't taste good though, it was enjoyable. And the crumbing was good too. There was a lot of sauce on the burger too, and it was rather sweet. Close to being to sweet for my liking, but not sweet enough to take it too far.

The cheese and lettuce was unexciting but something that did surprise was the oatmeal bun. It was as sweet as the sauce however it worked much better and probably made the meal as enjoyable as it was.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Parmy burger at KFC. I don't think I'll go back again for one but I would recommend that anyone out there who likes KFC and Parmas should give it a go. There's also a double fillet version for the hungrier people out there.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

ps. no ham, but you can have bacon on it for 80c extra.

In Parms Way on Facebook

Not much of a post here, but In Parms Way is now on Facebook. Get all your Brisbane/South East Queensland Parma information on Facebook as well as from this little blog.

https://www.facebook.com/InParmsWay

Looking for recommended parms too. Leave a comment or message on Facebook if you know of a good one somewhere.

-Dave the Mega-Parm

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

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