Friday 14 May 2010

The Kentish Arms – Beef with Mushroom

The Kentish Arms - what a gorgeous little pub, a much forgotten about North Adelaide pub with a beautiful beer garden. Surely this would be a secret schnitzel heaven. We ventured into this pub to meet a friend over from Perth, staying on Melbourne Street and needed a schnitzel fix. You don’t expect speedy service on week nights at places like this, who probably only have one guy working by himself in the kitchen, but seriously on a table of eight, surely you can get all the meals out before the first person has finished theirs? (half a star off).

kentish arms Starting with the salad. It was solid, plenty of tomato looked like it had been regurgitated onto the plate by a mother schnitzel, feeding its young, not appealing at all (half a star off). With the visual assault over and the smell of fried schnitzel now filling my nostrils, I took my first bite into the crunchy mushroom gravy topped schnitzel. That tastes familiar I thought. The gravy to my taste buds tasted like a powdered Gravox traditional roast gravy with mushroom stirred in. Fellow diners agreed and a sneer appeared on my face at paying an extra $2 for Gravox. Sure it is fine for home-cooked schnitzels, but at a pub? They must have excess drippings laying around required to make a real gravy! (one star off).

The gravy therefore did a very poor job of disguising the thin, crispy, stiff, cardboard like schnitzel underneath (one star off). A very poor dining experience indeed.

Summary: Sufferable with good company.
Price: $17.90
($15.90 + $2 for gravy)
Rating: 2 Stars

Where:
The Kentish Arms Hotel
23 Stanley Street
North Adelaide, SA 5006