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).

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

Schnitzel Encounters - Chicken Aussie

I had high hopes this was going to be the king of all schnitzels, after all look at the name of the place!
When it arrived all I could smell was the onions with a side of bbq sauce. I was dissapointed to find that even on the first cut the schnitzel was burnt and even so well cooked on the edges that there were solid edges of chicken in this schnitzel. On further inspection the onion was so huge that it was 'sliced' at over a cintimetre thick, still with the woody core attached. This wasn't just one of the slabs of onion, but two!! I found the bbq not to be a pleasant piece of a masterpiece, but intead an over the top ingredient to what should be a perfect topping. The chips however were of good quantity, good seasoning, and tasty.

All in all, a dissapointment, but hopefully if I was to adventure there again it would live up to expectations.

Price: $17.90

Rating: 2 stars
(one for the chips and one for size factor)

Where:
Hotel Crown
2 Ocean Street, Victor Harbour

Roulettes Tavern - Chicken Parmigiana

Take two for the work local. Earlier this year the Roulettes Chicken Hawaiian scored the mid-point 2.5 star rating, the parmigiana was in the firing line this time around.

The service at Roulettes is consistent; despite being busier than the previous visit bread rolls were served up and gave me something to chew on in preparation for the schnitzel.

I saw the welcome sign of schnitzel leaving the kitchen with the salad following shortly after. The Roulettes salad was good, as per usual, and had plenty of that tasty dressing I've come to know and love.

The parmigiana was about the same size as the Hawaiian. The ham and cheese were standard but a little better done than the previous visit. The tomato base was tasty but the amount cause the topping to dominate the meal too much. The most surprising part of the meal was the cost, up two bucks 50 on the last meal. Whether this was due to taking the meal in the bistro is still unknown to me. All things considered the Roulettes Parmigiana a moderate meal but suffers for the unsubstantiated price increase.

Price: $17

Rating: 2 stars