The Astor - Chicken with Gravy

I thought after my last experience I would go with the good old traditional favourite, surely a pleaser. They didn't take all that long for our meals to arrive, after all it was a Friday night and looked to be reasonably busy. On first inspection the schnitzel was almost black in some areas and the gravy was lacking. They really need to up the anti on the amount of gravy and decrease the frying time of the schnitzel. A good schnitzel is juicy, not dry, and with enough topping to allow each mouthful of schnitzel a hit of flavour. Maybe next time I will find the perfect Schnitzel!!

Price: $12.50

Rating: 3 stars
(one for the flavour of the gravy, one for the quantity of the schnitzel and one for the salad, even though there was only a few cubes of cucumber and tomato to find amongst the lettuce).

Where:
The Astor Hotel
437 Pulteney Street, Adelaide

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

Hackney - Beef with Mushroom

The Hackney Hotel, is one of those I feel has been renovated with Pokie money. That really is the only good thing about those damn machines, all the beautifully renovated pubs. It was rather a late dinner, just scraping in 10 minutes before the kitchen closed, sitting in the fine looking bistro between the front bar and the formal dining/function room. No time to think, so I just ordered the usual fare...beef schnitzel with mushroom sauce. While we waited for our meals we enjoyed some comic relief watching the waiters try and cope with a gentleman on the adjacent table sending his steak back three times because it wasn’t cooked to his own private medium-rare specification...just order a schnitzel man! Oh and what a schnitzel! It was thick, juicy and had a delightful thick crumbing. To top that off it was also perfectly cooked to a light brown shade. I think I have only ever tasted one better schnitzel. Unfortunately, that is where the joy ends. The chips reminded me of overcooked frozen packet chips I could cook in the oven at home. Crisp on the outside for sure, but hollow and unsatisfying on the inside (1/2 star off). The mushroom sauce, though in ample quantities, tasted like their standard gravy with small chunks of mushrooms thrown in (1/2 a star off).

Summary: With a few easy tweaks to the accompaniments, this could easily be Adelaide’s premier schnitzel meal.


Price: $17.90
($15.90 Schnitzel + $2 Sauce)

Rating: 4 Stars


Where:
The Hackney Hotel
95 Hackney Rd, Hackney 5069

Oriental Hotel – Beef Kilpatrick

The Oriental has changed owners since the last time I was there and you can really tell as the style of the menu and dishes has changed dramatically. It has all gone more the way of traditional pub fare. Gone are the faux oriental salads, making way for the more traditional tomato, cucumber, lettuce salad. Apparently also gone are the thick juicy “moo” beef schnitzels as well.

The salad, which was the only downfall of the Oriental Beef with mushroom of my last review, has been updated to something I would rate as a basic, good salad…lettuce, tomato, cucumber.  However, that was the only improvement. The schnitzel itself was from inferior quality beef and was obviously overcooked as can be seen from the black charring around the edges and the darkened cheese (1 star off). The saving grace of this particular schnitzel was the kilpatrick topping. It was scrumptious, packed full of bbq sauce, without being overpowering, however the extra $4 (making the total $21) was a bit of a downer and at the expensive end for pub schnitzels (half a star off)…luckily I wasn’t paying.

Summary: There are better, cheaper schnitzel out there, but the kilpatrick topping was the best.

Price: $21.00
($17 schnitzel + $4 topping)

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Where:
The Oriental
120 Magill Road, Norwood

Windsor Hotel – Beef BTC

Schnitzel Lover headed into The Windsor with no pre-defined expectations. It was a spontaneous Friday night dinner decision. The first good sign, was that the dining room was full of people. I don't know about anyone else, but when I am looking for somewhere good to eat in an unfamiliar town I look for the busiest establishment. It must be busy for a reason.

Apart from the normal schnitzel selection on the menu there was a specialty schnitzel, the Beef or Chicken B.T.C. Schnitzel. Naturally I chose the Beef B.T.C, which includes salad bar.

I will start with the salad bar because that is where everyone goes before the meal arrives and boy what a salad bar. Not only did they have very fresh bread but a hot vegetable bar as well as a salad bar. Both of excellent quality (bonus half a star).

The schnitzel itself came with a minute serving of salad for presentation, a clump of moderately crispy chips (half a star off)and a burnt around the edges mediocre schnitzel (one star off).

The Bacon, Tomato and Cheese (BTC) topping on the schnitzel was rather unique. Who doesn’t like bacon? It enhances any meal, and the tomatoes were juicy enough to cover the dryness of the schnitzel. A very novel topping, but I would probably order a sauce or gravy next time.

Summary: The B.T.C. topping was well worth trying at least once but the salad/vegetable bar will bring me back.

Price: $18.90

Rating: 4 stars

Where:
The Windsor Hotel
410 North East Rd, Windsor Gardens

Astor Hotel – Beef Field Mushroom

The Astor Hotel has, at least enough for me to hear about it, a small reputation for relatively cheap decent food. I’d heard about a magical Field Mushroom sauce that was a must try, so being a lover of mushroom sauce I ordered a beef schnitzel with field mushrooms. Before I go any further I must clear up the confusion that I faced when presented with my meal. The Field Mushroom selection from the menu is not a sauce but a topping. Therefore when the meals were presented a schnitzel topped with a pile of sliced “field” mushrooms was placed in front of me. No sauce.
While the topping was visually pleasing to see and plentiful, I was disappointed that there was no sauce or liquid component and the taste was pleasant though hardly a party in the mouth like the meat lovers topping of Schnitzel Encounters or Aussie Pizza House’s Dangerous Mushroom pizza.
The beef schnitzel itself had the distinct dark brown colour and taste of an overcooked schnitzel (1/2 star off) and was on the thin side (1/2 star off) of a juicy piece of meat. While they were overzealous with the serving of crunchy and tasty chips, the whole meal only left me with a slight ‘carb’ fuelled belly ache. On the lighter side of the meal, the salad had all the usual suspects, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, but they looked like they were chopped by an eight year old and there was some uncertainty about their freshness, which is never good (1/2 star off). Looking around the table, most people cleaned their plates, so the food can’t have been all that bad and there were plenty of smiles so the bill can’t have been that large.

Summary: Lots of potential for a great schnitzel meal – maybe I just caught them on a bad night.

Price: $15.50
($12.50 schnitzel + $3 topping)

Rating: 3.5 Stars 

Where:
The Astor Hotel
437 Pulteney Street, Adelaide

Schnitzel Encounters - Beef Meat Lovers

Well, fancy rocking into Victor Harbour and seeing such a beautiful sight as the Bistro at the Crown Hotel, aptly named Schnitzel Encounters. Expectations were already high.
The menu was diverse enough to cater for all tastes, with beef, chicken, lamp, squid or vegetarian (egg plant) schnitzels available and the choice of sauces or toppings the likes of which have not been seen before by Schnitzel Lover.

I decided to go with my favourite schnitzel, Beef, topped with my favourite pizza topping, Meatlovers. There was also the choice of small, regular or large, which meant you got either one 150g schnitzel, or two joined together by the cheese or three. I ordered a regular.

The topping was devine, the pepperoni, the salami, a great combination, and well worth the extra $3 ontop of the $14.90 regular schitzel. Although I didn't partake in very much from the well stocked salad bar, the choice and quality looked better than the average bistro salad bar.
While not being terrible, the two 150g schnitzel were average in tenderness, thickness and crumbing (1 star off) and I didn't get through it all, so the regular size was plenty big enough, especially with the abundant topping, and the serve of chips was spot on as well.

Summary: Selection galore for the Schnitzel Lover and a decent feed to boot.

Price: $17.90

Rating: 4 Stars

Where:
Hotel Crown
2 Ocean Street, Victor Harbour