Parma Number 33: Brisbane Brewing Co. … There’s a new “Robert” in town!

Posted on August 20, 2015 by shumpty77

The Verdict: It has been 25 weeks and 25 Chicken Parmigianas since I anointed the Calamvale Tavern Parma as the frontrunner for the “Robert” Parma award as my best Parma in Brisbane and this week the Brisbane Brewing Co Parma topped it.  The reasons are pretty simple: this dish had the best chicken piece, best sauce, best ham and best chips I have tried on this quest.  All the other aspects of this meal were very good too and that means there is a new “Robert” in town!

Parma Pic:

Brisbane Brewing Co Parma (Photo by the author)

Brisbane Brewing Co Parma (Photo by the author)

Chicken Piece: As I mentioned in the preamble, the chicken piece on this chicken parma was the best I have tried so far.  It was perfectly crumbed, with some herbs supplementing the flavor in the crumbing, and perfectly cooked.  Whilst not a massive piece it was quite thick and tasted great!

Tomato Sauce: I have mentioned before on this blog how much I love tomato sauce and this Napoli sauce was absolutely perfect.  It was rich and tasty and covered the chicken piece well.

Ham: In a meal replete with excellence it is difficult to find a hero but I believe I found one in the ham.  For a start there was so much of it, it had to be folded over and over on itself to fit on the chicken piece.  Add to that that this ham was the best I have tasted so far on this quest and was easily capable of being tasted alongside powerful flavors from the chicken piece and the sauce and this aspect of the meal was its hero by a fair margin!

Cheese: If I had to make one small criticism about this meal it would be that the cheese did not quite fully cover the chicken piece.  It was only a very small way off but, for consistency, I have to mention it.  Nonetheless, the cheese was perfectly melted and, again, tasted great.

Side Dishes: Brisbane Brewing Co. provides you with a plethora of options when it comes to sides for its dishes, both hot and cold.  I will not outline them all but, suffice to say, I decided to go with beer battered chips and apple slaw with ranch dressing.  The chips, and I know I am becoming a broken record here, were the best I have tried in the last 33 weeks.  They were wonderfully battered, perfectly cooked and well seasoned.  The choice of the apple slaw was a departure from a garden salad for no other reason than I love apple slaw.  This one was done very well and tasted great.  I have not yet mentioned the flower that also adorned the chicken part of this meal.  I am not one much for flowers on food and simply removed it!

Presentation: What a great idea to serve the chips and salad in separate containers on a large white plate.  It is a simple tool but in my view very effective and in keeping with my preference to NOT have the chicken piece on top of the chips.  The presentation here nailed it!

The Venue: Brisbane Brewing Co is located on Boundary Street, West End.  It is a moderately new bar and restaurant with a brewery on site as well as a well stocked deli you can grab take aways from.  Sometimes in places like this a teetotaler like me can feel very out of place, after all the whole set up of the venue hinges on patrons drinking beer.  I could not have had a more comfortable experience though and was made feel very welcome by the bar staff.  My chicken parma was on the expensive side at $27 but it was worth every cent.

The final word: It has taken 25 parmas for there to be a change at the top of the leaderboard in my quest to find Brisbane’s Best Parma.  It goes without saying that the Brisbane Brewing Co Parma is absolutely worthy of the top spot.  The chef got everything (with the small caveat about the cheese above noted) right.  The question now is: is there another parma out there in Brisbane to top it?

Postcript: New readers wondering what I am talking about when I refer to the “Robert Parma” need to read the following post https://brisbanebestparma.com/2014/12/30/the-parma-awards-you-asked-for-it-and-here-they-are/. Regular readers who have forgotten the award structure ought also refresh themselves.

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Parma Number 32: The Red Brick Hotel … there but for the cubed ham go I

Posted on August 13, 2015 by shumpty77

The Verdict: I was a little bit worried when the Parma Consigliere, Davo (the Junior Parma reviewer) and I walked into the Red Brick because it was empty.  I needn’t have worried because this Chicken Parmigiana was really very good.  Indeed, but for the ham which was cubed and a bit tasteless, this parma may well have challenged the current front runner for the “Robert” Parma.  

Parma Pic: 

  

Chicken: What a great “start” to this meal.  The chicken piece was well crumbed and perfectly cooked.  The chicken was moist and tasted great.

Tomato Sauce: The tomato sauce on the Red Brick Hotel Parma was just spot on.  It covered the chicken piece and was very tasty.  It complemented the chicken and cheese on this meal perfectly.

Ham: In what was a very good chicken parma the ham was the only major disappointment.  The reason for this will be obvious to regular readers from a brief perusal of the picture above.  The ham was cubed.  In concert with this the ham was just a bit tasteless.

Cheese: If the ham was a significant disappointment, the cheese was a revelation.  The cheese covered the chicken piece, was perfectly melted and tasted great.  Enough said!

Side Dishes: During this quest to find Brisbane’s Best Parma it would be fair to say that one of the areas where there has been the biggest variance in quality has been in the salad.  I can say without reservation that the salad with the Red Brick Hotel Parma is the best salad I have had so far. It was well put together, was fresh and dressed well.  I can not fault it.  The chips were, despite being entirely covered by the chicken piece, also quite good.  They were well salted and crisp.

Presentation: Queue the broken record: the plate was quite small and the chips covered the salad.  I repeat: enough said!

The Venue: The Red Brick Hotel is in Woollongabba near the Children’s Hospital.  It is another of Brisbane’s grand old venues that has undergone a refit in recent years.  We tested the chicken parma on a Monday so it was, to be honest, empty but I can imagine that, with a quality TAB facility I can imagine it being quite busy on the weekend and Thursday night.  My parma cost $18 and there is a parma night on a Thursday night which gets your parma cost down to $10.

The Final Word: The Red Brick Hotel Chicken Parma has rocketed into the Top 5 in the race for the “Robert” Parma off the back of a great salad and three out of four of the elements of the chicken being out of the top drawer.  The cubed ham was a real let down.  

Davo’s (the Junior Parma Reviewer) Review:

Walking in to the Red Brick Hotel the first thing I noticed was that it was really quiet and I said to Uncle Steve, “oh this place is really quiet we might get our food really quick” and Uncle Steve (The Parma Guy) said, “yes maybe”. 

The good news was that this hotel has a Parma on its menu so we went straight up to order. This Parma was the highlight of my day as the chicken was succulent and there was the right amount of cheese on it but the sad news is that the Parma was on top of the chips and the ham was not a slice they were cubes. The chips were amazing and they were cooked for the right amount of time. The salad was the best one I’ve ever had with a Parma but the dressing was very sweet. 
My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

The place on the Parma ladder for this Parma is number 5😊 

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Parma Number 31: Waterloo Hotel … Shame about those cheese rations! 

Posted on August 6, 2015 by shumpty77

The Verdict: After some jiggery pokery with the venue for tonight’s Parma (you can read about that here: https://brisbanebestparma.com/2015/08/05/the-august-schedule-a-venue-change/ ), the Waterloo Hotel presented a happy respite from the madness of venues removing chicken parmigiana from menus. There were a lot of parts of this Parma that were quite good.  That said, there was a paucity of cheese that meant there was no way this could be Brisbane’s Best Parma.

Parma Pic:

Chicken: The chicken piece on the Waterloo Hotel chicken parma was very large and had been well cooked.  It was also well crumbed and tasted great.

Tomato Sauce: Whilst my main complaint about this dish was with the cheese it must be said that the tomato sauce was also quite sparse.  This was a shame because it was also quite tasty.  I was left wanting more.

Ham: This meals absolute hero.  Where there was too little of the sauce and cheese, the ham was plentiful.  It also tasted great.

Cheese: The picture above really tells the story here.  There just was not enough cheese on this chicken parmigiana.  From a coverage perspective the cheese did not cover the chicken piece and where there was melted cheese it only did so very thinly.  The cheese that was on the chicken piece also was pretty bland.

Side Dishes: If the ham was the hero of this dish, the side dishes were more than effective “Robins” to the ham’s “Batman”.  The chips were well cooked, crisp and seasoned perfectly.  The salad was a very well put together and well dressed.  These accompaniments were absolutely nailed by the chef.

Presentation: I could not see most of the chips on the plate which tells a large part of the presentation story.  Despite this the chips were still excellent but it was disappointing that such a large meal was squashed onto a smallish plate.

The Venue: The Waterloo Hotel advertises itself as “the Valley’s Original Pub” and, whilst it has gone through a major refurbishment since I used to frequent it in the late 90s / early 2000s to see some classic Australian pub bands play, it still retains a lot of its old school charm.  My chicken parmigiana cost $19.95.

The Final Word: Why was there so little cheese on such a large piece of chicken?  This element as well as a sparse spreading of tomato sauce were real disappointments in what was otherwise a pretty good dish. 

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The August Schedule: A venue change

Posted on August 5, 2015 by shumpty77

After only testing 3 parma’s last month because of menu changes, I have decided to that when a venue no longer has the chicken parmigiana on the menu but has been included in the schedule a replacement will be found.  Tonight, I originally went to the Newstead Brewing Co which the first venue on the August Parma Schedule.  Disappointingly, the chicken parma is no longer on the menu.  Fortunately the Waterloo Hotel is a short walk down the road so tonight’s parma will now be from the Waterloo Hotel.  An updated parma schedule will come out tomorrow with a replacement venue for later in the month. 

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Parma Schedule: August

Posted on July 31, 2015 by shumpty77

Here is the schedule of venues at which I will be reviewing chicken parmigianas in August:

Parma Schedule August

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Parma Ladder: Only 20 to go!

Posted on July 30, 2015 by shumpty77

With 20 parma reviews to go, here is the current parma ladder:

Parma Ladder July

To be honest, July was a pretty disappointed month in the quest for Brisbane’s Best Parma.  The Parma of the Prince of Wales (Nundah) aside, there were no new entries in the top 10 and there was also another “No Result” after the debacle at the Broncos League Club.

The August Parma Schedule will be out shortly.  I have my fingers and toes crossed for one or two contenders for the “Robert” Parma.

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Parma Number 30: Morrison Hotel … Yes it is a steak restuarant 

Posted on July 30, 2015 by shumpty77

The Verdict: It had been a couple of disappointing weeks in the land of Parma however I went to the Morrison Hotel with very high hopes of the metaphorical tide turning and a good Parma being presented.  Unfortunately I was again disappointed.  From the cubed ham, to the very limited amount of cheese and sauce this was a disappointing effort from a much hyped venue. 

Parma Pic:


Chicken: The chicken piece in the Morrison Hotel Parma was this meal’s hero.  It was well cooked and a substantial piece that tasted great.

Tomato Sauce: I actually really enjoyed the tomato sauce on this dish there just was not enough of it.  It did not cover the chicken piece and I ended up eating a fair portion of the chicken piece without any sauce at all.

Ham: I have not seen cubed ham on a chicken parmigiana before and I hope to never see it again.  To be honest I could barely taste it because, frankly, there was so little on the plate.

Cheese: The photo of this week’s parma speaks all I really need to say about the cheese to be honest.  There was just not enough of it.  It did not cover the chicken piece and, again, I ate a fair portion of the chicken without any cheese at all.

Side Dishes: Oh dear! Whilst the chips with this chicken parmigiana were pretty good the salad was, in a word, ordinary.  It seemed to be put together as an after thought with pieces of onion, which normally I would applaud, strung over the salad almost like a garnish.  It was bland and under dressed.

Presentation: The presentation of this chicken parmigiana was spot on.

The Venue:  The Morrison is walking distance to the ‘Gabba and that fact is one of its biggest selling points.  Add to that a very good steak in the restaurant and the Morrison is, without question, one of Brisbane’s most popular pubs. My parma cost $23.90.

The Final Word: Whilst the Morrison possesses some of the best steaks in Brisbane it does not have Brisbane’s Best Parma.  The elements were certainly there however this parma was just not put together well enough or with enough of the elements to make for happy eating.  

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Parma Number 29: Broncos Leagues Club … Bye week 

Posted on July 23, 2015 by shumpty77

Off the back of a couple of recommendations, the Parma Consigliere and I headed to the Broncos Leagues Club for this week’s Parma review.

Unfortunately the chicken parmigiana is no longer on the menu at the Broncos.  It does appear as a special I was informed by the cafe staff however I am unable to advise of which night the special is available.  

That means no review and the Broncos League Club will be left off the Parma Ladder. 

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Parma Number 28: Lord Stanley Hotel … Another for the bottom half

Posted on July 16, 2015 by shumpty77

The Verdict: A number of the elements of this Parma just weren’t very good.  Dry chicken, too little of the sauce, ham and cheese and uncooked chips all made this an underwhelming meal.  How underwhelming? My favourite bit was the salad. Enough said! 

Parma Pic:

 

Chicken: A quite small piece of chicken that was over cooked to the point where the chicken was quite dry and the outer casing of crumbs was burnt in places.

Tomato Sauce: Whilst the tomato sauce was quite nice the shame of it was that there just was not enough.  It did not cover the chicken piece and did not cut through the dryness of the chicken.

Ham: Really a case of repeat the above and replace the words “tomato sauce” with the word “ham”.  Nice, but not enough!

Cheese: The menu speaks of 3 cheeses in this dish however I had no way of verifying that.  What came out with this meal was well melted and tasted great.  Again though: there was not enough of it.

Side dishes: The Lord Stanley Parma side dishes presented two ends of the spectrum this week.  The salad was the hero of the dish: it was small but all of the elements were well put together and it was well dressed.  The chips where undercooked and soggy in places.

Presentation: The salad was presented in a small bowl on the plate.  Whilst I like this idea it meant that a lot of space on a large plate was taken up and, of course, the chicken piece ended up on top of the chips.

The Venue: The Lord Stanley Hotel is in East Brisbane.  It is a very large hotel, much larger than I recalled to be honest, with a bistro, TAB and gaming facilities as well a lot of onsite parking. My chicken Parma cost $19.90.

The final word: Not for the first time on this blog I will quote Homer Simpson and say “you don’t make friends with salad” because whilst the salad was the hero of this meal the rest of left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed. 

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Parma Number 27: Gaythorne RSL … a new twist on the norm

Posted on July 10, 2015 by shumpty77

The Verdict: I confess that going to the Gaythorne RSL I did not have high expectations for the chicken parmigiana at my local RSL.  Suffice it to say, whilst my expectations were exceeded, this chicken parmigiana, with its fairly ordinary chips and salad and its tomato sauce on the top of the chicken piece, did not do enough to be Brisbane’s best. 

Parma Pic:

 

Chicken: The chicken piece on this Parma was a large piece that was well crumbed.  It was well cooked but was, at best luke warm.  As with a lot of this dish I had the impression that the whole of the meal was not cooked fresh but rather was put together from items sitting in a hot box.

Tomato Sauce: As you can see from the photo, the tomato sauce on this Parma was placed on the top of the chicken piece.  When one stands in the queue to order ones meal at the Gaythorne RSL you can watch one of the chefs adding the sauce to the top of the dish before it comes out.  The sauce was good but again it was not above luke warm.

Ham: A large slice of ham that covered the whole of the chicken piece came with this dish.  This was the best part of the Gaythorne RSL chicken parmigiana.

Cheese: The photo above does not really show you how the cheese was presented on the chicken piece.  That is because the tomato sauce coverage hides, in the photo, the fact that the cheese did not cover the whole of the chicken piece or the ham.  This was a disappointment because what cheese there was was excellently melted and tasted great.  There just was not enough of it.

Side Dishes: Both the chips and the salad of this dish suffered from the pre-packaged nature of how this dish was put together.  Again, when one stands to order one can see the line of plates sitting on a bench at the back of the kitchen with the salad already set out.  Again, it tasted nice enough but just was a bit rubbery. The chips clearly had been sitting in a hot box for some time but before they had gone in there they had not been well enough cooked.

Presentation: This was a big enough plate to have all of the parts of this dish well spread out but instead the chicken piece was on top what were clearly already soggy chips before they got on the plate.

The Venue: The Gaythorne RSL is in the suburb of Gaythorne in Brisbane’s northern suburbs on Samford Road.  It is a large Returned Services Club with a significant gaming and TAB spaces and a large bistro. Social membership is $1 for life.  My parma was $19.90 (with the member’s discount).

The Final Word: For a quick midweek meal, this chicken parmigiana was OK, even accounting for the sauce being placed on top of the whole of the chicken piece.  That said, I would not be rushing back to have another one given that across the whole of the meal there was something that let down each aspect of it.  

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