[info]
When? - 2nd of February, 2011
Where? - The Cornish Arms, 163A Sydney Rd, Brunswick
Price? - $18 (With a $12 ‘parma night’ on Sundays)
Barry? - No
Website? - http://www.cornisharms.com.au/
Reviewers - Carly, Giese, Kylie, Lee, Matt, Shanan, Tanya[/info]
I was thrown when I called to reserve a table at the Cornish Arms as I was asked if I wanted to be seated at the 6:30 or 8:30 sitting … seeing as our weekly review traditionally starts at 7 I went for the 6:30 session and asked the reviewers to attend a tad earlier. Why the restricted seating options you may ask? Well unbeknownst to me Wednesday night is the Cornish Arms’ ‘$12 steak night’, and I must say the people of Brunswick must love their steak, because this place was packed.
The Cornish is an impressively renovated pub, with leather bench seats across the walls, a beautiful beer garden out the back and a spacious, well stocked main bar manned by casual and friendly staff, really adding to the laid back atmosphere of the place.
The menu is impressive, Apart from nightly food specials (including a $12 ‘Parma Sunday’) the bar toes the line between a gastro pub and friendly local, I must say the steaks looked delicious and I have it on good authority that the pizza nights are equally impressive.
However we weren’t there for pizzas or steak, we were there for parmas. We placed our orders at the bar ($18), collected our drinks and took our seats - one oddity was that after we placed our order a staff member came to the table to also take our order, Reviewer Matt who arrived late placed his order with her, and he was given the option of veggies instead of salad - an option we were not offered when ordering at the bar. This prompted Reviewer Carly to change her order to veggies as opposed to salad, no dramas there.
After a fairly short wait, our meals arrived (I had heard rumors of slow service at the Cornish, so I was pleasantly surprised at how promptly our parmas arrived, especially since the place was quite busy).
I’m always amazed at how much a few green flakes makes a parma look so much more appetising. The Schnitzel was fairly wide and pounded flat, not too thin though however they were a little bit heavy on the corn-flake crumbs. When it first arrived I thought it looked rather standard in size however this is the first time in awhile that I’ve actually struggled to clean my plate, somehow this entry is amazingly filling without appearing so!
There was minor schnitzel nudity around the edges but the areas that had cheese had a lot of it. The napoli was good but there wasn’t enough of it, and it left the parma a little dry in areas. The star of this meal however, was the substitution of bacon instead of ham - an option we haven’t come across in our reviews as yet and I must say I was impressed! It is a well known fact that bacon makes everything better,( see bacon soap, bacon vodka and bacon lollipops ) parmas are no deviation from this rule and the inclusion of bacon on the parma is a stroke of genius. Although in saying that I know some people in the world don’t have the same love of bacon that I do (weirdos) and it might be nice to be given the option of bacon or no bacon.
There was a pretty big serving of chips hiding underneath the parma, however they were totally unseasoned and went a little soggy after living underneath the parma for awhile, salt shakers were provided on the table to remedy this and they were able to be partially brought back to life.
The salad was also supplied in a hefty serving, a garden salad served with Lettuce, sprouts, cabbage, tomato, onion, cumber & balsamic. Opinion was varied on the salad as it seems some people got more dressing than others, and the dressing really has the power to make or break a garden salad.
The Cornish serves up a damn tasty parma, I kind of regret that we didn’t hit it on their Sunday parma night, as if what we were served last night was the same as what would come out on a Sunday for only $12 it is definitely a winner. I highly recommend a reservation if you are going down on a Wednesday or you run the risk of not getting a seat, but it is worth it.
Parma - 7.79
Chips - 5.29
Salad - 5.21
Value - 6.43
Total - 6.5
The search continues…
A big thanks to the guys over at Melbournepubs.com for giving us yet another plug on their facebook page, you guys are the best and thanks for the support!
For all those who haven’t heard, Cyclone Yasi is currently wreaking havock to the north coast of Australia in the worst storm of this kind to hit the area in 100 years, our thoughts go out to all those affected by this disaster, stay safe guys!
Finally for the past few years (long before this little parma site was around) Myself and a couple of mates have been running Inner Coma, an online T-shirt store. I’ll be your bestest friend if you click over and take a look!
If you have read this far you are a true fan - here are some boobs for your effort (oYo)
damn thats hot, I should mark this entry NSFW.