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When? - 13th of October, 2010
Where? - 492 Queens Parade. Clifton Hill
Price? - $19.9, with a Tuesday $12 Parma n’ Trivia night
Barry? - No
Website? - http://www.terminus.com.au/
Reviewers - Adam, Cale, Lee, Maz, Ness, Pat, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya[/info]
From the moment I pulled up out the front of the Terminus Hotel, I knew I was going to like it - the massive ‘Mountain Goat’ beer sign hanging over the door was proof enough it was a pub for me - The front bar was busy and bustling with people, some loyal regulars and others obviously just popped in for an after work pint. With an abundance of big wooden tables, sport on the big screen and a cosy lounge area to the side it’s definitely a pub I’d be proud to call my local, if they had a fireplace it would have been perfect.
When our group arrived we moved into the dining room around the back of the pub - A totally different, yet still very good experience that offered full table service and the lovely touch of chilled water bottles and complimentary bread with a bowl of oil & balsamic vinegar - something you dont often see in a pub setting.
We ordered our meals and a couple of jugs (The bartender recommended ’Moo Brew Pale Ale’ and we weren’t disappointed, a fantastic, flavourful beer that I’d definitely have again).
After a short wait, our parmas arrived - All but one, Reviewer Shanan missed out in the first round and we believe they had to quickly run out and rustle up another parma, but when his arrived it was fresh, hot and with a great coverage of golden brown cheese.
When it first landed on the table I was a tad disappointed, it looked small. There was a great heaping of salad on one side and the chips (although shoestring fries) were in abundance, which divided the plate almost perfectly into thirds, creating a veritable pie chart of parma, salad and fries - I took an aerial photo to further illustrate my point
Parma pie chart!
My fears of a small parma were soon allayed as soon as I cut into it, it was thick and juicy, pure chicken breast, not over-crumbed and perfectly cooked. There was a little bit of nude schnitzel around the edges of mine, but that didn’t appear on all of them. The most notable thing about the Terminus’ parma was the napoli sauce - it was fresh, tasty and obviously home made, it had a sweetness to it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on until reviewer Tanya picked it as capsicum, a welcome addition to the napoli sauce in my opinion. There was no ham, however I wouldn’t call that a negative in this case, the napoli sauce gave the chicken a great flavour that I don’t believe the addition of ham would have complimented. The cheese was golden brown, if only there was a bit more around the edges I would have trouble faulting this parma.
The fries were shoestring fries that looked as if they’d come straight off a large Big Mac meal - Now I’ve got nothing against shoestring fries and I actually found them well seasoned and rather enjoyable - but not every member of the review team felt the same, especially when we noticed that the steaks and other meals going past had hand cut chips that looked absolutely amazing - if they had’ve been beside the parma instead of the steak it would have been perfect, and we didn’t get why those chips weren’t in accompaniment.
The salad was cause for much debate, there was a lot of it, which is always a plus, it was a simple garden salad, yet some people felt it crossed the line into too simple. It was made up of rocket lettuce and very thinly sliced radish tossed through some olive oil. I thought it was simple and elegant but other reviewers found it bland and tasteless, even resorting to pouring the balsamic oil that was supplied with the bread over the salad to give it some flavour.
At $19.90 it was an outstanding parma - They advertise a $12 parma n trivia night in the front bar on Tuesday nights which would be fantastic (although word is they don’t take reservations, so you’d better get in early to secure a table). I honestly have trouble faulting the parma itself, The Terminus is a perfect example of how it should be done, however they let themselves down on the sides. If they spruce up the salad a little and give us the hand cut chips instead of shoestring fries and the Terminus would be in the running for the best chicken parmigiana in Melbourne.
We finished up at the Terminus and on the way home a few of us stopped in to Bridie’s for a pint of Bulmers and a game of Barry, we found a new game called ‘Monkey Business’ which kept us occupied for the better part of an hour.
Awesome game, I suggest you check it out! one of the few games on Barry that isn’t trivia based in which you actually have a chance to win some cash.
But I digress …
Parma - 8.4
Chips - 5.8
Salad - 5.8
Value - 6.9
Total - 7.08
The search continues …
