When? - 26th of May, 2010
Where? - The Metropolitan Hotel, 36 - 42 Courtney St. North Melbourne
Price? - $19.50
Barry? - No
Website? - http://www.metrohotel.com.au
Reviewers - Adam Y, Cale, Emma, Lee, Matt, Nikki, Shanan, Stefo, Tanya, Tony Q
UPDATE 24/08/18 - The metropolitan hotel is no longer, and in its place lies celtic at metropolitan. Click here for an updated review
We were put on to the Metropolitan the week prior at our review of The Quiet Man, where Pete & Tony, the owners of the Prince of Wales Hotel told us that they considered the Metro’s parma as good, if not better than their own creation. This was a big call, and the Parma Daze crew immediately decided that the following week we had to put it to the test, could this be the parma to end our search?
The Metropolitan hotel has garnered some fame recently as the location where former Police chief Christine Nixon had dinner on the night of the Black Saturday bushfires. Unfortunately The Australian has not made it clear whether or not Ms. Nixon had the chicken parmigiana, seems journalism these days has gone down the crapper.
We arrived and waited in the bar area for entire crew to arrive, we were greeted with an impressive array of both bottled and tapped beers (including many of my personal favourites - Mountain Goat Pale Ale, Gypsy Cider & Bulmers), as well as an extensive selection of spirits. In the heart of North Melbourne, the Metropolitan is following the recent trend of taking an old Aussie pub and converting it into a gourmet restaurant. When the crew arrived we moved into the restaurant, a very impressive looking room, lit by candlelight with the walls adorned in impressive artworks (the award winning piece the ‘Signature of M’ was hung just above our table and kept me entertained for a majority of the meal).
Our menus were delivered, not that they were needed, and we quickly placed our order for ten serves of the “Metropolitan Massive Chicken Parma & Chips”, Priced at $19.50 we were definitely hoping they were as ‘Massive’ as advertised … we weren’t disappointed
I was impressed from the moment my plate hit the table. The parmigianas arrived promptly, all together, piping hot & they definitely lived up to their self proclaimed ‘Massive’ title - this thing was huge.
I quickly scooped up my utensils and tucked in, the schnitzel was not only large, but thick (I reckon they ran a little less than an inch deep of chicken, not counting the crumbs, sauce or cheese. amazing), with a spot on covering of tasty cheese and tomato sauce. The breast was succulent, tasty and cooked to perfection. The traditional slice of ham was absent but I didn’t mind at all, this schnitzel was amazing, Quite possibly the best we had come across on our search so far, Delicious.
The chips that were hiding underneath the parma were very good, hot, crispy and delicious, unfortunately there weren’t many of them. As you can kind of see from the above photo, my parma was sitting on a single layer of chips, I’m normally not one to count how many chips I had with my parma, but I think it’d be safe to say I had about fifteen chips on my plate - twenty max. Some of the other reviewers had more, but some were the same as me, good chips, but a minimal serving.
The salad was served in a separate bowl alongside the parma, it was a simple but flavoursome garden salad of rocket, onion, tomato, cucumber, shaved carrot & a balsamic dressing. A delectable addition to the dish, although part of me wished they had served the salad to the side of the plate and the chips in the bowl, as opposed to underneath the chicken.
This is an outstanding example of a chicken parmigiana. The schnitzel is hard to fault, although if you are a lover of ham you may be disappointed, but if you are looking for a delicious, juicy and BIG parma, this is the place for you. The chips were scarce but tasty and the salad was a fine example of what a garden salad should be. This would be the closest competitor we’ve met so far in the search for the perfect parma… but not quite… I’d be happy to return & try it again, I just hope I get more chips next time.
