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When? - 28th of April, 2010
Where? - The Leveson Hotel, 46 Leveson St. North Melbourne
Price? - $23 normally with a $20 ‘Parma’s of the world & Pint’ special on Tuesdays
Barry? - No
Website? - http://www.theleveson.com/
Reviewers - Lee, Matt, Shanan & Tony Q[/info]
Whenever I ask for recommendations for good parmas, or simply google ‘good parmas in Melbourne’, The Leveson is up there with The Palmerston as one of our supposed ‘best’, so from the get go it was high on our queue for review.
The team arrived at about 7:15 on a wednesday night to a fairly empty pub, there were a few people in the restaurant section up the back but we opted to eat in the front bar where there was an open fire, pool table and sports projected on to the wall as well as a plasma over our heads.
We ordered our parmas from the very friendly bar staff, grabbed a beer and had a game of pool to pass the time. There were a good selection of beers on tap & in bottles available, with my pot of Hoegaarden and parma the cost came to $31 ($23 for the parma and $8 for the pot) which in my book is a little pricey, but bearing in mind I ordered a premium beer and hadn’t tried the supposed ‘famous’ parma yet, I was ok with shelling it out.
The food arrived as our first game of pool ended and ‘Hey Hey it’s Wednesday Saturday’ started on the plasma and I must say it looked impressive (The parma, not Daryl Somers)
Don’t worry, there are chips there too! they are playing hide-and-seek under the parma
The chicken breast was very tasty, decent size, a little on the thin side for my taste but it had a good flavour, the napoli sauce was very thick and rich and a little overpowering for some of the reviewers, there was a welcome slice of ham, the cheese was in abundance & had a great flavour, although on a couple of the parmas it was over-cooked and burnt in places.
The salad was very good, it was a rocket and cherry tomato salad with balsamic dressing, but what set it apart from the others was the generous chunks of mozzarella cheese tossed through, a rarely seen and much appreciated addition to usually ignored garden salad.
The chips that I found hiding under the chicken were damp and bland, not seasoned or salted and the clogged up salt shaker that was supplied was useless until I unscrewed the top and stabbed through the hardened salt with my fork, Although the pots of tomato sauce brought out by the staff were greatly appreciated.
By the end of our meal the pub had filled up a bit more but there was still plenty of room to move, Its also worth noting that on Tuesday nights they offer a $20 ‘Parmas of the World & a Pint’ night with a selection of 5 different novelty parmas with a pint of Carlton Draught and happy hour from 6 -7. Something I’d definitely be interested in trying.
The parma was good, but a bit expensive for what you are getting. If the cheese wasn’t burnt and the napoli wasn’t so rich (in some spots it tasted like pure tomato paste) it would be a great contender, the chips were a let down but the true standout of this meal was the garden salad, I can safely say it is one of the best garden salads I’ve ever had the pleasure of accompanying my parma.
The pub itself had a good atmosphere, good staff & a great range of beers. The open fire was a nice touch and a pool table is an always welcome addition - they also boast to be the ‘Only place in the area with Foxtel’, a claim I find to be a tad unbelievable but amazing if true!
Parma - 7.5
Chips - 5.8
Salad - 7.1
Value - 5.5
Total - 6.68
The search continues …
