Things are slightly out of order here, I wrote this review on the 18th of July, as a fill-in upload while I'm overseas for the next three weeks - however I wrote *next* week's review on the 23rd of June, but this one seemed more news-worthy than next week's as its a new burger so I've moved it up in the rotation. Got it? good. If you follow that you should watch Primer. Awesome movie.
I'll start this review by saying I am an absolute sucker for the 'limited time only' special burgers at fast food restaurants. From the El Maco to the Double Down to the Angry Angus - I cannot resist a special edition, and I'll always cave and have a go when the new menu addition rolls around.
So when the "Parmy Stacker" came to my attention I was torn, on one hand it was a special burger, but on the other hand it's a fast food parma burger ... could it possibly be any good? I resisted for a few days - however with my apartment being located no more than 50 metres from the entrance to a KFC my resolve did not last long. I had to bite the bullet. I had to try the Parmy Stacker.
Before I get into the burger experience itself, lets talk about the name. Parmy. Now in the 3 years I've been running this site I have tried my hardest to stay impartial on the whole "Parma vs. Parmy" debate, It's a regional thing - Victorians say Parma more often and South Australians tend to say Parmi with the other states flip-flopping between the two depending who you ask. To be honest I don't care - When it comes down to it what you get on the plate is the same, and I'm really not losing sleep that someone else pronounces a single letter of an abbreviated word different to how I do, It's like kicking up a stink that they call potato cakes "Scallops" in NSW... it just doesn't matter. However when I ordered "The Parmy Stacker" the guy at the counter repeated my order back as a "Parma stacker", which I enjoyed.
Anyway, on to the burger.
If you're heading in for a Parmy Stacker you're gonna be presented with a couple of options...
You can go the single or double schnitzel stack, and for an extra 70c you can add bacon. I was very tempted to go all out and get bacon, but I figured for the first go I'd see how it handles without the pork product, I ordered a large Parmy Stacker meal, with chips and a Mountain Dew.
Sidenote: How good is Mountain Dew? It's clearly the best soft drink on the market and I challenge anyone to try and prove me wrong.
Mountain Dew is the best soda ever made.
It's also worth noting (as you can see from the above menu) that you can swap out a burger from a burger box with a single-stack parma burger for $1 extra.
I ordered, got home, and looked at the burger before me -
It was a sizeable burger, before I unwrapped it it could be easily confused with a whopper, going only from weight and girth. I'd be interested to know if KFC are intending on keeping the parmy around as a permanent menu addition, as they seem to have put a lot of work into the packaging and advertising for the thing, and come to think of it the words 'limited time only' don't seem to appear on any of the posters. Hmm. Could it be here to stay?
I unwrapped the beast and took a couple of shots -
Angle 1 -
Angle 2 -
The schnitzels were well sized for a burger and of decent quality - the processed level was over 9000 but that is to be expected from KFC, yet at the same time probably the best fast-food schnitzel I've seen so far. Before tucking In I sliced it in half to get a good view of the insides via cross section -
Please ignore the action figures and Portal gun in the background... actually, don't ignore the Portal gun. It's awesome.
There's plenty of bird here. Not a whole lot of anything else, but plenty of bird. (lettuce? hello?).
I took a bite and was instantly let down, not by the burger itself, but due to the fact that it was stone cold. look at the cheese, it's not even remotely melted. The time from being handed the bag to taking my first bite was no more than 3 minutes, yet it tasted as if it had been sitting out for 20 minutes going on the temperature. I tried to put this aside and focus only on the taste.
There is heaps of napoli on this thing. Oh, actually, apparently napoli is called "Parmy Sauce" now according to KFC, although that might be a more apt description as it is possibly the sweetest napoli I have ever tasted, Mix some dolmio with a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup and you get the idea.
for processed schnitzel it's not that bad, I would say we've actually had worse with some real life parmas. There was only a dusting of lettuce below the burger, a far cry from the veritable salad on the promo image -
But this isn't my first rodeo, I turned Thirty a couple of weeks ago, I know not to expect anything resembling the promo image on fast food advertising.
The oatmeal bun wasn't terrible, if you've had the classic chicken burger from Hungry Jack's (Arguably the best fast-food chicken burger on the market) you'd know what its like. Like the Parmy Sauce it was quite sweet, but it did its job in getting the parma from the table to my mouth without getting my hands dirty, although it was slightly stale.
It was okay, but the lack of temperature really killed it for me, I ended up finishing the first half then sticking the second half in the microwave in attempt to shock some life into it, which worked reasonably well, there was hardly any lettuce to wilt and the semi-stale bun actually benefitted from 15 seconds in the hot box. I enjoyed the second half much more than I did the first.
All up it was a serviceable porta-parma. Albeit quite bland, if I could be assured it was hot, with a fresh bun and probably the addition of bacon then I could be persuaded to have it again, otherwise I'd probably stick to my standard Bacon & Cheese burger combo.
For $11.95 for a regular combo, more if you want bacon and a large combo, it gets a little pricey for what you actually get. We've had better parma night parmas for cheaper and much, much better.
I got this burger from the Essendon North KFC, and with Georges Hamburgers, Fish & Chips just down the road offering a solid take away parma for under $10 It'd be hard to justify going back to KFC if I had a parma craving.
I wouldn't say run out and get it now, but if you're at KFC getting a burger box then it'd be worth chucking in the extra $1 to switch one of the included burgers to a parmy burger, if only to merely to satisfy your curiosity - it's worth a try.