When? - 23rd of July, 2015
Where? - 524 Macaulay Rd, Kensington
Price? - $22 for all varieties, $15 parma n' pot on Tuesday.
Website? - http://www.lostandfoundtattoo.com.au/
Reviewers – Cale, Lee, Nikki, Stefo
When you hear that a nearby tattoo studio is now serving parmas, thats something that sticks in your mind.
I can't remember where I heard it exactly, but I remember following Lost & Found on Facebook a couple of months back, just to keep an eye on what they were putting out - and sure enough, every Tuesday they would post pictures of some tasty looking birds to promote their Tuesday $15 parma & pot night. At the time I thought they only did parmas on Tuesdays, and with our parma night pretty rigidly set at Thursday it was a tough one to get too, until I found out that my assumption was wildly incorrect, the parmas at Lost & Found were available every night (albeit not as cheap as Tuesday). So last night we loaded up the parma bus and headed out to see what Lost & Found Tattoo Studio has to offer.
If you're concerned that you'll be eating food watching a 19 year old girl wince in pain as she gets a butterfly tramp stamp don't worry - the Tattoo parlour part of the pub is upstairs and away from prying eyes - In fact if the sign on the door didn't say "tattoo parlour" I would've had any clue that there was one up there.
It sunk in as we pulled up out the front that we had been to this pub before, back in 2012 when it was known as Tonik. The parma that night was disappointing, I really hope that the building had lifted its game.
We sat down and checked the menu - apparently we had some choices to make ...
Now I'm normally a parma purist, but I'm also a sucker for a Mexi-parma. I rationalised that two of the review team were getting the traditional, so I could also sneak a taste of theirs to get a better view of what was on offer (and I really wanted the El Dorado)
As for beers Lost & Found has three taps on offer, with some interesting craft beer choices available. From what I gather they rotate whats on tap semi regularly, but available to us last night was Cavalier, Kettle Green Hemp Ale, and (my personal favourite for the evening) A Rocks Brewing Co. Convict Lager. All running at $10 a pint. Delicious.
Before we get to the parmas we started out our meal with a cheeky entree to share, we went with the poutine ($12), which is "cheesey chips and gravy" to the lamen...
I've had chips & gravy hundreds of times in my life ... how has it taken this long to realise that we should put cheese on top as well! That's been staring us in the face. A great start to the meal.
About 20 minutes after ordering our meals started appearing from the kitchen, now as per usual, with a bunch of parma options comes a bunch of pictures. First up is the Da Vinci (standard parma) that Reviewers Cale & Nikki partook in...
Next up is Reviewer Stefo's Captain Cook (pineapple and swiss cheese) -
And finally, my El Dorado -
Lets start with the schnitzel. Pure, white chicken breast. Thick as buggery in some parts and perfectly crumbs. The crumbs were probably slightly overcooked if I had to pick faults, but the chicken beneath remained juicy as hell and piping hot throughout the meal. Novelty toppings aside, the schnitzel was a fantastic foundation for whatever you put on top.
Now for the toppings - The El Dorado was a fine example of a mexi-parma. The salsa smacked you in the face with flavour, the jalapenos gave it one hell of a kick, and serving the guacamole and sour cream on the side was a fantastic decision, as on top of a hot parma they would quickly turn into runny mush.
As promised I stole a couple of bites from Reviewer Nikki's Da Vinci and it definitely held its own up against the more exciting novelties, it was damn tasty. The napoli was definitely the star, chunky and full of flavour. I'm gonna come back to Lost & Found and will have no qualms trying the Da Vinci when I do
The chips were ... good. After raving about the parma so much in the previous paragraphs it's hard to get too excited about what were basically standard pub chips. (plus coming off bad boy chips last week is a tough act to follow). There was nothing wrong with them, they served their purpose perfectly - but they weren't exciting. The El Dorado was served with corn chips as well, which was a nice touch ... I'm not quite sure what I was supposed to do with them as I'd used all my guac and sour cream on the parma and just wound up eating dry corn chips - But I appreciate the effort.
The salad was crispy, fresh and full of ingredients. Garden salad in a separate bowl with plenty of onion, carrot, cucumber and tomato - I hope you like dressing, as there was a hell of a lot of it ... almost enough to turn off some of those who don't like their salad drowning in dressing, luckily I'm not one of those people.
For $22 I'd happily have the parma at Lost & Found again, no question. $15 parma & pot Tuesdays is just icing on the cake - you can't afford not to try it at that price!
It's been a few months of mediocrity on ParmaDaze, and Lost & Found was the breath of fresh air we needed. When you hear "food in a tattoo parlour" the word "quality" doesn't instantly spring to mind, but this definitely was. Lost & Found is a quirky, cosy little spot definitely worth your time, give it a crack.
Pros
- Great range of quality novelty parmas
- Standard parma holds its own against the novelties
- great quality ingredients all round
Cons
- Slightly overcooked crumbs
- Salad could be considered over-dressed to some.