Where - 99 Puckle Street. Moonee Ponds
Price - $24 ($12 on Tuesdays)
Website - https://www.sirduke.com.au
Reviewers – Lee & Nikki
Puckle Street is a weird spot. For many years it kind’ve just existed. It was a long street of various shops yet there wasn’t really any reason to actually go to Puckle Street. It was a street of niche homewares shops, out of style fashion shops and florists. Other than hitting up Sims Sports to pick up the latest pair of Air Jordans Puckle street always felt like a bit of a limbo of nothingness.
However, with the boon of apartment buildings springing up all around Moonee Ponds, Puckle Street has undergone a bit of a rennaisance … a “Pucklesance” if you will, and a weird influx of eateries has started to take over. Don’t get me wrong, they are mostly burger joints or variations on burger joints, but an interesting cafe culture has also sprung up during the pucklesance… Which brings us to Sir Duke.
After a suggestion or two on social media Sir Duke landed squarely on our radar. It was a cafe, but they were open late, they served beers and seemed to be pretty keen on their parma - Offering not only a standard every day option but a $12 parma night on Tuesdays that looked pretty solid.
Convinced it was one to check out, last night we headed to Puckle St. to see what Sir Duke had to offer.
We grabbed a seat and checked the menu. As we weren’t in on a Tuesday unfortunately we missed parma night, but the standard parma was readily available…
We placed our order and eagerly awaited the arrival of our dinner.
As Sir Duke is more of a cafe/restaurant than a pub , there aren’t any beers on tap available in house. There are, however, a decent range of bottled beers to keep your thirst quenched. Thunder Road, Sun Cat, Boatrocker, Two Birds and Urban Alley to name a few, not the biggest range but should be enough to find something you like amongst what is available - The cocktail list is pretty impressive as well.
About 25 minutes after placing our order our parmas arrived from the kitchen…
The schnitzel was good quality. Big enough, thick enough, and good quality chicken. The pan fried crumbs had an amazingly strong crunch which lasted the entirety of the meal - As far as foundations for parmas go this one was pretty solid.
The toppings were a mixed bag. It definitely looks impressive, however I’m not sure the dollops of bocconcini add much to the flavour of the parma - But that’s just a personal preference, I’m not a big bocconcini fan in general. The rest of the cheese was solid. Great coverage and good melt. Served hot and delicious.
The biggest fault of this parma, however, was the passata. There just wasn’t any. I could see remnants on the plate, indicating that they didn’t forget it entirely, however in tasting the parma we could not detect the passata at all, and as this was a parma without a slice of ham we were pretty much left with a schnitzel & cheese. It was tasty, but could have been so much better with a bit more of the red stuff.
The chips were spot on. Not too thick, not too thin, served in a seperate bowl, well seasoned, hot, with a bonus pot of aioli on the side. I mean … That’s a tick in every box isn’t it? A delightful side to the parma.
The salad was fresh and full of flavour. I enjoyed the shredded carrot and the capsicum slices throughout really beefed up the flavour profile - However the dressing that was used was a little flavourless and far too heavy handed on the oil.
“Would have been great had they had more passata on the parma. Was not detectable at all on the plate. Great chips though! ”
I wouldn’t run back to have this parma again at $24, However, seeing as most of my issues with this dish were with the toppings I reckon that Parmarama $12 Tuesdays is definitely worth checking out. The schnitzel was quality, and this is a parma that can only be improved by some variation in the toppings, and for twelve bucks its hard to go wrong.
All up I think Sir Duke was a mixed bag. Overall it was a pleasant experience, however there were a few elements that took me out of the experience. Ditch the bocconcini, pump up the napoli, add a slice of ham and I reckon it would be a winner. I’m curious to see how they go on a Tuesday so if you check it out be sure to tag me. Worth a crack if you’re in the immediate vicinity, but I wouldn’t travel for it.