O'Keefe's Hotel – Launceston TAS

When: Thursday 7th June 2012

Where: 124 George Street, Launceston

Price: $16 Thursday parmy and pot special ($19 normal price, not including pot)

This blog won’t be as long as previous ones because the main reason for having a parma at O’Keefe’s was to do another review. I was telling my friend Ebony about my parma review blog and we decided I needed to get moving and get around the pubs of Launceston. I thought O’Keefe’s would be a good place to go because of their Thursday parmy and pot special for $16. So Laura, Samara, Ebony and I went down there with a few other people, and this is how it went…

First impressions were good. We were quick to be shown to our table and offered a drink. The chairs were pretty uncomfortable and you can’t cross your legs. I was sitting on the end of the table and found that the leg of it was very annoying. Something else I found strange was that throughout the night I think we had 3 different waitresses? I thought that normally it was one waitress per table. 

Anyway, ordered the parmy, chips only with a boat of gravy. The service was fairly quick, although Ebony had to go and get the pots, they weren’t brought to us. They may have been if we had of waited a bit longer. The meals came out looking and smelling delicious. But as usual, the parmy was on top of the chips. No biggie, I’m learning to deal with it. Nice fat chips, and yummy instant gravy. Its lucky I’m a fan of the instant otherwise I’d be complaining about a lot of places.

The chicken was a good size, average thickness, evenly cooked and had a good portion of toppings. From what I could tell the schnitzel was made fresh. I can’t stand defrosted schnitzel. The edges weren’t burnt and the cheese was a great amount of golden, melty goodness. This parmy had a layer of ham, then the sauce and then the cheese. I haven’t figured out my perfect layering of toppings. Which should come first, the ham or sauce? Both have their pros and cons. In this case, the ham wasn’t clinging to the chicken very well and I found that my topping was sliding around all over the place. Other than that, it tasted delicious. I was completely full when I finished and could barely finish my beer.

It was a pretty great experience, great night out with friends and I would happily recommend the parmy and pot special to anyone.

Parma rating: 7/10
Price rating: 10/10
Pub rating: 9/10

Beach front Tavern and Bistro - Bicheno TAS

When: 26th of May, 2012

Where: 232 Tasman Highway, Bicheno

Price: $29.95 (I think??)

There isn’t a large variety of things to do in Tasmania of a weekend. But one thing you can do is spend the weekend at the beach staying in a friends shack. The thing about Tassie is that you have to know someone who knows someone who has a shack somewhere. For those of you who don’t know, a shack is a holiday home, usually by a beach. 

Months and months ago we were at a fundraiser auction thing and Sheggie purchased two nights at a friend’s shack for $150. Normally you wouldn’t have to pay to use someone’s shack but it was for a good cause. We were taking the 2 hour trip on Friday the 25th of May 2012. The weather was atrocious to say the least. I think it ended up taking us 2.5 hours due to the massive amounts of rain being dumped on us. 

It wasn’t until we arrived at the shack that we realised we couldn’t get the AFL station on the TV. I was shattered. I am a mad Hawks supporter and they were playing Saturday afternoon. As it turns out the game would have been on free to air TV but 2 hours delayed. The decision was made to find a pub as soon as possible to rectify this devastating situation.

Around midday Saturday we found a pub and settled in for the afternoon. After my team had lost miserably and 8 beers down we thought it was probably time for a meal. Of course I had a parma with a jug of gravy for my chips and no salad. Even though I was 8 beers in I still think I managed a fairly good review in my head… here goes! 

The food was served nice and quick. I think. First thing’s first, my parma was on top of the chips. I don’t know why I continue to complain and mark down because of this but where is the logic in it? Apart from that, it looked beautiful through my beer goggles. No burnt edges, perfectly crispy golden coating, golden cheese, thick cut chips and a generous amount of gravy.

I always eat at least half of my chips first so that I have room on my plate for the parma. They were great. The gravy was just the normal instant stuff which is fine by me because I love it. However, from what I can recall, Laura had the lamb and it came with even more tasty gravy. Safe to assume I stole as much of it as I could. The chicken breast was regular size, thick and cooked evenly from the middle to the edges. The Napoli sauce was very tasty and didn’t have any onion or tomato chunks, that’s how I like it. The parma was lacking ham but as I have said previously, this isn’t always a bad thing. Overall it was a great experience and devoured very quickly. It filled me up to the brim but after yet another beer I somehow managed a chocolate sundae for desert. 

To sum it up, it was your standard run of the mill parma. It is how every pub should sell parma’s. Nothing extravagant but every detail was pretty much perfect. It didn’t slap me in the face with how good it was like Shipwrights’s Arms (Battery Point, Hobart) did but it was certainly a great meal and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good parma in Bicheno.

Parma rating: 8/10
Price rating: 10/10 - bit of a story behind this rating
Pub rating: 9/10 - extra points to the pub for allowing us to have a tab all day and not cutting us off ;)

ePARMONY

Hey everyone

This is not a review, just an update to inform you that there will be more coming soon! My blog has been linked to a parma review website http://www.eparmony.com/ so check it out. The aim is to have a reviewer for each state in Australia. The other sites shit all over mine though! 

I was supposed to be going to the Mersh tonight but due to illness I can't. And besides, that's the last review I did so it would be worthless anyway.

Stay tuned!