Scott
The RSL atmosphere was a little more grown up than we are used to, and was packed – seemed everyone wanted a feed. The menu placed on the table seemed a little sparse, however when we got up to order there was a greater variety on the wall/chefs specials etc. I decided to go for the more expensive veal ($18 over the $12 chicken) with pepper sauce.

Due to the seemingly large amount of people, the wait was fairly extensive, stretching to approximately 30 minutes, however good conversation made it bearable. When the buzzer went off, we all got up to collect our food. The staff gave us an additional plate for the sides – There is a salad and a vegetable buffet, however according to the signs they would prefer if you chose only one to go to. I chose vegetables. I had fried rice, chips, cauliflower with white sauce, mashed potato, pumpkin and carrots.

Eating the meal and the first thing that strikes you is the ‘pepper’ sauce. It tastes more lemony, with black peppercorns than the usual peppery gravy. The veal schnitzel is quite large (and flat) and uses an entire plate to itself. The crumbing is delicious and crunchy, the only criticism is it fell off the meat too easily. The veal itself is great – it must be close to a year since my last veal intake, so I’m probably not the best judge haha. The sides went down well, pumpkin was a little undercooked but aside from that (and classifying fried rice as a vegetable) all went well – nothing to write home about. All in all I give it 4 out of 5, points being lost for price and the initial wait.

http://www.dukehotel.com.au/

Scott

Arriving at the Duke early, it was apparent there was a large gathering taking up most of the restaurant room. Lucky we booked as our ‘reserved’ table was the only one free. It then became apparent that this was the local member for labors pre-election-day celebration dinner, however we cant dock points for that. Twelve from our group ended up coming, and while there was initially concern about fitting them (we had booked 8, and then amended to 10) the staff quickly found a couple who were leaving and promptly extended our table.

For starters I ordered two garlic breads. These came about 15 minutes later, and were unusual in the bread choice – a round cob loaf cut into 4 slices. These were pretty tasty and at $5 each pretty well priced. Then the mains choice started. The menu itself seemed to be pretty limited, with its entirity fitting on one page. Pepper sauce, one of my ‘crucial’ building blocks to a good schnitty was not offered, so my usual ‘schnitzel, chips and vegetables’ came topped with a creamy bacon & shallot sauce. For the size of the group, the meals came out in decent time, nothing to complain about there. First impressions show a plate with a decent serving of chips, a long but thin schnitty covered in sauce and a bowl of premade vegetables – the ones that all get prepared at about 4pm and sit in the kitchen under heat lamps until serving time. Honestly it didn’t impress me too much, however with the price point of the meal being around the $15 mark I guess some concessions had to be made.

I always start with the vegetables. The carrot was terrible. It was shredded down into 4cm sections of overcooked (yet luke-warm) watery, limp nodules that tasted unlike any carrot I have previously tasted. Perhaps it wasn’t carrot, and was some other orange plant. The quarter corn-cob was the complete opposite, tasty and sweet. Kinda what you would expect really. Beans were on top and cold, but I don’t like beans anyway. Broccoli nothing to write home about.

The chips appeared slightly undercooked, but they tasted fine. Adequate salt coverage and still hot so nothing to complain about here. They were just normal fries, not shoestring and not steakhouse. I heard murmurings of ‘They put the chips under the schnitzel again!’ from colleagues however this rarely bothers me, they have to go somewhere.

Onto the schnitzel itself and while it appeared long and thin, it was quite filling. The coating was pretty nice, very crispy, but not sure what made it seem different from other places who all seem to buy them pre-coated from the same generic suppliers. Perhaps they did the coating themselves – or buy a more expensive brand? The chicken inside was well-cooked and on-par with most. The sauces served is what everyone was talking about, they looked delicious and in generous serving sizes… On first tasting was strong, very rich and is probably what the chef has deemed to ‘sell’ the dish and keep his customers returning. This would all seem well and good until you get halfway through and the richness is still there.. overly powerful, as weird a complaint that would seem. To appreciate the schnitzel itself, I was using my chips to mop up/dilute a lot of the sauce, not something Ive ever really had to do before.

As this review concludes into the all-important scoring section, Ill reiterate some of the points;

Good – Serving size, coating, 1st half of the sauce, chips, $15 price, helpful staff
Bad – 2nd half of the sauce, woeful carrot, premade vegetables.

From me, 3.5 / 5. The vegetables while being the cheap side, can definitely do with a lot of improvement. If they were only somewhat fresh it would have dragged the score up to a 4.

Amos

I ordered a schnitzel with bacon and shallot sauce, and salad. The schnitzel itself was great; real meat and nice coating, the bread crumbs were pretty consistently sized and stuck well. The outermost crumbs were something of a gold colour, whereas the inner ones had hadn’t been exposed to the heat so much and weren’t. Had I had ordered just schnitzel and salad, a salad schnitzel or a schnitzel salad, or any combination of the three I would have joyed many times over. O indeed, had had I had listened to any of the ethereal decrees by those great gods of foods, such as YHWH, I would not have had the bacon nor the cream. Ere that I had had taken heed of Kronos, the chicken man, I would have limited myself to not two but one incestuous relationship the night before. Heard what I had had heard later earlier, I hid between the hard substitution of flavour with Plutus’ own just secretion – malsobered and stupefied by the intense aromas and flavor (ed. that showed up as a synonym for flavour), I wandered the streets alone with only my thoughts and what thoughts I thought I had had earlier left me promptly. I came upon a nunnery which had lost its whey. I licked it. It was too salty.

Ben

My first impression of The Gate’s hotel, Adamstown was quite literally “how do they fit all of this in here?”. Approaching from the road, this place looks tiny. Inside, however, there is room for a bar, keno/sports area, the bistro, tables with lots of space to spare and a small outside area for smokers and people who love being cold.

The staff are very friendly, well presented and polite to a tee. Drinks are well priced (it’s a pub, so this should be expected) and the menu at the bistro end covers all of what you would expect and most of what you would hope to see from a hotel eatery. But, we are only interested in the schnitty!

The schnitzels come in three varieties (all chicken); plain, parmigiana and Hawaiian. It all comes with the usual choice of chips and salad or vegetables as a side.
I ordered the parmigiana, my favourite, with vegetables and chips! The $18 price tag is JUST on the wrong side of expensive. If it were $16 I would say it’s about par for what you get on your plate.

A couple of intelligent conversations, and more than a few unintelligent conversations later, my meal was cooked and ready to eat. Schnitty on top of chips… it seems to be the norm, but it’s something I still can’t understand. Sure, it looks better because you see just how big (and they are quite large) the schnitty is – but you can’t eat it without losing some sides to the tabletop, or squashing some poor, helpless chips in the process. For sides, the chips were delicious. Pre-salted, perfectly cooked and lots of them. The vegetables were great, too; huge slices of carrot, some broccoli and (if I hadn’t refused it when ordering) some baked potato as well.

The schnitty was a great size, and thickness. It came hot and with plenty of rich parmigiana sauce and melted cheese everywhere. It isn’t the best tasting schnitzel in Newcastle, but when combined with those chips, a nice cold coke (or lemon, lime and bitters) from the bar, and good conversation – you won’t be left wanting.

Breaking it down like a fraction:
Price: 0
Size: 1
Hot: 1
Taste: 1
Sides: 1
Schnitty on top : -1

TOTAL 3 out of 5 schnittys.

While I heard this place was pretty good from my girlfriend’s multiple outings there, I think they have changed hands and sled downhill.

When we arrived we asked for a seat and the waitress hastily shoved to a corner, good seats though, overlooking the water. Straight away we knew there was something up. While I was ordering 2 bosciola schnitzels my girlfriend overheard a comment from a customer on the table next to us “The food was crap” said the man to the waiter “It made me want to vomit”. It was an interesting comment to hear prior to receiving your meal

As our food was placed at our table the waitress didn’t take away used plates or cups while placing down one meal at my end of the table, this was then moved over to my girlfriend’s side as I waited patiently for the waitress to bring over the next meal. A few minutes went by as I watched the waitress do other things around the restaurant, I went up to the counter and asked about the food as the counter staff apologized that she only put down one meal on the order but charged for two. She refunded the meal and still ordered it. Bonus! Or was it?

Eventually the second meal came out and I started eating, the schnitzel was alright but wasn’t going to make me want to vomit like mentioned earlier and definitely wasn’t worth the $18 each put down. Almost glad I was getting it for free apart from the guilt it would come out of someone’s pay that night. While eating our food a large table of other customers were voicing out loudly their concerns to the waitress, they were complaining about the service and left the restaurant after a large argument with the staff. After eating we hastily left the restaurant while they apologized about today’s events.

The counter person, waitress and chef all had complaints from various patrons. Not sure what the main problem was, it was a disconnect across the board on this night. The pluses is that this place serves some fine beers on tap (eg. Fat Yak & Beez Neez) and the positioning on Warners Bay overlooking the lake is excellent. It’s unfortunate that the restaurant section does not do this place any justice.

- Max

So its been a while since we have seen some awesome schnitty scrutinizing, hopefully this drought is broken.

The Nags or as the locals call it, the nags. is located in Adamstown http://www.thenags.com.au/

Kroony

Chicken Schnitzel With Diane sauce and Chips. A bit over $20
Side – Chips. Pretty average, just chips.
Topping – Dianne. Was almost bolognese in texture (like spaghetti with out the pasta, not like the breed of dog dog) Over all it was quite satisfying but perhaps they could have given me 80% less. Perhaps i should have asked for it on the side. Perhaps.
Schnitzel – Chicken. After a long dry spell any rain is welcome, even if its acidic rain from the local sulfur plant. You run out to dance in the rain with the rest of the towns folk but an hour later while applying burn cream to your face u realize it wasn’t actually that good*. While eating it I was saying “by golly gosh darn skedoo, this is an awesome schnitty” but in hindsight it could have been better. It was just pretty average, the only thing special about it was that i had not had schnitty in a while. This schnitty would have impressed me a lot more if i didn’t pay over $20 for it.

Overall i give this 3 schnittys out of 5

*In no way did the schnitty chemically burn my face or any other part of my person

Amos

They had James Squire Golden Ale on tap for less than five dollars, which both surprised and pleased me, so my first impressions were good. They have this cool waterfall thing at the front entrance. It’s full of swank.
The meals were pretty expensive; I ordered a chicken schnitzel with ‘Mexican topping’ (i.e. cheese, beans, avocado, tomato, sour cream etc) and that was about twenty dollars. My partner ordered bruschetta and ‘beer battered chips with aioli and pesto’, which were about seven dollars each.
Despite ordering later than the rest of the party, all our meals came out quickly and at roughly the same time. The bruschetta was cold, poor quality bread, and over saturated in caramelised balsamic vinegar. The beer battered chips however, were wonderful and the aioli was very flavorful without being overpowering.
The schnitzel was mediocre.

Scott

Coming soon to your local schnitty.com

James

The presentation of the premises was immaculate and I was quit impressed by the amount of space that could be found in what, from the outside, appeared to be a small building. The staff were very polite and also very well presented. Dining in the back room gave the feel of a small hotel restaurant which generated a very nice atmosphere. I was quite surprised how European it looked, which is unusual for Newcastle.

The Shnitty itself was large and looked very nice. It was moist but not wet and the sauce (Standard Hawaiian – Pineapple, cheese and Bacon) was very liberally offered. Some other places I/we have been only offer 2 or 3 pieces of Bacon but here, the entire thing was covered.

The meat was a little bland but had enough taste to stick with it. It was large which made up for it and the topping added to the flavor bring it out about par.

The price was slightly on the expensive side – a shade over $20 for the full thing but it didn’t completely disappoint.

4.5 Schnitties for the premesis,
3 Schnitties for the Schnitty
3 Schnitties for the Price
4 Schnitties over all

The sort of place for a quite meal

Brasserie 88 at Wests Leagues Club

The place

Brasserie 88 is upstairs at the Wests Leagues Club. I have never noticed it before. The place has a good feel with quality surroundings. There are curtains that (at night, anyway) cover the length and breath of the room-wide windows, which was disappointing as we think the view would have been good. This is because the feature wall was red but looked like it was patterned with plywood. The place was almost full. The woman that served us was so polite that I felt we should have apologized to her for not being better dressed…………or resembling Brad Pitt.

The food

There are 3 schnittys on the menu. A carbonara, a seafood one and mine was a tomato salsa affair minus the scoop of guacamole.

My meal consisted of two small but very thick and soft schnittys covered in a tomato paste, chopped red onion and diced tomato.

The red onion had a bit of bite to it but was thankfully cooked, not raw like some places. The salad was a standard combination of different lettuces, more tomato and some very weak dressing. The chips were good and crispy. Due to the number of guests that night, the meals took what felt like 30 mins to arrive. We noted that, had we gone to the “food court” or whatever spin Wests want to put on it, we would have finished our meals by the time we received them at Brasserie 88. The birthday boy claimed his wasn’t as hot as he was expecting. Mine was fine. The damage was $20.

The verdict

The size, softness and thickness of the schnitty was very appealing. In fact the whole meal was brilliant. My complaints lie with the place itself.

The lighting could have been a bit brighter, it would have been nice to have a view instead of looking at curtains that resemble those at your grannies, the meal took ages to arrive, even with good conversation. Oh, nearly forgot, you have to walk over to a separate bar area to see the beer available as it’s not on the wine/other beverage list nor the menu that has height/compensation issues. Seriously, if you’re on a blind date and you don’t like the look of them, take them here and ask to have the menus left on the table. Only, you won’t have anything else to look at.

P.S Our birthday boy had vouchers which gave us a discount of $10 which was nice. Even better that he had 7 of them and we were allowed to use all 7 at once.

“So that’s 3 meals, a beer and two cokes, less $70 discount. That comes to $6.35 please”

“……….”

“Awesome”

4/5

After our lengthy summer break we are back to review some more schnittys

At the end of round one we all selected the Stag and hunter at Mayfield the winner of the Golden Holy Schnitzel Grail

So congrats Stag and hunter.

There is a small back log of Reviews from the start of round 2 which will be posted soon… so stay tuned.

Ben

Having never been to the Gateshead tavern before, I found the venue surprisingly empty. Apart from a few patrons enjoying the cricket, the bar staff, a single kitchen-hand and one man eating a meal, it was just the seven of us who arrived for a banquet of schnitty.

The (already mentioned) solo-waiter slash chef took our orders, but was unable to provide us with vegetables or mushroom sauce. I ordered mine sauce-less and planned to add tomato sauce to the plate later. I am thankful I didn’t have to buy tiny sachets of sauce at 30 cents a pop; there was a hefty and full squirter-bottle of tomato goodness for all to use, next to the little packets of salt and pepper, and cutlery.

Schnitty cost me $13, not bad at all.

Outside was the place to be, it was a warm night but not too warm to warrant the ice-age replicating air conditioners churning in the foodatorium.

The schnittys were cooked in very good time given that it was just the one chap doing all the cooking. We were lucky that we were the only ones ordering at the time, or it may have been an attempt at the 40-hour famine before we were eating. The schnitty was hot and looked delicious. My chips were a bit on the warm side, but not so much so that I would be taking them back. The salad was simple, some green stuff and some red stuff, but tasty nonetheless. I expected a little more chips:salad ratio, however. This plus the schnitty on top will cost half a point.

A schooner of coke from the bar was ice cold, with the perfect amount of ice, and cost only $2.20 – well worth it.

The meal was delightful, however. I was in good company with a good meal for a reasonable price. Given the price and quality of the food, in hindsight I’m surprised that there were not more people around.

As we were leaving the “night club” started, which also forced the other party of patrons to leave as well, which I thought was funny.

4/5 schittys.

Scott

Arriving early, the pub was a bit.. boring, large drinking area and a small pokies area which sucked and if you wanted any money out of the pokies you had to ask a staff member.. lame. Anyway once everyone arrived we set upon the eating area (which.. was a dance floor?) and ordered from a bewildered looking chef. Im guessing they don’t have many customers on Friday nights, as they only hired one person to take care of the kitchen. Well it was a bit slow ordering, but nothing to write home about and the meals were fairly quick.

I tried to have the usual, Pepper sauce schnitty with chips and veges, but he was out of vegetables so I settled for chips and chips. It cost $13ish. The chips were steakhouse style, tasted good and were hot (well mine were..) and there was plenty of them. The schnitty itself was deep fried perfectly, crisp and no detectable hint of fish/other fried goods. Nowhere near enough pepper sauce though but there was ample supply of tomato sauce so no issues there.

For an establishment, on face value having one chef put up with the group of us they get 2/5. The chef himself did a fantastic job in my opinion, and gets 4/5, a point off for no vegetables and not enough sauce. So the outing as a whole, I rate it 3/5.

Ras

As we entered the Gateshead Tavern, we had to wander out in the back to the dining area. This was a dark, freezing air conditioned area where tables are laid out in a 90′s fashioned multi-purpose room (I’d probably rate the eating area 2/5), so we setup in the outside area. There was 1 man cooking & serving the food, I frowned and thought we were going to get a bad meal.

He served us, cooked 7 meals in a reasonable time and managed to keep them hot when they were ready… and the taste… very good!

The schnitzel was cooked well and was thick (4/5)… I was expecting something undercooked or overcooked, the pepper sauce was kind-of gluggy but was still nice/not overdone, the salad was crisp and the chips were much better than some restaurants we have ventured to (without mentioning names hehe). Price was great too being under $14

Even though he did a great job, give that poor guy another staff member! 3/5

Scott

Initial expectations were low.
Me: Hi Id like to order, Im from the table for kroon. *insert order here*
Lady: Hi no worries, what table number will that be?
Me: The table reserved for kroon
Lady: Wheres that?
Me: Um?
Steve: He is with our table, the reservation for kroon
Lady: Oh ok, thats fine.

The tables were blow-moulded cheap style from bunnings. Not kidding. The chairs were hard plastic, worse than what you would find at TAFE. The corner the ‘kroon’ table was in was in the dim-lit corner. There were kids everywhere. There were people everywhere come to think of it, all wanting food and popping out extra kids as the night went on. Table wasnt the cleanest, I say this as there was an unknown substance rolled up in a napkin that rob removed gracefully by smacking it with the table sign.

The wait was pretty normal, about 10-15 minutes. There were quite a number of people so this was understandable. When the food came out first impressions were kinda.. low – The schnitty looked small. It was also on the plate, not piled on the chips which surprised us all. I ordered the schnitty with a ‘Triple Cheese’ topping, pepper sauce (which came in a bowl on the side) chips and veges. The veges were ok, the carrot was chopped up pretty fine though, which made it hard to get on the fork. Corn was fine, beans I skipped and the cauliflower was pretty bang-on. The chips were really nice, top quality with a nice crunchy exterior texture. The pepper sauce tasted like an entire 6L pot of gravy was mixed with one sachet of pepper from mcdonalds, and they decided that that was enough.

Onto the schnitzel itself and it was pretty damn perfect. The cheesy aroma was good, the coverage of the schnitzel was perfect and they didnt skimp on thickness either. It was about as good as cheese toppings can get on a moderately thick perfectly cooked schnitzel. The chicken held together really well and tasted pretty real as far as schnitzels go. The batter was thick and held together like araldite was used as the main constituent and then they covered it with liquid nails just to be sure. Id go as far to say this was a $20 meal. Cost? For me, since I had the pepper sauce side, $12. For everyone else it was only $10. $10! This would have to be one of the best $10 meals you can purchase. Points lost for cheap feel of furniture and minimal lighting however the surprise of a brilliant meal more than makes up for it. Highly recommended, 4.5 out of 5.

Check soon for ‘www.schnitty.com endorsed’ advertisements in the newspapers and large banners over the bar haha.

Amos

Ten dollar schnitzel with a napolitana sauce, cheese, and spinach on top. It generally comes with bacon too, but I had just bought a copy of the Qur’an and didn’t want to be rude. Everything about the food was perfect. I think the corn was cooked in honey or something, or otherwise it was just really nice corn…
The beer was lacking. Nothing decent on tap, so I just drank Tooheys Old. I couldn’t even see any bottles of Coopers anywhere, but they might have just been hidden.

Kroony

Chicken Schnitzel With Diane sauce and Chips $10.00!!!
Staff - The staff were pleasant and welcoming. only complaint is that they took a phone off the table and put it in the rubbish bin by mistake.
Side – Chips. These were some awesome chips. they looked normal and i still cant tell what they did to them but there were very nice.
Topping -Dianne. This was one of the finest dianne sauces i have had. It was thick unlike far too many others. It also used real crushed garlic that you could see.
Schnitzel - Chicken. Keeping in theme with the rest of the plate the schnitty was a delight. The cooks obviously not afraid to leave them cooking just that little bit longer to make sure they are not soggy. the outside was crispy and the inside was juicy. My only complaint was that compared to some others on the table mine was quite small. Shame really cause i was enjoying it so much.

Over all 4.5 schnittys out of 5. For $10 it does not get much better then that.

Scott

Rocked up at the Generals at about the right time, went inside.. sat around on chairs that were a mixture of bouncy and uncomfortable. I didnt have too much of a problem with mine though. Out came the menus, very hard choice for me, Schnitty with veges/chips and pepper sauce. It didnt take them long to refer to our table as ‘The table of Schnitzels’. Costed around $20.

The wait wasnt too bad considering it was a packed friday night. The meal came with plenty of pepper sauce, however the gravy base was cheap and the actual pepper taste wasnt very strong. There was some pink.. 4-leaf clover type.. grass on the top, but that joined the enormous pile of beans on the side of my plate, destined for the bin. I ate a ‘normal’ serving of the beans but there was just too much left over still, and not enough carrot or broccoli. Others had the exact opposite. The corn was a welcome change, however the cobs had been cut short so that they were about 20mm thick which made it hard to eat. If they took the same amount of corn, and left it in one piece it would work for me just that much more. Chips were about average. The schnitty itself was pretty damn fine, thick, juicy, all those wonderful connotations that go with fine food. Probably hard to beat the quality of it.

Last of all, these guys organised some assorted cakes for the birthday boy that was pretty damn fine. Not much to complain about, vegetables, sauce and price were the let downs. 3.5 schnittys.