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

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

Apparently the three people who still listen to KOFM voted it the best pub in Newcastle so they were all happy about that. Rest assured, they aren’t.

We had booked the table. We stood in line for 20 minutes. They cant use the cash registers properly and even though someone waves a voucher in their face, they ‘mis-enter’ it and ‘cant undo it’, resulting in one of us paying full price. Customer service apparently goes out the window when a local radio station votes you as the best. Waiting in line for so long would be understandable if there were people in front of our group – but there basically wasn’t. For the first 5 minutes there was, but they were served after having the menu carefully explained to them which just left us waiting.

Bad start to a good meal. I ordered the schnitty with a pepper sauce topping and vegetable/chip sides. Costed $13 when used in conjunction with a voucher, if not it totals around the $19 mark. Once seated the atmosphere was loud and friendly, normal familys having dinner. The footy was on one of their screens, which had the attention of a few people. Meals didnt take too long to cook, and within 15 minutes we were ploughing into them.

Ill describe the plate. Vegetables from the jurassic period. Seriously, the stalk of brocolli when in a garden could have provided shade to an emu. The cauliflower wasnt much smaller. The schnitzel looked .. schnitzelish, and the beer battered chips were under with a pepper sauce covering it. On first bite i got really excited by the ferocity of the sauce – finally a peppery sauce! No. Just that first bite, the rest was the standard pub diluted down gravy with pepper taste. The vegetables went down easy, cooked well for their size and nothing to complain about there. The chips were perfect, if a little squished. The schnitty was crumbed in a thick batter, but the batter itself used tiny crumbing, so it tasted great and held together. I liked this overall, but it looses a point for the initial ‘pretend they dont exist’ poor service. 4 / 5.

Andy

We decided to venture out of the Newcastle region into unchartered territory. Maitland isnt far from my home town of Kurri, so i was quiet happy to give the ‘local grub’ a taste.

Our night started out in a way that can only destroy my hopes of awarding a 5/5. I was first in line, presented my voucher for a $5 second meal with the purchase of one full priced meal…umm’d over the menu for a little while and finally took a pick at a schnitty to my likings. I paid, assuming that the next person in line would only get charged $5…however apparently not! The woman just said “No i cant do that, you’ve already paid. It has to be done together”, and here i was thinking i had done the right thing. After about 5 seconds of disbelief i just took my seat.

But wait, theres more! Before this display of untrained customer service (Or perhaps she just didnt care?) we had been standing in line for a pretty long time. Past experiences at the G&D had a similar smell to this experience…despite there only being one or two people in front of us. we seemed to wait an eternity while the staff fought with their cash register and the individual purchasing had the entire menu explained to them in three different languages (One can only presume english – which they wouldnt understand, Bogan-English – which sinks in a little more, and then a mix of pictures and grunts – which hits the spot!). After an epic wait we were excited to be ordering, by this time normally I’d be excited to be eating.

The meal, great. Cant really complain all that much. The vegetables were good, but again as i’m seeing everywhere the carrot i grated into super thin long strands of hair like food. I’m not a fan of this, i just cant get a grip of it on the fork? Maybe i’m retarded….(or maybe the meal designer is).

The schnitty was well cooked, again the chips (as they are everywhere) were under the schnitty. I suppose they do this because it keeps it warm, but it really screws you up when you try cut the chicken.

I propose an experiment. Next time you order, insist on non grated carrot and chips on top of the chicken.

Pubs in this area remind me of coffee in Tasmania. Every single coffee house in Launceston had a sign “The best coffee sold here!”, either i missed the point and “best coffee” is a brand, or they’re as full of s@#t as pubs in the Hunter Valley are. You see this pub was voted the best in the Hunter Valley by the listeners of KOFM…weird!

I’m only happy to hand over a 2/5. 1 point off for service delays, 1 point for mistakes and another point for false advertising. The meals are nothing special, they’re not bad at all, I’d recommend them, but they are not “The Best”. Oh yeah, obviously this demonstrates that KOFM isnt worth listening too either…

Ras

After being told from KOFM that the George and Dragon tavern had the best Schnitzel in Newcastle, we decided to give this place a shot. For some reason KOFM is calling Maitland a part of Newcastle which isn’t really true. Even the entertainment book had it listed in the Hunter Valley. Just advertising to get people there from Newcastle, I can’t stand KOFM

Don’t bother with Entertainment book coupons here when on the George and Dragon website there is a coupon for buy one main get the next for $5 coupon up to November, really good value considering the meals they have here.

The customer service was awful as told by the previous reviewers. Slow and painful not only because there were some old ladies in front of us who couldn’t decide what to order, it should be table ordering so we don’t have to stand around. I had no idea someone didn’t get to use their voucher too, that’s lame. Andy said they act like it’s a privelage that your at the restaurant and it’s true.

The schnitty came out faster than I expected but after waiting so long to be served initially it wasn’t that great. I had the mexican schnitzel which as usual had the sour cream (a bit too much though), guacamole and chips on top accompanied by some beer battered chips and a colourful salad. It was well cooked, very filling (couldn’t eat the entire salad) and the chips were great

I’ll give it a good 3/5. Not worth going out to Maitland for the schnitty (there were some other interesting meals on the menu though), if your in Maitland it’s good although I haven’t been anywhere else in Maitland to compare it to.

Amos

$5.70 pint of Coopers Pale Ale. It tasted a little bit like ashtray, though. We were standing around at the register for a while, but that just gave me time to get a beer instead of waiting.

The meal seemed to come out relatively quickly, but I wasn’t counting. Great presentation; the entire plate was symmetrical, whatever that matters or means. I had a schnitzel with creamy garlic sauce, salad and chips. The garlic sauce was pretty sparse on the garlic but that’s fine; I’d rather too little than too much.

Chips under schnitzel. I like it. I mean, you really only have two other choices: a huge plate, or chips over schnitzel. Huge plates just won’t work: the entire restaurant culture is far too conducive to claustrophobia to start with, so just try to imagine a banquet-sized plate on your lap and you’ll go red with fury. Chips over schnitzel, then. Sure, but where does the sauce go? On the chips. Soggy chips. No, no, no. Just think, who is more deserving of sauce: the schnitzel or the chips? That’s right. And seriously, a schnitzel is just a piece of dead meat unless you’ve got a good sauce that makes it worth eating.

3.5 of 5

Ben

The George and Dragon looks and feels like a great venue for families and friends to enjoy a meal together. The large rooms, kids corner and almost literally a TV on every wall is a friendly change to the five squared meters of eating area on small round tables and keno cards wherever the eye can see.

Very few venues include enough table space for you to eat your meal without interrupting the person next to you, or in front of you, but the furniture at the George and Dragon was larger than your average bear, which is a plus.

The prices for a simple schnitty, chips and some veg was a bit out of the park, and would have been mitigated if the 2-meals vouchers would have worked for everyone. Mine worked and I ended up paying a little over $10 for my meal. The ordering system really needs some work as well. They have the register, and hense the lines to form in front of it, stretching across the smallest walkthrough in the entire pub! Constantly patrons are being asked to move out of the way by unfriendly kitchen-hands moving to and fro. Not only this, but there must be a rule where only one worker uses the cash register each shift. The lady taking orders took it under her administration to help two ladies identify everything they’ve ever eaten and whether or not it was on the menu, while the rest of us were ready, willing and able to place our orders. Any other staff member could have taken either the role of helping Mrs. Illiterate with the menu or serving the other customers.

My schnitty, with parmigiana topping was of decent size, with delicious beer-battered chips and very nicely cooked vegetables. I particularly liked the melted cheese. The meat was a very good thickness and was cooked very well. With the parmigiana topping and the vegetables it was actually a very filling and tasty meal. The dispensed coke was also nice, with a little more ice than anyone short of a polar bear feeling homesick would enjoy.

I have to re-iterate what was already mentioned about the presentation. Every venue seems to take the “schnitty on top of chips” thing as some cardinal rule. In practice it means that when you look at the dish you instantly know it’s a chicken schnitzel with some vegetables and chips, but that the chips are quickly making the under-side of the schnitty soggy, and will surely be crushed themselves when the schnitty is being cut. The solution for this surely seems to be the schnitty, followed by the sauce/topping and then chips on top. This way you not only still get a flavoursome schnitty, but the chips get a bit of that flavour as well and noone gets squashed or soggy!

Overall it was a good meal, though nothing to blow my tastebuds away. The atmosphere was what one would expect and the service could definitely be improved.

3/5