Well it was about time we got around to going down to jewells considering they claim to have ‘Golden Holy Schnitzel’

http://www.jewellstavern.com.au/

Scotts

These guys have (or used to?) have advertising of ‘Newcastle’s Best Schnitzel’ somewhere, and being local to work, I had eaten there quite a few times and they had been good. Fast forward to now however…

First, we were shoved outside. Regardless of the fact it wasn’t booked, there were enough tables around empty inside, and in one case, 2 people (who had finished their food) were just sitting at a big enough table for our group. I guess the staff just weren’t interested in lifting a finger to actually work on a Friday night. As for menu design, similar to the Mattaras and still annoying. Such a seemingly high price and only a little a choice of toppings. These guys need to go to Waratah Rugby Club and see the amount of toppings they give, on their cheaper budget.

So onto outside. Was not too cold, and once Andrew had performed magic tricks to get the heaters going, it was bearable. The seats are terrible though, I did not want to sit on the style of furniture they had in colonial 1800. Long heavy frozen lumps of wood they call benches are not high in my list of comfortable things to sit on. Also on the outside – the kids. Just walking outside had me almost clean up some small kid who was running through all the tables. Theres a wooden box full of PS2s, a jungle gym, and kids still feel the need to play up in the eating area. The incessant screaming made it hard for conversation and it actually got worse later on when we were in the car park, it sounded like they decided to have a screaming contest..

The food. Not too bad for a $10 schnitzel, unfortunately it wasn’t a $10 schnitzel. It was $18.50ish. I ordered my schnitzel with chips and vegetables, with a honey-mustard topping. There must have been some serious changes since last I came here, as this was nowhere near as good as 6 months ago. Nowhere near enough sauce came, and the schnitzel was normal sized, the chips normal… veges was pretty good though. Corn/beans/broccoli/cauliflower/carrot. The schnitzel itself was ok, but not on par with the $18 ticketed price. Just an average run of the mill variety that Joes Bar could serve out.

I finished the meal, but it just didn’t have that aura of being a good meal. I’m giving it a 3 out of 5, as I expected more. Maybe that’s the problem? Or maybe they had too much of a good thing and got greedy.

Ras

Newcastle’s Best Schnitzel is a somewhat disappointment. But hear me out

There were 10 people ordering, one of our larger attendance nights were here tonight and they have a regulation to bring out all meals out on time. But so does Mattara and that was pretty good (though they are owned by the same people), we had a large group then too. This could of easily degraded the quality.

So we ordered, no booking to a place that’s INCREDIBLY busy at times, but its hard to book when you have a group with invitees which can’t commit to coming. Ushered outside and got the heaters working, it wasn’t too cold and the kids playground screaming was our punishment for not booking. Great kids playground, I used to love it when I was younger, hasn’t changed a bit (for the good?)

I was distracted for a moment by an old friend who was there and my garlic bread was eaten by the usual culprits who don’t order things they want! Bastards! But then out came the meal which made me grateful I didn’t fill up on the bread…

My schnitzel was HUGE! It was stacked on top of the chips beside the salad on an extremely large plate. It had a muggyish honey mustard sauce which didn’t have too much honey mustard flavor and wasn’t really enough to cover the whole meal. After I had finished eating it, I was full, definitely at the regrettable that you have eaten too much level. It was a decent sized meal however as pointed out by others it was missing the accomplishment feeling. It was like I have just eaten something half-decent, something wasn’t there, I think it was the fact the schnitzel was a bit too dry and not enough sauce was given to counter-act it.

Even though it didn’t fulfill the expected title of best schnitzel, it was still somewhat up there and I give it a 3/5

Ndroo

Service: Good, no complaints. We had to sit outside as per usual but they had some very nice heaters to keep us warm, no one helped us turn them on despite the fact we expressed interest in using them (Safety hazard?)…however eventually we got them going, and assisted a nearby customer of the tavern to turn theirs on. Hearing the band that was playing inside i wasn’t that upset to sit outside anyway, they were way too loud. The food came out quickly, woman serving obviously didn’t have much understanding of the food as she named one of the meals “Schnitzel and orange”, that orange was actually lemon (Still lemon?).

3/5

Location / Environment: Jewels is a bit far out, i guess they have a fair hold on the area as there are not a massive amount of choices when it comes to eat out food. The place itself isn’t too bad, the outdoor area has too many kids…however i assume that’s what its there for. Don’t get too excited about their “Playstation cave”, not only do you have to be a certain age to get in…they’re old ps2’s and i wouldn’t really want to touch a control that a snotty nosed kid had touched, just before i eat my mean.

2/5

Food: Terrible. Overcooked, obviously sat around and was left to dry out for a while…the chips were good, the salad was OK but the part we were interested, the schnitty…was terrible. I would not recommend this place, they need to step up the quality of their OVERPRICED food ($18). These people need to check out the competition and see that a schnitty of that quality is worth $10 at most, maybe $11 or $12. The best schnitzel we’ve had so far was $14 and far thicker, juicer and in general better cooked.

2/5

It fed me, but i wasn’t excited about it nor do i want to go back unless there’s a good reason.

Feel free to invite us back once you’ve improved your meals…

Ben

As my first schnitty in Newcastle and my first time reviewing a schnitty, I was both at the advantage of having an open, unbiased opinion of my meal, and the disadvantage of not knowing what to expect.

Atmosphere:
The first thing I noticed was the venue was a very children-friendly place, with the kids play area and “Playstation Cave” being what surrounds patrons on their way into the dining area. Unfortunately there was not enough seating to accommodate for our party so we were left with no other option but to eat outside with the fun-loving, yet noise polluting collection of kids. There was no music being played, nor was there any other distraction from this noise such as a TV showing the football (or Olympic games), which I found disappointing. The giant fish on display between the outside area and the inside was a nice touch.

Service/Pricing:
The lady who served me was very friendly, or at least as friendly as one would expect without becoming concerned or uncomfortable. The self-serve cutlery and condiments placed unmissable near the register and queuing area was a benefit to the entire experience, as I find myself spinning around, salt shakers in one hand, plate of schnitzel in the other, trying to find a knife and fork to use while dodging other hungry individuals as one of my least favorite things to do on a Friday night. We were told that someone would turn on the heaters for us outside, but by the time we made it out there and realized we were still cold, Andrew did what any tech-head would and play around with knobs and wires until the heaters were warm once more. Another party of patrons asked the group how to get the heaters turned on, too, which further illustrates the lack of motivation the staff might have had regarding the guests outside in the cold.
I ordered the small schnitty with salad and chips for $14.50. This would seem reasonable if it were for a large schnitty, but for a small it was a little pricey, and over $18 for a large schnitzel was just plain expensive.

Food:
The most important part of the review is finally here, and to be honest I didn’t mind my schnitzel. It was on the large side for a “small” serving, I liked the steak fries and the tomato sauce wasn’t that terrible “no added salt” stuff that doesn’t taste anything like tomato sauce. The salad was disappointing and made me wish I had selected the vegetables instead. I am a simple salad lover; give me lettuce, tomato, cheese, and some carrot and I will love it. Instead I had long strings of green and fat clubs of green of which neither looked appetizing. I did like the lemon.

Overall I would give my experience a 2.5/5 but if I had to round up or down I would round it up to 3. There was a lot more I would expect for a $14.50 meal that just wasn’t there. Until next time.

Gman

Honey Mustard Full Schnitty
There was and wasn’t anticipation for this. I was hungry and chose the full schnitty but I was a tad disappointed with the range. Full or half and no toppings, only sauces. Then again in comparison to the 20+ choices of the Waratah Rugby Leagues Club below, it was bound to be a let down.
That said, the Honey Mustard schnitty came out and could be smelt from a distance. A sweet honey scent with a tiny bit of pleasantly off putting bite. Much the same with the taste. The full schnitty was huge, 10mins in it looked like I had made no progress whatsoever.
Steak chips and a good salad. Schnitty was so good, the government will probably shut the place down.
Is this allowed? 5/5 schnittys, not the best in Newcastle………….yet.

It was Ras’ pick this week so we went somewhere a little off the beaten path

Waratah Rugby Leagues Club

Gman

Mexican Meatball Schnitzel – this was pizza on a schnitzel. Oh yes, it was good.

Large schnitzel covered in cheese, so much so that I don’t really remember seeing crumbing or batter. A mountain of sour cream and lava like pourings of sweet chilli sauce.

Unfortunately, like The Dark Knight, you can have too much of a good thing. The meatballs had a classic sausage taste which I am not a fan of. After a while the whole thing became tasteless and underwhelming which was a great shame.

An idea for……….. a bacon mcflurry…………. was suggested…………….. must investigate

4/5 schnittys

Kroony

Chicken Schnitzel With ‘MeatLovers’ Topping – $18.00
I feel kinda bad now walking into the place i got the initial impression that this was a bogan filled sports bar where outsiders would not be treated nicely. Apart from a little uncalled abuse I was mostly wrong.

Staff – A lovely little old lady served us who also brought the food to our table.
Company – We had people visiting from Townsville but there was a mixup/communication error and they didnt attend. Otherwise i think there was 7 of us a few non regulars.
Side – Chips. A very generous serving of chips were placed next to my schnitty
Topping – This was the winner, ‘meatlovers’, It started with a BBQ sauce base with melted cheese on that. Placed on the cheese was Bacon, sausage meatballs and salami. Quite the meatlovers indeed. With the Meatballs and the sausage it brought a very Italian flavor to a very different topping
Schnitzel – Wow after all that meat there was still a whole schnitty under it. The schnitty its self wasnt anything fantastic. With out the topping it would have scored low but the copious amounts of BBQ sauce mostly covered up the slight dryness. The batter was a good thickness and over all it was cooked evenly.

Overall I have given this meal a 3.5 out of 5. With 19 other toppings to choose from I dare say i will be coming back here sometime. If your looking for some variety or some peace and quiet I do recommend.

Scott

Before this review, I hadn’t heard of this place. Someone queried ‘Isn’t that the place they are going to knock down?’ and I had no answer… So we give it a try and the pub again is full of locals, one of whom abused our group for ’standing around’ near a doorway. Now we weren’t blocking the doorway in the slightest – but this is the intelligence we can expect from the people who are locals at waratah…

The menu was quite comprehensive, a list of 20-30 different schnitzel combination’s, all reasonably priced. I picked the $18 ‘Meatlovers’ schnitzel and a $4 old school chocolate milkshake. The wait wasn’t too long, with all of us discussing the recent wedding, and various trips around the place until they arrived. For the money you certainly got a lot of meat, but the sides were a little disappointing. The vegetables were good, but not many and the chips were so/so and there was only about 10 of them. Ah well. The schnitzel was of a decent variety, thickish and cooked but covered with a barbecue sauce that is so strong in taste it, dare I say, ruined the meal? There was ample bacon in large pieces, lumps of sausage and lots of cheese, but the sauce was over the top. If I were to try this meal again at some point, I would asked without sauce and I daresay it would have been a 4 at least, and a 2 with. The milkshake was good – so I will bump it up to a 3.

We have a few people that come to schnittys from out Kurri Kurri way so its only fair that the rest of us head up that way now and then to try their schnittys.

Neath Hotel

Scott

After arriving the issue was how to find the dining room. The pub part smelt like a urinal, and the locals had no interests other than staring at whatever sports were on tv or chatting to the barstaff. So we entered the main bar area, then exited out the back entrance and came back inside a different door and that was the dining area. Complicated yes?

So I ordered a chicken schnitzel with pepper sauce, ($22?) and with that came chips and salad (forgot the vegetables!) We waited a fair while, wasn’t too long but it certainly wasn’t a short wait. The food though was pretty excellent, thick schnitzel with a very nice pepper sauce. Salad wasn’t anything to write home about. All in all a good feed, but pricey and out-of-the-way for most novo’s.

3.5 out of 5.

Due to strict time constraints as someone was working night shift we went in town to the The Great Northern. – Link

Ras

The Place
This is my first time to the Great Northern Hotel. This place is old, it could be a haunted house. Might of been damaged by the 1989 Newcastle earthquake and half repaired.

While entering, the eating area wasn’t evident except for a specials board in the bar. It was fairly dark inside, the lights were not complimenting the place, I’m sure that alone will bring the mood of the place up. After we ordered from the bar we were quickly ushered into an empty room with tables, which was the foyer with the lift of the hotel. The doors were open (as usual foyer doors are) so it was cold, with a straight look at customs house. It was completely empty with no one else there except from the 1 bar staff running back and forth through the room. The foyer has the odd paintings of Newcastle’s history of the coal industry, construction and the beach (the usual paintings you see around Newcastle).

The building has definitely seen a lot in it’s lifetime and is being renovated slowly. It’s not a comfortable eating place but it has a popular night life on Wed and Fridays

The Schnitty
The order took about 30minutes for 4 people, pretty decent
The schnittys were delivered, they had nice modern presentation which was unexpected from me
I ordered the Mexicana (as usual), every place does this different. This one tasted like spaghetti bolognaise on a schnitty with kidney beans, which is more of an Italian dish rather than Mexican. It didn’t have an ounce of spice or seasoning in it, it was still eatable though.
The chicken was cooked properly but very average in taste

Not very great, but eatable
1/5 Schnitties