The Great Schnitty Search - Part 1

January 30, 2025

The chicken schnitzel (with chips, of course) is a staple of pub and café menus. With so many places offering this delicacy around the area, Oberon Matters embarked on a journey to try them all.

Never say we're short of places to eat around here.

The first six schnitzels are here this week. The rest will come next week (with a few honourable mentions).

Hampton Halfway House - $18

An extremely pleasant place for a meal. The schnitzel was excellent and big enough to completely cover the serving of chips.

Eating outside on a fine day can't be beaten (and if it's a miserable day you can eat inside). The view alone could make this the best schnitty in the area, but look at the price!

How could you fail to enjoy a meal with this view?

9.4/10 (the price and the view help the score a lot)

O'Connell Hotel - $25 (or $28 if you want the calamari extra)

Oberon Matters has had excellent feeds at the O'Connell Hotel in the past, so the meal this day was a little disappointing. The schnitzel was overcooked and a bit dry but as experience suggests this was an anomaly probably caused by a busy kitchen the shortcoming can be excused. And the calamari on top - "Meh". Leave it out and put the extra $3 towards a beer from local brewers Reckless or Cosmo.

The chicken and squid combination is called Surf'n'Bird, which demands an earworm from the Trashmen. Enjoy!

8/10 (this would be a 9+ if the chicken had been cooked for a shorter time)

Cave Pizza, Oberon - $19 (or $17 if you take it home and save them the washing up)

They might be known for the excellent quality of their pizzas but it turns out that they can do a very acceptable schnitzel as well. The chicken was moist and delicious and like all real schnitties there were too many chips to eat. The service was also remarkably quick given that Oberon Matters was there at pizza peak hour on Friday evening when the staff were all very busy attending to customers who had decided that they didn't want to cook anything for dinner. Not a pub so no beer, but that didn't spoil the experience.

9.4/10 (Extra points for the rapid service when half the town was clamouring for a pizza or two. Or three.)

Café Oberon - $19

Another schnitty without the almost mandatory accompanying beer, but it's a café so a pot of tea had to do. Delicious as always, with some magic crumb ingredient that gives it extra crunch. As carrots and corn are two of my least favourite vegetables I had to do with only the chips, but that wasn't a hardship as they were about as good as chips get (and there were too many, of course). Lunch only (and maybe breakfast?) but perfect for reading the paper on Saturday afternoon.

9.6/10 This is almost as good as a schnitty can be.

Oberon RSL - $25

Club food tends to be like pub food, so it was no surprise to find that despite being promoted as a Chinese restaurant there was a schnitty on the menu. And very nice it was too. As with all good schnitzels, there was just a little too much food to eat.

One thing to watch out for though. The bistro is under new management (again!) and they haven't yet got the facility to give club members the traditional discount. This will come some time in the future.

9.3/10 (Plus an additional 0.2 when the club discount clicks in.)

DJ'S Cafe and Takeaway - $17

Another place where the schnitty can't be accompanied by a beer, but as DJ's have the cheapest pot of tea in town they can be forgiven. And the meal comes with a very nice bowl of salad. The chicken part might look a bit a small but it was perfectly adequate and even after eating all of it there wasn't stomach room for all the chips so the meal met the "Can't eat it all" test.

9.5/10

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On to Part 2

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