Bavarian Beir Cafe is located in the old St Andrews Church building in Parramatta - a very impressive and beautiful setting indeed. The main dining room is enormous and retains just enough of a touch of its former church-i-ness that it doesn't feel too sacrilegious downing the great vats of beer/bier on offer.
The "small" 350ml Bier glasses here hold about 10 times what I would normally drink...but when in a faux German Bier Hall I like to go with the flow. The Boy choose a Stiegl Goldbräu ($11 for 500ml) and I went for the Franziskaner Lemon Weissbier ($7.50 for 350ml), a type of wheat beer with a splash of Limonata. YUM, German shandy!
Because I was still getting over the epic degustation from Restaurant Arras the previous night I convinced The Boy to share the Münchner Brauhaus Platter ($37.70) with me - though there has got to be no way one person could eat all of this meat...or is there?
The platter contains generous serves of Crackling Roast Pork Belly (best crackling - so salty and crunchy), Char-Grilled Kassler (aka Ham Steak), Sausages, Chicken Schnitzel, Sauerkraut, Red Cabbage and Sebago Mash. Up until this point I have despised Sauerkraut and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut beyond all reason - but I have to say these guys have changed my mind. YUM!
For the price I think this is an excellent option when sharing with someone else. And good news is that most of the meat here is Organic and Free Range which I think is impressive for chain of restaurants used to churning out big numbers of meals.
I order a token Side Salad ($6.00) just so my arteries know I care about them...sort of.
After our meal we waddled down to Prince Alfred Park to catch a show in the fabulous Spiegletent that is was visiting Parramatta as part of Sydney Festival. I really hope that Parramatta has such a great line of events at next years' festival as it's been wonderful to have so many events right on our doorstep.
And our show - we saw the fabulous Ed Kuepper, an oldie but a goodie who I haven't seen in concert for about 15 years (yes I'm THAT old)!
Bavarian Bier Cafe is at 2-8 Phillip Street, Parramatta. Phone them on 8836 1400.
I am so envious of all the wonderful places you visit and the food you get to enjoy. Just the pork belly alone would have had me Mmming.
ReplyDeleteI'm making up for nearly four years living in Outback NSW where they food options were limited. I've gone mad eating! LOLs.
DeleteLol, "that old". The only concert I saw 15 years ago was Disney On Ice :P Isn't their crackling surprisingly good?
ReplyDeleteRe. "Up until this point I have despised Sauerkraut and Red Cabbage Sauerkraut beyond all reason - but I have to say these guys have changed my mind. YUM!".
ReplyDeleteOh Miss Piggy you are such an Aussie!!!
Looking at the photo of the "Münchner Brauhaus Platter" I can see that the Sauerkraut has been cooked which means that it has caramelised which is exactly the same result when you fry onions. I grew up on Sauerkraut (legacy of having immigrant parents) so I have to say that I love Sauerkraut in all it forms. Sauerkraut in English terms is shredded pickled (fermented) cabbage. It has somewhat of a tarty taste. The way you adjust the "tartyness" is the ratio of combined pickled cabbage to raw cabbage (dryslaw) that you cook.
I would encourage you to buy a can of Sauerkraut and combine an equal amount of raw cabbage and proceed to cook-simmer it in a pot with a lid. Add spices as required. You will quickly discover that you can adjust the flavour by modifying the ratio of Sauerkraut to raw cabbage. The final result will be very similar to what I see in your photo.
Sauerkraut is a wonderful produce and is simply an acquired taste. I love it.
I grew up with a Hungarian mother, so I guess being force-fed Sauerkraut during my childhool has had me hating it...plus a few other foods like Cabbage Rolls and other stodgy Hungarian food. I'm willing to try it all again though - I want to connect with my "food roots".
DeleteRe. "being force-fed Sauerkraut during my childhood".
DeleteYou're having me on. I thought you were 100% ridgy-didg-dinky-di.
Hating "Cabbage Rolls", hmn...not sure about that. The Polish (my heritage) cabbage rolls are 50% pork mince and 50% rice and are real yummy. I've seen other nations version of the cabbage rolls and the 100% rice variant look a little so-so, but the Polish ones are excellent.
Then again with my Baltic heritage I also love herrings, herrings with cream, roll-mops, tripe soup, which turns many squeamish.
You can try all this wonderful Polish cuisine at "Na Zdrowie" Polish restaurant at Glebe Pt. Rd. Glebe or visit the Polish club at Ashfield for much better prices. Cheers!
Both the platters are quite worth getting, actually. Love the rotkol.
ReplyDeleteso beautiful! love how they've set up in a church, it reminds me of monks for some reason O_O but in a cool way haha, would be so cool to have a whole bunch of friends there for dinner
ReplyDeletei love the sound of beer with limonata! must pay a visit to bavarian bier cafe sometime.
ReplyDeleteDrinking in a church!! Good choice sharing the platter :)
ReplyDeleteWow that food looks amazing! Pork belly looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great place :) The pork looks great ~ how was the crackling?
ReplyDeleteLOL i like how you ordered the salad for the arteries i do that too :) Just to make myself feel a tiny bit better :P
Crackling was top notch - pity I had to share it.
DeleteMaybe it's a trick of perspective but the platter looks larger than the one that they have in the city.
ReplyDeleteHow much of the token salad did you guys make it through?
We gave the token salad a fair workout...I think most of it was eaten. Things are bigger out west too...didn't you know. LOLs.
DeleteIsn't the Spiegeltent amazing? And I can't imagine one person finishing one of those platters-they're enormous!
ReplyDeleteMmm @ the crackling!! I've been to one of their other Bier's over within the CBD, but not this one - the location seems fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI've awarded theadventuresofmisspiggy a "cute blog award" on my blog, do swing by to collect it if you wish :)
My hubby loves these places too! We had a work Chrissy party here once, it was fun actually :)
ReplyDeleteI've been to the Bier Cafe three times. It's a great venue, I love converted churches when they are converted well. The benches out the back are a good place to chill out with friends too.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried the food here. Strictly a liquid diet on my previous three visits.