Bavarian Bier Cafe

Craving foreign beer you can barely pronounce and a protein fix? Tuesday nights at Bavarian Bier Café hosts the schnitzel challenge. Bashed flat chicken, crumbed and deep fried, a slab as big as the plate (roughly 30cm x 30cm) resting on hand cut chips comes with a slice of lemon to prevent the mouth from becoming too desert. Down that and you’re rewarded with a shot of schnapps theatrically presented on a long wooden paddle. With all the enticing beers to try, it becomes a dangerous place to have a drink.

2.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 24 York Street, Sydney, NSW (also on O’Connell, Manly Wharf, Entertainment Quarter, Parramatta)
What? Schnitel Challenge under $20

Una’s (now Essen)

Quality is the food that bounces off the menu which takes a snapshot of the flavours from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary. One can start of with the assortment of schnapps and on special occasions the imported spirits arrive via novelty toy medical vehicles (signifying that you could quite possibly end up in a medical institution having your stomach pumped after shotting the devil’s liquid), chasing it down with beers also from a foreign land. You could go the goulash or pork knuckle, but what all hungry souls seeking something to soak up the booze are the varieties of schnitzels. The vienna (veal) and chicken are choice, thinly crumbed and deep fried to a crisp but remaining reasonably moist inside. The jaeger versions come topped with a creamy rich mushroom sauce and all come with a rosti, shallow fried strands of thickly grated potato cris-crossed into a thick hash brown. The food contains plenty heart (though not from any animal), and you’ll need a good one yourself to handle the plate size proportions.

2.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 135 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW
What? Under $19

Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe

Flying first class from Canberra to Melbourne. Truffles stuffed with foie gra on Tip-Top multi grain for breakfast. Porsche laptops. The common? It’s all a bit excessive. Just like getting sloshed on beer that’s won more awards than a Lord of the Rings trilogy. Skull raspberry, blackberry and chocolate brews, or more normal stuff such as pale ales, pilseners and lagers.

Getting drunk comes at a cost. So instead of choosing the dishes or tasting menus that force you to drink beers which enhance the morsel’s flavours of the chook, cow, fish, get food from the bar menu that helps reserve cash for more prized alcohol later.

Get toasty with the Redoak’s version of Guinness Pie. Oatmeal Stout is used in the braised beef ragout, stewed down with eggplant and Swiss cheese to a rich, creamy consistency. Baked puff pastry protects the contents, garnished with parsley and halved cherry tomatoes. If you haven’t passed out from the bier, there’s also the very Deutschland sausages of Kransky, Stuttgart & Nurnberger, pan fried atop a disc of mash and a tangy sauerkraut Rauch jus.

They say eating is cheating, and what’s more you’re only wasting precious stomach space to food. But hell, if you’re going to eat, might as well eat as cheaply as you can in a place that demands coin for the elixir that aids the escape from reality.

2.5 / 5 yums!
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Where? 201 Clarence Street, Sydney, NSW
What? Entrees - $18, Mains $26, Desserts $10, Tasting Plates $20, Bar Menu $12





Left to Right : Oatmeal Stout Pie, Trio of Sausages