The Royal Oak is a pub located on busy O’Connell Street in North Adelaide. While the exterior has a quaint facade, the interior is like a 1950’s unrenovated urban warehouse. We sat at a table that was made from recycled cinema seats, although the furnishings around us seemed to be a mish mash of throw away items. The clientele seem to be in their early to mid 40’s, and the place itself was unusually quiet for a Saturday night.

The menu here is your stock standard pub fare, however, this place boasts to having the best burger in North Adelaide. The pricing is average when you compare it with other pubs. As I normally do, I ordered the Chicken Parmi. The meals were ready after a 15 minute wait, however, when my meal came out, they forgot the parmigiana on my schnitzel. The meal was taken back and parmigiana topping was added to the same piece of schnitzel. Without even tasting it, I already knew my chicken schnitzel was overcooked.

The schnitzel was an average size in diameter and a bit thin on the thickness scale. As expected, the meat was dry due to overcooking. The surface of the schnitzel appeared to be more battered than it was crumbed, and you could see burn marks on the chicken after it had been under the grill for too long.

The mozzarella topping was generous and had adequate coverage over the schnitzel. It was placed under the grill for the appropriate amount of time until it was a beautiful golden brown. The Napoletana sauce on the other hand, was a major disappointment. The sauce was like sour watery tomato sauce when it should have had a thick rich tomatoey texture with a subtle sweetness.

The salad was reasonably fresh as the vegetables were nice and crunchy. The combination of vegetables was another story. I didn’t think the carrot, red cabbage, capsicum and lettuce really worked that well together. While the salad dressing was nice and not over applied, the salad just seemed a little pedestrian.

The chips were also a disappointment. They were soggy and undercooked. They were also suffocating under the weight of the schnitzel. Every time I cut a piece of chicken, the chips would be mashed on the plate. I also prefer beer battered steak cut chips rather than the fries that they use here because the chunkier chips absorb less oil.

The service was pretty good and the atmosphere was relaxed. It was a pity my meal was way below expectations. Would I come here again? Probably not.

WHERE: 123 O’Connell St, North Adelaide