White Cockatoo, Petersham

30 Terminus Street, Petersham
Sydney Pub Listers present: Burger Bot and Fraulein Burgman, The Millerkands, Southy, Robot Simone, Joe Blogs
Time of review: Sunday lunch

"The Cock serves up a massive plate of debate"

(1.6428571428571428571428571)

Located right across from Petersham train station, The White Cockatoo is easy to find and conveniently located if you're a train traveler. The fairly large building on the corner is a little hard to miss and so are their schnitzels....

The Millerkands called a Sunday lunch session for all to gather at the Cock for a look at the pub and their grub. For some it was a revisit, while for others it was a new adventure. The visit led to much debate about the quality of the place and its food, in particular the schnitzels and serving size. As everyone present had varying opinions, we'll take a comment from each as well as their rating and then average them out for the final 5 schooner score. But before we get stuck in to those, lets first cover off a few details in a more objective manner.

Wandering into the White Cockatoo you'll find a few comfy couches and tables in the front, skill tester machine and quiet front bar. Further in there's a small dining area followed by the kitchen and a second, more separate dining room. There's also a larger room out back/on the side, which is where you'll find a pool table, more skill testers, buck hunter, pinball, arcade game table, and of course, TAB, pokies and second bar. The pub also has the bottle shop facilities for take aways for those wanting some grog on the run. The place is clean enough, although a little seedy perhaps, but overall fine and totally expected for this kind of suburban pub.

The Carlton Draughts ordered up came in at $4.80 per schooner. There were a few other options on tap but Draught served us well enough for this visit. A large glass of lemon squash came in at $3.80. Sorry all, no jugs. I think that's the second or third pub we've encountered so far on this Sydney Pub List journey that don't serve jugs of beer. Although, going by the food size, if you kept things to scale, you'd think the minimum drink size would be a jug.

On the food side of things, The White Cockatoo is famous (infamous?) for it's large schnitzels. We questioned whether they were in fact not chicken but pterodactyl. The schnitzels come plain or in a variety of flavours and will set you back $20. Good value if looking at a $-per-kilo/bang-for-buck scale. There is also a few other things on offer from memory - steak sandwich, steak, burger, seafood platter, and... well, to be honest, the schnitzels seem to be their drawcard. Warning, there doesn't appear to be anything here for people who like normal sized meals.

Side story for a minute - About 6 years ago, Miller and Blogs ventured to the White Cockatoo, along with Rex the inflatable dinosaur. Rex had a great time! We've pulled up a couple of "file photos" from that visit and included below (Rex says he's keen to get back into pubbing so look out for him in an upcoming blog!). Back then then schnitzels were fairly plain from memory, with less "gourmet topings" available and we think about half the size but still big then! Miller challenged Blogs to eat a whole one and bam, like that, it was gone. Gone are those days though, we're a bit older now, the schnitzels are more extreme and we can't handle our massive meals like we used to.

 

 

And so now we hear a few words from those present on this review, each with their thoughts on the White Cockatoo. Food was the main debate here and there was definitely a hot topic - food serving size. Here's what the group had to say...

Burger Bot
I get the "biggest schnitzel" gimmick as a draw card, but on the day we were there it seemed no one on any table could finish their order. I understand the sense of value some people must feel when receiving their monster bird, but I think the novelty is best kept as an option for people up to the task. That said, the quality of what I did eat didn't stand out amongst the list of pubs so far. Don't really remember much else about the pub, as the menu quickly became the main debate. I get the feeling Cody will be the only SPL member let through these doors again.

1 / 5



Español


Fraulein Burgman
For those who decide to ‘dine’ here it would probably be advisable to share a schnitzel between at least three. Regarding the various artefacts haphazardly placed on top of the schnitzel, they simply don’t belong on a schnitzel. I haven’t often thought whilst eating a schnitzel that a steak would really complement my meal.

Ethically I can’t justify the use of so much meat for a single dish, half of which is essentially thrown away without fail. After eating here I seriously began to question my own consumption of meat and have drastically cut back. My butcher’s daughter, Latin-American mother is not happy. White Cockatoo Hotel, you have made a deadly enemy. A very Latin-American deadly enemy.

I was too caught up in the food aspect to really take note of anything else. 1 schooner for the pure fact that I enjoyed my 1 schooner of beer.

Cody

It’s been 6 years since I’ve been back to the Cocky. Good to get back. Fond memories of drinking beers and playing the jukey out the back, some good laughs.

It is was it is. No false pretenses, not pretending to be something it's not. No stainless steel decor. No Quail wrapped in Pastrami with sides of Asparagus. Nothing much has changed - it’s still low on hipsters.

My Espanola Schnitzel was delicious, the price of beer was fair, bar staff were friendly. Kitchen staff less friendly. Maybe she was cranky from carrying those heavy schnitty plates around.

Schnitzel was too large and always has been. If you can’t finish it, take it home to your dog. Or, go halves (a-la Burger Bot and Fraulein Burgman).

2.5 out of 5.


Mexikand
After exclaiming, "No comment!" due to the rift the Cockatoo debate was causing amongst the group, she eventually obliged to give us these thoughts...

The pub was okay. Not the best but have been to worse. I am Mexican. I noticed that the chefs were Spanish speaking. I like Burger Bot's idea of having half-serves. My steak sandwich was okay but wouldn't have again, too big. Didn't mind the coffee. 3.


Steak sandwich



Southy
It’s a massive pub with loads of small irrelevant rooms and the gambling areas are bigger than most of the other rooms. The food is big but low on quality. Eating the Schnitzel would be like doing super-size-me for a week. I would have liked better quality toppings rather than focus on the size. Hey Cody, at least I know you’re a cheap date ;)  As for my order, I got two and a half pieces of steak, half of which (a whole steak!) went to the dog. Eating through my meal I found a bonus surprise piece of steak buried under some chips. The kitchen waitress was rather unfriendly.

1.5 - the place is a dive.


Steak (2.5 actually) and "Aussie" schnitzel (feed a heart-attacked army)



Simone
All I remember from this pub is the food. The complete wastefulness of food is incredible - if you're going to have a novelty huge schnitzel, make that one optional and have normal sized meals also available. Everyone at our table had a huge plate, no matter what they ordered. It seemed irresponsible, both on a health level and the fact that so much food must go to waste every day. 1 out of 5 from me, based solely on my experience there, which was really only the food and waiting for people at the skill tester.  I didn’t go to the bar or see much of the place. Toilets were ok.

Joe Blogs
Plenty of talk about the food so wont go on about it.... too much. The Cock can claim they have massive schnitzels, fine, but I don't think I'll be returning for one. Pub, note: please remove the corpse schnitzels from the table when the customer is done. Poor service. Feel a bit ill thinking about it all again.  It's a shame we weren't able to sit out in the back room with the pool table, etc (the young one we had with us was not allowed out here due to the TAB screens also living here - fail) as I may have enjoyed the place a little more. It's a pub I would rather be out here with a few beers and pool games rather than for food. In that instance, I may have rated higher. Unfortunately for the White Cockatoo, I don't really see a need to go back. It's not near my house or on the way to anywhere else I would go. Within a close radius, there are plenty of other pubs to be tried. It's crossed off the list. 1.5 from me.



Are we making too many enemies? Maybe. Anyone have any further comments on this? We'd love to hear from you. As you can see from above, the majority of these reviewers are not huge fans of the White Cockatoo. That said, we get the feeling that there are White Cock fans out there. For us, unfortunately it is their mission to serve up the massive schnitels that turned us off. It's fine if you like your schnitzels on the huge side of massive but it's not really our thing.

The White Cockatoo might do well to make some changes in their kitchen so that we can all stop focussing on the menu. We're sick of talking about it. It really is this that has dragged it down the most for us. Sure, having a few beers and hitting the pool table out back might be nice on an afternoon between meal times. Don't get caught too long on the skill testers. Stuck at Petersham station? Enjoy a quick beer at the front bar.

Skill-testing

Rumour has it that Rex is making a return to pub reviewing soon. Stay tuned. While we're on the topic of dinosaurs, what do you think about quail wrapped in pastrami served with a side of asparagus? Rex would dig it but can't find such a ridiculous sounding meal anywhere.

Our 'Cock rating, averaged from the scores above: 1.6428571428571428571428571

Website: http://www.whitecockatoohotel.com.au/