Maggie's, Restaurant Sydney

Beyond the meat, potatoes, big German beers (and men), the appeal of Maggie’s is the confidence with which the restaurant swims against the stream of Sydney food fashion. Forget dark minimalism and coolly indifferent service. Maggie’s is bright and rich with the tones of wood and stone, and color abounds, from the gay hand-painted scenes of Teutonic pastoral splendor to the broomstick-straddling witches hanging from the ceiling (a Maggie’s signature), the flowers and the tchotchkes (everything from good-luck waving cats to a chubby, contented Buddha) lining the bar. The service and value, too, are a return to gentler times.

Don’t think, though, that Maggie’s doesn’t move with the times. There’s plenty of life in the crowd, and though the menu largely consists of the tried-and-true, that doesn’t stop the kitchen incorporating quality ingredients, such as the Bangalow pork in the likes of the “cordon bleu” schnitzel stuffed with ham and cheese. Entree favorites include deep-fried camembert with cranberry sauce or deep-fried champignon mushrooms, but if you’re saving your deep-fried quota for the main courses, give the creamy salad of smoked trout, capers and red onion the nod.

Specials like roast duckling and the fish of the day enliven the main offerings, but it’s almost churlish to come to Maggie’s and miss the schnitzel. Whether you go the hahnchen (chicken breast), the wiener (ahem, veal) the jager (the same, with a creamy mushroom sauce) or the zigeuner (aka gypsy — the same again, but dressed with a tomato, capsicum and white wine sauce), you’ll be blown away by the generosity of the servings of both the schnitzel and the rosti (divinely browned shredded potato cake) accompaniment All of this, too, is perfect with the German beers, Erdinger and Bitburger, offered on tap. No one leaves Maggie’s unsatisfied.

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