Brisbane’s best chicken parmigiana

Brisbane’s best chicken parmigiana has now been decided. After a week of voting, our readers have crowned a new winner! See the list.

Brisbane's best chicken parmigiana, The Dayboro Drop. Picture: Supplied

We put the call out to our readers to nominate Brisbane’s best chicken parmigiana and after hundreds of responses we narrowed the list down to the top 60. We can now reveal, as voted by our readers, Brisbane’s chicken parmi 2023!

Where is Brisbane’s best chicken parmigiana?

First place: The Dayboro Drop

Address: 1/1 Heathwood St, Dayboro QLD 4521

Second place: The Full Moon Hotel Sandgate

Address: 118 Eagle Terrace, Sandgate QLD 4017

Third place: Hamilton Hotel

Address: 442 Kingsford Smith Dr, Hamilton QLD 4007

4. Gaythorne RSL (534 Samford Rd, Mitchelton QLD 4053)

5. Jubilee Hotel (470 St Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006)

6. Stafford City Tavern (Stafford City Shopping Centre e12, 400 Stafford Rd, Stafford QLD 4053)

7. The Big Fish Tavern (459 Pumicestone Rd, Caboolture QLD 4510)

8. Trade Coast Hotel (144 Eagle Farm Rd, Pinkenba QLD 4008)

9. Tingalpa Hotel (1563 Wynnum Rd, Tingalpa QLD 4173)

We asked The Dayboro Drop a little about their business and what they offer.

The Dayboro Drop Parmi List

The ‘OG’ Schnitty

“Our original gangster! They say if it isn’t broken don’t fix it, everyone loves a good old schnitty. Plain and simple but a beauty!”

The ‘OG’ Parmi

“Our OG Parmi is topped with napoli sauce, smoked ham and our four cheese mix. Baked until golden and oozy! Wanna get lei’d? Add pineapple.”

Brisbane's best parmi, The Dayboro Drop. Picture: Supplied

The Pablo Esco’parm

“Topped with tomato salsa, totopos + house guac, our four cheese mix + a dollop of sour cream Like it spicy? Add jalapeños.”

The Texas Ranger Parmi

“Topped with our housemade smoky BBQ sauce, bacon, mushrooms, onions and our four cheese mix. Baked until golden and oozy!”

The Chucky Cheeseburger Parmi

“Topped with napoli sauce, wagyu burger patty, bacon, onion and our four cheese mix baked until golden and oozy then topped with burger sauce.”

What sets The Dayboro Drop apart from the competition?

“All of our Schnitty’s and Parmi’s are handmade and crumbed in our signature crumb mix using locally sourced eggs. Our chicken is purchased from our local butcher right next door, Dayboro Village Meats so we know the quality is amazing, fresh and consistent.”

Brisbane's best parmi, The Dayboro Drop. Picture: Supplied

How does it feel being named the best venue for a chicken parmi?

“It is so amazing, to think of our little country town restaurant took it out over some of the biggest venues in Brisbane just shows how much love our chefs put into our chicken parmigiana and why it truly is something to make the trip out here for.”

We asked some of the finalists to tell us what makes their business unique.

What would you like Brisbane to know about your business?

The Dayboro Drop

“We are a Dayboro owned and run business, we employ the most amount of staff in the town which we feel gives back to the local economy. We are so grateful for our loyal customers and following and try to support as many local producers as we can. We have been open for two-and-a-half years and have been absolutely blown away by the support this town and our visitors have given us. If you’re not local, the drive is truly worth coming for a visit, immersing yourself into our gorgeous country town and sticking around to visit some of the other amazing local businesses, wineries and distilleries that this town has to offer. Please feel free to DROP in anytime.”

The Jubilee Hotel. Picture: Supplied

The Jubilee Hotel

“Every pub and club can sell a chicken parmigiana. What makes ours different is customer enjoyment. Our mission is to make sure our customers enjoy themselves here and that is what sets us aside from a piece of crumbed chicken. Ours is done with passion and pride. We know we must be doing something right, because the figures don’t lie. When you’re selling 300-400 chicken parmigianas a week, our customers are telling us we have the best Parmis in Brisbane. Our chicken parmigianas are hand crumbed on site, always fresh, never frozen. When you’re using fresh produce, you can’t go wrong.”

The Big Fish Tavern. Picture: Supplied

The Big Fish Tavern

“Our business is proudly independently owned and operated, very family orientated and loved by our locals. Our staff are one big family who enjoy the work environment the Tavern has to offer, and pride ourselves in looking after our loyal customers.”

Stafford City Tavern

“We embrace the quirkiness of hospitality and being the town hall of the community. We pride ourselves in delivering consistent freshly prepared classic pub meals, like our large range of double crumbed parmis and schnitzels.”

The Trade Coast Hotel. Picture: Supplied

The Trade Coast Hotel

“The Trade Coast Hotel is just outside the city and has reasonably prices quality meals and staff with exceptional customer service. The closest hotel near the International Cruise Terminal with accommodation, bar, bistro, gaming offerings and a courtesy bus available for customers.”

What is the Best of Brisbane?

Every year we hold Best of Brisbane to help our readers discover the incredible businesses in our community. It works in three stages:

1. We put out an initial call for nominations over a two-day period. This happens on our various social media accounts as well as in the comments below.

2. After nominations close we open the voting stage on our website. The businesses that received the highest amount of nominations will progress to the voting stage. The voting stage runs for one week.

3. Once voting has closed a winner will be announced on our website usually a few days after the voting stage concludes. At the same time we will also announce up to nine other businesses with the highest amount of votes in the poll.

Originally published as Brisbane’s best chicken parmigiana