Universal Italian Restaurant @Lygon Street, Melbourne

We were back to Lygon Street for a late lunch after visiting the Queen Victoria Market, and saw this very popular restaurant with queues still forming despite being close to 2pm already.

But we were mostly attracted to the humongous pieces of schnitzels that we saw as we walked past the diners seated in the al fresco area that we eventually decided to try it.

We also had to wait quite a while after ordering (approximately 30 minutes), because it was so packed with customers who ordered schnitzels after schnitzels!

Since we were (made) rather hungry (after the wait), we decided to have:

• Chicken Parmagiana (A$14): The crowd favourite, this chicken schnitzel was served with Napoli, mozzarella, beer battered chips and Italian slaw. The cheesy and meaty combination was super value-for-money and perfect for sharing, as it might be too overwhelming for one person. It was delicious too!
• Chicken & Avocado Pasta with Homemade Gnocchi (A$18.90): Served with grilled chicken, avocado, mushroom and cream sauce, well, we just had some award-winning gnocchi a few days back also along this street, so this was just alright.
• Risotto Poseidon (A$21.90): Creamy risotto with pan-seared tiger prawns, mussels, spinach and roasted capsicum, with a touch of spicy olio and Napolitana sauce. This was not bad at all.
• Meat Lovers (A$11.90 for 4 slices): Pizza with BBQ sauce, cheese, ham, hot Italian salami and bacon, this was just alright because the crust was too thick for our liking.