Paninoteca Hub – Lake Heights NSW Restaurant Review

In what’s probably a vain attempt to undo 30 years of processedmeatmaxxing, I’ve been trying to minimize my intake of processed and red meats overall – an endeavor that’s probably ruined my experience at the Illawara’s famed panini hub – a place that really specializes in sandwiches filled with the worst and best kinds of processed meat.

Instead of some delicious abomination filled with salami and mortadella, I had a cotaletta ($13.50), featuring a chicken schnitzel, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, Swiss cheese, and Russian sauce between some housemade bread.

Not bad, good size comes to mind. The flavours are muted, and a little bit more dressing could have gone a long way, though the light taste of it all did allow the sweetness of the Swiss cheese to shine through. The schnitzel was pleasntly warm, though the bread, though made in-house, was nothing special.The deli is located within a bottle-o, and co-located with an Italian grocery store, so it’s less of a restaurant and more of a place that sells sandwiches, with a park bench outside – adequate seating for a couple of guys, but probably inadequate during a more busy period of time.

Service, in contrast to what some of the other online reviews have said, was instant near closing, with no wait at all – a completely different experience to Inner West darling Raineri’s. It’s probably not a huge amount more time driving down to the Gong and getting a sandwich from Paninoteca Hub, than waiting in line at Five Dock.

Perhaps a more cured meat forward sandwich, preceded by a psyllium husk bolus, is on the menu for next time.

Paninoteca Hub
Shop 1a/20-22 Weringa Ave Lake Heights NSW 2502