Roast lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork & paprika pate

Movida
1 Hosier Lane (Off Flinders St)
Melbourne – Victoria 3000 (Australia)
Ph: +61 (0) 3 9663 3038

I have been told by a few friends that Movida is the best spanish tapas in Melbourne and after trying it out myself I have to agree with them.

I love everything about Movida. First of all, it’s in Melbourne – my favourite city in the world. Secondly, it’s your typical Melbourne restaurant – hidden in a little alley way, the highest quality of food with lots of character. It is a place where you can catch up with your mates over really good food and a relaxing ambience. Thirdly, it’s not over-priced.

You need to book in advanced as it’s a very popular joint. In Movida, you can eat as little or as much as you like as you can order individual serving of tapas for one or more. Some dishes are great for sharing with another person.

I apologise for the low quality pictures as I used my mobile phone camera, the lighting was quite low.

Here are the food that I had for the night:

• Croqueta ($3.50 each) – Fried silky croquette flavoured with leek and mahon cheese.What I love about this dish is it stared your pallate. Think of it as having a very sophisticated spring rolls in a chinese restaurant for an entree. The croquette has a crispy texture and warm soft filling which oozes as you bite into it. I could eat many of these but I managed to restrain myself as I walk through the next tapas .

Croquetta

• Pollo escabache al Miguel ($4.50 each) – Spiced chicken escabache tapa on crisp crouton. The cold soft velvety shredded chicken sandwiched in crispy crouton tastes divine.

Pollo escabache al Miguel

• Costilla con sobrasada ($7.50 each) – shown in my first picture above. Roast lamb cutlet, encased in Catalan pork & paprika pate.This lamb cutlet has quite a decent size and has to be best lamb cutlet I’ve ever had – absolutely finger licking.
• Tortilla ($3.50 each) – Traditional Tortilla with confit potato and onion.No Spanish feast will be complete without a Tortilla. It has a firm texture of potato with sweet onion – perfect combo.

Tortilla

• Viera ($4.80 each) – Roasted Spring Bay Scallop with jamon and potato foamAlmost every table ordered this. The freshly sweet scallop served in its own shell is married with salty spanish ham (jamon) and topped with soft foam of potato. The foam seems to be put there for Garnish as it did not add flavour to the food.

Viera

• Pulpo ($16) – Char Grilled Octopus with paprika braised potatoes Tapas, you have to eat octopus. I ordered this more like a staple. The octopus was chewy and fresh. I love the roast potatoes with a hint of paprika – very tasty.

Pulpo

• San Jacobo de cordonice ($8) – Hunter Valley quail, partially boned, crumbed, and filled with jamon and mahon cheese. This has to be the best dish for the night and one of the best quail dish I’ve ever tried . Make sure you order this dish when you dine at Movida. The picture really doesn’t do it any justice.
  

  Quail - The best

If you are in town and you’re desperate to get to Movida but it’s fully booked, I’d recommend go next door. This is still the best consolation prize you can get at Movida next door. Movida next door is the bar version of Movida where you can sample spanish tapas in its highest quality. Movida is also opening a new restaurant Aqui 3 -4 blocks from where they are (check Movida website for full details). You can feast on Paella in this new restaurant. Keep an eye on this space as one day you’ll see a posting about this

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