MoVida Bar de Tapas

MoVida is a particularly famous and well established Tapas style restaurant in the heart of Melbourne. They have truly mastered the art of tiny, favour packed dishes (only one or two bites) but also have wonderful bigger dishes which can be shared more easily. The flavours are out of this world but the prices are frighteningly reasonable, with tapas bites ranging from $3.50 to $6.50. It sits in Melbourne’s most photographed laneways, Hosier Lane, which is widely renowned for its stunning graffiti. We did a midnight photoshoot there to test the low light capacity of our Sony α7S II – so a post on that will follow this one soon! After that we decided on a few last drinks at Siglo (the rooftop bar above Melbourne’s Supper Club). I’ve already posted that blog – you can see it here. All the photos from the evening were taken on the Sony α7S II with the 55m F1.8 Carl Zeiss lens. We did not use (or bring!) a flash. This amazing little camera can really see in the dark!

But back to MoVida. This is the work of chef and co-owner Frank Camorra who has a fantastic take on what modern Spanish dining can entail. We turned up quite late on a weeknight and were about to be told to come back in 90 minutes, but at the last second they found us a place for which we were very grateful! If you can’t get a booking and need to be fed during normal dinner hours, try turning up and trying your luck at the sister “MoVida Next Door” which is, well, literally one-door-down on the corner of Flinders Street.

We started with the scrumptious Anchoa (hand-filleted cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet) and the Tostada (a pressed pork sandwich with a cute-as-a-button quails egg and tomato jam). The freezing pine nut gazpacho sorbet in the Caballa Ahumada caught us off guard, but proved absolutely inspiring atop the cold smoked Spanish Mackerel. Who thinks of these things?! The larger dish we ordered was Bistec Tartar de Wagyu (a spicy steak tartare of raw, grass-fed wagyu beef with egg yolk). As a lover of rare meat, Wagyu Tartar is in a league of its own! The Queso was a deceptively simple quince paste cigar filled with melt-in-your-mouth whipped goats milk cheese. Perhaps the least visually attractive dish was the Croqueta which looked like anything you might see in a supermarket packet… BUT! The delicious explosion of mushroom and blue cheese was enough to make both of us gesticulate wildly to one another. (Sign language is important when your mouth is full and busy!) When we regained the ability to speak we ordered another two croquettes straight away and were effusive in our compliments to the chef.

We forgot to write down the desserts we had in detail as they were on the chalkboard above the kitchen. Mine featured pear sorbet and rhubarb. Ben’s featured fruit, honey and honeycomb! They were absolutely stunning and the perfect finish to a divine dining experience.

MoVida can be found just a few steps up Hosier Lane off Flinders Street, tucked in behind MoVida Next Door. The address is 1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Victoria. They can be reached on 96633038 or you can organise your online booking online through www.movida.com.au. They are open from 12pm until late.