David: "Dinner at 8"
Me: "Okay, but the movie's at 9:20 and Movida Aqui is quite a way from Melbourne Central, you sure an hour is enough?"
David: "Yeah we'll be fine"
Me: "Well...okay..."
Ah, I know my timing instincts too well.
Last night David, two other friends and I went to see Sex and the City 2 (which for the record is a terrible film in most aspects, but is glorious fun if you're a girl and just in for a bit of fun). We decided we'd give Movida Aqui a try for dinner before the movie, since...it just seemed chic and appropriate!
We cleverly didn't make a booking and discovered the place choc-a-bloc full. But outside was completely free and we found ourselves on a table underneath some heaters, so even though it was a cool Melbourne night, we were quite comfortable sitting outside without our jackets and cardigans.
We explained to our waiter, after waiting a while to get his attention, that we were in a rush and he was very very helpful in explaining things on the menu, the things we should avoid due to time constraints (paellas!) and coming back out to take our order after we had a bit of time to quickly pick a few things.
We got a bottle of the gewurztramminer to share from Tasmania which was an absolute treat, sweet but not too much and light.
We started with 'Setas', pine and portobello mushrooms. Whilst the picture doesn't look too appetizing (it's hard to make brown lumps look attractive...) they were piping hot and delicious.
David highly recommended the 'Bombas' from when he had them at Movida Next Door, which are Catalan potato bombs filled with chorizo. I thought they looked a lot like arancini. These were amazing though, again, amazingly hot in the cool night, the potato was just rich and combined with the chorizo...mmm! There was a flavour in the sauce we were commenting on but for the life of me I can't remember it now....I would definitely recommend these to others though!
'Cerdo' - Confit pork belly with quince jelly and heirloom carrot salad. Who can resist some good pork belly? This was sublime, the pork belly just melted away in your mouth, although the skin was just perfectly crisp so that it crunched ever so lightly in your mouth.
Carrillera De Buey which was braised cheek beef on a cauliflower puree. Ah, one of my favourite dishes flavour-wise of the night. I would've liked the beef to be a little bit more tender, but that's me really nit-picking at it. The cauliflower puree was so smooth but so rich in taste, which when mixed with the sauce...talk about a rich killer combination!
Monte y Mar, veal and cuttlefish balls cooked in white wine sauce, which I don't think were as popular with everyone else, but I really enjoyed and appreciated this. It was a bit lighter than everything else we had and the cuttlefish mixed into the veal balls gave it a really interesting springy texture. Quite tasty.
After 5 dishes, we thought we had time to order just one more and went for the Conejo Agridulce (I do wonder how the waiters remember all these dish names...), braised Rabbit leg in sweet and sour sauce with almonds and raisins. The rabbit meat was so tender, although I can't say I detected any of the 'sour' in the sauce. The raisins really gave a wonderful sweetness when eaten with the meat, I think I ended up pinching most of them!
Whilst I can't fault the food in flavour or quality, I will admit that it was pretty hard to share each of the dishes amongst four people. It really became a small little bite of each thing, which isn't so bad, but as we were in a bit of a rush and we had two boys to feed, they usually need a bit more food. Even I wasn't particularly full at the end of it all, which surprised me as the previous night having gone to Bar Lourinha with Brad, I had been totally stuffed on 3 dishes.
I would also highly suggest maybe having a little more time when going to Movida! Pacing yourself out is probably the way to go with these tapas, maybe if we had had time for the paella we would have been satisfactorily fuller.
And remember to make a booking!
Me: "Okay, but the movie's at 9:20 and Movida Aqui is quite a way from Melbourne Central, you sure an hour is enough?"
David: "Yeah we'll be fine"
Me: "Well...okay..."
Ah, I know my timing instincts too well.
Last night David, two other friends and I went to see Sex and the City 2 (which for the record is a terrible film in most aspects, but is glorious fun if you're a girl and just in for a bit of fun). We decided we'd give Movida Aqui a try for dinner before the movie, since...it just seemed chic and appropriate!
We cleverly didn't make a booking and discovered the place choc-a-bloc full. But outside was completely free and we found ourselves on a table underneath some heaters, so even though it was a cool Melbourne night, we were quite comfortable sitting outside without our jackets and cardigans.
We explained to our waiter, after waiting a while to get his attention, that we were in a rush and he was very very helpful in explaining things on the menu, the things we should avoid due to time constraints (paellas!) and coming back out to take our order after we had a bit of time to quickly pick a few things.
We got a bottle of the gewurztramminer to share from Tasmania which was an absolute treat, sweet but not too much and light.
We started with 'Setas', pine and portobello mushrooms. Whilst the picture doesn't look too appetizing (it's hard to make brown lumps look attractive...) they were piping hot and delicious.
David highly recommended the 'Bombas' from when he had them at Movida Next Door, which are Catalan potato bombs filled with chorizo. I thought they looked a lot like arancini. These were amazing though, again, amazingly hot in the cool night, the potato was just rich and combined with the chorizo...mmm! There was a flavour in the sauce we were commenting on but for the life of me I can't remember it now....I would definitely recommend these to others though!
'Cerdo' - Confit pork belly with quince jelly and heirloom carrot salad. Who can resist some good pork belly? This was sublime, the pork belly just melted away in your mouth, although the skin was just perfectly crisp so that it crunched ever so lightly in your mouth.
Carrillera De Buey which was braised cheek beef on a cauliflower puree. Ah, one of my favourite dishes flavour-wise of the night. I would've liked the beef to be a little bit more tender, but that's me really nit-picking at it. The cauliflower puree was so smooth but so rich in taste, which when mixed with the sauce...talk about a rich killer combination!
Monte y Mar, veal and cuttlefish balls cooked in white wine sauce, which I don't think were as popular with everyone else, but I really enjoyed and appreciated this. It was a bit lighter than everything else we had and the cuttlefish mixed into the veal balls gave it a really interesting springy texture. Quite tasty.
After 5 dishes, we thought we had time to order just one more and went for the Conejo Agridulce (I do wonder how the waiters remember all these dish names...), braised Rabbit leg in sweet and sour sauce with almonds and raisins. The rabbit meat was so tender, although I can't say I detected any of the 'sour' in the sauce. The raisins really gave a wonderful sweetness when eaten with the meat, I think I ended up pinching most of them!
Whilst I can't fault the food in flavour or quality, I will admit that it was pretty hard to share each of the dishes amongst four people. It really became a small little bite of each thing, which isn't so bad, but as we were in a bit of a rush and we had two boys to feed, they usually need a bit more food. Even I wasn't particularly full at the end of it all, which surprised me as the previous night having gone to Bar Lourinha with Brad, I had been totally stuffed on 3 dishes.
I would also highly suggest maybe having a little more time when going to Movida! Pacing yourself out is probably the way to go with these tapas, maybe if we had had time for the paella we would have been satisfactorily fuller.
And remember to make a booking!
Posts
Oohh.. I remember when I went.. we had to do the "banquet" as there was going to be 6 of us.. and the meal took 3 hours!
ReplyDeleteAt the end of it, we were extremely full.. but I do need to make a return visit =)
Wow! That's quite a long meal! ;s We managed to compact our meal into about an hour and 15 minutes, but that's really because we asked for everything to come out quick quick quick!
ReplyDeleteBut yes, food is delish, just need more stomach space!
That looked really good:)
ReplyDeleteSP