Welcome to Melbourne Foodie. The blogspace of a 21 year old foodie with a passion for fine dining and quality food and produce.
Melbourne Foodie is my way of expressing and recording some of the experiences I have had for others to enjoy. I always welcome any feedback,
comments or restaurant suggestions you may have and would love to hear from you soon.
MUST TRY SOON: Church St Enoteca, Da Noi, Tetsuya's (Sydney).
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Happy eating,
Jon!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
MoVida (City)
I recently returned to MoVida after tasting some of their amazing food a couple of months ago. This time it was an early sitting before seeing "Shout" at The Arts Centre and I managed to get a seat at the bar. I think this is definitely the way to go at MoVida as it is comfortable, allows you to look into the kitchen and best of all it means that you can simply rock up without booking months in advance and enjoy the fantastic creations of owner/chef Frank Camorra. MoVida does NOT accept bookings for the bar.
To start with I order a couple of the tapa: a croqueta, and a scallop. I then move on to the racion (larger dishes) and must try the Cecina and the rabbit. As expected the food is excellent. I think you would struggle to find better value food of this quality anywhere in Melbourne. A hungry person can easily eat like a king for under $50 and that's really saying something, seeing that some of our best restaurants are nearing the $50 mark for a main course.
Here is a quick summary of the meal. Every dish as good as the other.
"Croqueta" ($3) - Fried Croquette filled with mushrooms.
A wonderful oval shaped parcel lightly crumbed with a silky mushroom centre. There is an intense, creamy mushroom flavour and it is a delicious way to start.
"Vieira, jamon y espuma" ($4.50) - Half shell scallop oven baked with jamon and potato foam.
A single scallop sits in the shell with a thin shaving of jamon (air dried ham) topped with the lightest potato foam and finished with a herb oil. Really good.
"Cecina" ($17) - Air cured wagyu beef thinly sliced with a truffle foam and poached egg.
This is a dish which carries high expectations. It was awarded "Dish of the Year" in the 2007 Good Food Guide so it has to be good. It is. Sitting on the plate are several thin slices of wagyu bresaola, an air cured beef, which covers the base. On top of this is another impossibly light, truffle scented foam and the plate is finished with a soft poached egg. Upon my waiters advice I break the egg open and let the yolk explode and then mix it all together. The result is a warm, light fluffy dish with the sweet cured wagyu meat contrasting against the warmth and saltiness of the foam and egg topping. It really comes together so well and you get a warm fuzzy sort of a feeling when you are eating it.
"Conejo" ($17.50) - Confit farmed rabbit twice cooked with piquillo peppers.
Another generous tasty dish. Pieces of rabbit meat, which have been slow cooked are later crumbed and fried before serving. The meat is served on a bed of roasted peppers and a sweet, sour vinagrette. An excellent accompaniment to the tender and flavoursome rabbit meat and a successful dish on the whole.
"Flan con pestinos" ($10) - Creme caramel served with spiced sherry pastries.
An excellent versions of the classic French desert. Perfectly formed and served with some lovely little pastries, made with sherry and coated in a cinamon sugar. An excellent way to end the meal.
Overall MoVida remains an exceptional place to eat with good service, a great atmosphere and truly excellent food at modest prices. No wonder its always full and getting a table booking at peak times can take months.
My rating for MoVida is: 16/20
Excellent Food (8.5/10), Good atmosphere, informal comfortable feel (4/5), Good Service (3.5/5)
www.movida.com.au
To start with I order a couple of the tapa: a croqueta, and a scallop. I then move on to the racion (larger dishes) and must try the Cecina and the rabbit. As expected the food is excellent. I think you would struggle to find better value food of this quality anywhere in Melbourne. A hungry person can easily eat like a king for under $50 and that's really saying something, seeing that some of our best restaurants are nearing the $50 mark for a main course.
Here is a quick summary of the meal. Every dish as good as the other.
"Croqueta" ($3) - Fried Croquette filled with mushrooms.
A wonderful oval shaped parcel lightly crumbed with a silky mushroom centre. There is an intense, creamy mushroom flavour and it is a delicious way to start.
"Vieira, jamon y espuma" ($4.50) - Half shell scallop oven baked with jamon and potato foam.
A single scallop sits in the shell with a thin shaving of jamon (air dried ham) topped with the lightest potato foam and finished with a herb oil. Really good.
"Cecina" ($17) - Air cured wagyu beef thinly sliced with a truffle foam and poached egg.
This is a dish which carries high expectations. It was awarded "Dish of the Year" in the 2007 Good Food Guide so it has to be good. It is. Sitting on the plate are several thin slices of wagyu bresaola, an air cured beef, which covers the base. On top of this is another impossibly light, truffle scented foam and the plate is finished with a soft poached egg. Upon my waiters advice I break the egg open and let the yolk explode and then mix it all together. The result is a warm, light fluffy dish with the sweet cured wagyu meat contrasting against the warmth and saltiness of the foam and egg topping. It really comes together so well and you get a warm fuzzy sort of a feeling when you are eating it.
"Conejo" ($17.50) - Confit farmed rabbit twice cooked with piquillo peppers.
Another generous tasty dish. Pieces of rabbit meat, which have been slow cooked are later crumbed and fried before serving. The meat is served on a bed of roasted peppers and a sweet, sour vinagrette. An excellent accompaniment to the tender and flavoursome rabbit meat and a successful dish on the whole.
"Flan con pestinos" ($10) - Creme caramel served with spiced sherry pastries.
An excellent versions of the classic French desert. Perfectly formed and served with some lovely little pastries, made with sherry and coated in a cinamon sugar. An excellent way to end the meal.
Overall MoVida remains an exceptional place to eat with good service, a great atmosphere and truly excellent food at modest prices. No wonder its always full and getting a table booking at peak times can take months.
My rating for MoVida is: 16/20
Excellent Food (8.5/10), Good atmosphere, informal comfortable feel (4/5), Good Service (3.5/5)
www.movida.com.au
Labels: MoVida, REVIEWS: Fine Dining
Thursday, October 25, 2007
MoVida Restaurant (City)
Tonight I finally got to visit MoVida - Bar de Tapas Y Vino - Spanish restaurant, a restaurant that I have been meaning to try out for quite some time now. After hearing a lot of good things about MoVida in the press and throughout the blogosphere I was anxious to try out this establishment for myself, and see whether the food lives up to recent hypes. The ultimate verdict: yes, it certainly does.
After initially making plans on having dinner at nearby Ezard, I received a phone call from MoVida in the afternoon offering me a reserved table in their bar area. This was an offer to good to refuse and I immediately said yes, excited to finally be eating here. Upon arrival you notice that MoVida is divided into two halves: a more formal restaurant area; and a casual bar area, with seating around the main bar station as well as tall, narrow tables behind this area, which do not look overly comfortable. I am seated at the bar and consequently have a comfortable seat with a good view to the kitchen and bar. This seems to be a great spot to eat and everything feels very right, and comfortable here, which is not always the case in such establishments. A very good start.
After briefly pondering the menu, which is divided into two parts: tapa (small dishes) and racion (larger dishes – equivalent to a generous entrée size) I decide that I will leave it to my waiter to order for me. As I am fairly hungry he suggests two tapa and two racion, which along with dessert make for a fairly substantial, great value dinner. The menu is quite diverse and has a plethora of dishes to suit everyone’s taste and budget. Better still it is much more affordable than many high-class restaurants and it is possible to eat an excellent quality, fulfilling meal for about $40-$60 per person (not inclusive of drinks), even less for those who are not big eaters.
Here is a summary of all of the excellent courses I enjoyed on the night:
“Ortiz” $4.50 – A Cantabrian artisan anchovy sitting atop a crunchy sour dough crouton finished with a refreshing quenelle of smoked tomato sorbet, green capers and a light drizzle of olive oil. This was an amazing way to start and the combination of ingredients worked together so well. The crunchiness of the crouton along with the saltiness of the anchovy and the sweetness and earthiness of the sorbet. It all just came together perfectly and worked well in getting the palette ready for the nights’ offerings.
“Caballa Ahumado” $18 – The dish of the night and one of the best things I have eaten this year. What you receive is a generous plate of thinly sliced, smoked mackerel (carpaccio style). This is topped with pine nuts and micro herbs and is finished with a creamy dressing and a quenelle of gazpacho sorbet. The fish is so soft and has a wonderful smoky flavour. The dressing is sweet and creamy and the sorbet just adds a whole other element to the dish, as do the herbs and pine nuts. This really is an amazing dish and I highly recommend everyone trying it.
“Costilla” $5.80 – An excellent lamb cutlet, slow cooked and finished in a sweet paprika crusting. This is cooked through, a little more than my usual liking, but is so tender that it almost falls off the bone and tastes amazing. The cutlet is served with a nob of green coloured paste, which adds an extra dimension of colour and flavour to the dish.
“Carillera de buey” $16 - Another exceptional, rich and generous dish. What you get is a wonderful piece of beef cheek, slow braised in a pedro ximenez sherry reduction and served on a celeriac mache with the intense sherry jus. This was so good. The meat was unbelievably tender and gelatinous, the jus sweet and sticky and the mache was a perfect accompaniment to the dish. Another “WOW” dish and great value. The waiter certainly did an excellent job ordering for me.
Dessert – “Ganache caliente con turron” $12.50 – An excellent way to finish the evening. What you get here is a nice sized rich, hot, chocolate pudding filled with a chocolate ganache centre finished with a drizzling of custard anglaise, sliced nougat pieces and a spoonful of house made vanilla bean ice-cream. An excellent dessert, and a great, richer way to end the meal. Many lighter dessert options are also available for those who are inclined that way.
To drink: Marquez Tempranillo ($16/ glass) – A lovely medium bodied Spanish red that goes well with the food and is easy to drink.
With dessert: Piedra Luenga ‘Organic’ Pedro Ximenez ($9/ glass) – An organic sherry that is not your typical style. Very sweet, light and mallow – goes well with the rich chocolate dessert.
Overall the dishes which I received were all of an exceptionally good standard, the ambience of the restaurant was nice, though perhaps a little fast paced and service was friendly and efficient, albeit unusual, being served by waiters directly from the bar. The value was also excellent: all up my meal was under $100 + a generous tip ($41 of this being for liquor).
=====
To the young lady and gentleman sitting next to me at the bar, if you are reading this please feel free to post your comments on MoVida and let my readers and I know of your favourite dishes.
=====
MoVida was awarded One Chefs Hat and received a score of 15.5 out of 20 in the 2008 Age Good Food Guide. If they continue to raise the bar and keep up the excellent standards I am confident that a second hat is not too far away.
My rating for MoVida is: 16.5/20
Excellent Food (8.5/10), Good atmosphere, informal comfortable feel (4/5), Very Good Service (4/5) – The waitstaff deserve bonus points for doing such a great job in choosing such a perfect and diverse spread of dishes for me. Excellent restaurant – Very highly recommended!
www.movida.com.au
After initially making plans on having dinner at nearby Ezard, I received a phone call from MoVida in the afternoon offering me a reserved table in their bar area. This was an offer to good to refuse and I immediately said yes, excited to finally be eating here. Upon arrival you notice that MoVida is divided into two halves: a more formal restaurant area; and a casual bar area, with seating around the main bar station as well as tall, narrow tables behind this area, which do not look overly comfortable. I am seated at the bar and consequently have a comfortable seat with a good view to the kitchen and bar. This seems to be a great spot to eat and everything feels very right, and comfortable here, which is not always the case in such establishments. A very good start.
After briefly pondering the menu, which is divided into two parts: tapa (small dishes) and racion (larger dishes – equivalent to a generous entrée size) I decide that I will leave it to my waiter to order for me. As I am fairly hungry he suggests two tapa and two racion, which along with dessert make for a fairly substantial, great value dinner. The menu is quite diverse and has a plethora of dishes to suit everyone’s taste and budget. Better still it is much more affordable than many high-class restaurants and it is possible to eat an excellent quality, fulfilling meal for about $40-$60 per person (not inclusive of drinks), even less for those who are not big eaters.
Here is a summary of all of the excellent courses I enjoyed on the night:
“Ortiz” $4.50 – A Cantabrian artisan anchovy sitting atop a crunchy sour dough crouton finished with a refreshing quenelle of smoked tomato sorbet, green capers and a light drizzle of olive oil. This was an amazing way to start and the combination of ingredients worked together so well. The crunchiness of the crouton along with the saltiness of the anchovy and the sweetness and earthiness of the sorbet. It all just came together perfectly and worked well in getting the palette ready for the nights’ offerings.
“Caballa Ahumado” $18 – The dish of the night and one of the best things I have eaten this year. What you receive is a generous plate of thinly sliced, smoked mackerel (carpaccio style). This is topped with pine nuts and micro herbs and is finished with a creamy dressing and a quenelle of gazpacho sorbet. The fish is so soft and has a wonderful smoky flavour. The dressing is sweet and creamy and the sorbet just adds a whole other element to the dish, as do the herbs and pine nuts. This really is an amazing dish and I highly recommend everyone trying it.
“Costilla” $5.80 – An excellent lamb cutlet, slow cooked and finished in a sweet paprika crusting. This is cooked through, a little more than my usual liking, but is so tender that it almost falls off the bone and tastes amazing. The cutlet is served with a nob of green coloured paste, which adds an extra dimension of colour and flavour to the dish.
“Carillera de buey” $16 - Another exceptional, rich and generous dish. What you get is a wonderful piece of beef cheek, slow braised in a pedro ximenez sherry reduction and served on a celeriac mache with the intense sherry jus. This was so good. The meat was unbelievably tender and gelatinous, the jus sweet and sticky and the mache was a perfect accompaniment to the dish. Another “WOW” dish and great value. The waiter certainly did an excellent job ordering for me.
Dessert – “Ganache caliente con turron” $12.50 – An excellent way to finish the evening. What you get here is a nice sized rich, hot, chocolate pudding filled with a chocolate ganache centre finished with a drizzling of custard anglaise, sliced nougat pieces and a spoonful of house made vanilla bean ice-cream. An excellent dessert, and a great, richer way to end the meal. Many lighter dessert options are also available for those who are inclined that way.
To drink: Marquez Tempranillo ($16/ glass) – A lovely medium bodied Spanish red that goes well with the food and is easy to drink.
With dessert: Piedra Luenga ‘Organic’ Pedro Ximenez ($9/ glass) – An organic sherry that is not your typical style. Very sweet, light and mallow – goes well with the rich chocolate dessert.
Overall the dishes which I received were all of an exceptionally good standard, the ambience of the restaurant was nice, though perhaps a little fast paced and service was friendly and efficient, albeit unusual, being served by waiters directly from the bar. The value was also excellent: all up my meal was under $100 + a generous tip ($41 of this being for liquor).
=====
To the young lady and gentleman sitting next to me at the bar, if you are reading this please feel free to post your comments on MoVida and let my readers and I know of your favourite dishes.
=====
MoVida was awarded One Chefs Hat and received a score of 15.5 out of 20 in the 2008 Age Good Food Guide. If they continue to raise the bar and keep up the excellent standards I am confident that a second hat is not too far away.
My rating for MoVida is: 16.5/20
Excellent Food (8.5/10), Good atmosphere, informal comfortable feel (4/5), Very Good Service (4/5) – The waitstaff deserve bonus points for doing such a great job in choosing such a perfect and diverse spread of dishes for me. Excellent restaurant – Very highly recommended!
www.movida.com.au
Labels: MoVida, REVIEWS: Fine Dining
