Bunny Goes to Movida Next Door

This month I visited Melbourne with El and two of my dearest friends, Nick and Jenny. This lucky pair are traveling the world at the moment and stopped off in Australia for a three week visit.

We spent 4 glorious days exploring the city, but in particular its amazing array of Laneways and food. After our fantastic experiences at Chin Chin and Chuckle Park the previous day, we spent our second day exploring the graffiti of the laneways and took the Heritage tram around the city hopping off at Flinders street to check out Movida Next Door.  

As it was 4pm we decided to have a light snack rather than a whole meal choosing a few small dishes off the Tapa Menu. The dishes are priced between $4 and $4.50 each (per piece), at first glance this sounds reasonable but when you consider that many other tapas restaurants charge a similar price for 3 or 4 pieces, it starts to get expensive.

Their saving grace is that they are extremely tasty, look beautiful with their over-the-top presentation. PLUS you can't have just one, they are too good! Consider these little fellas a posh tapas hors de oeuvre instead, made by talented chefs and maybe, just maybe you could overlook their expense.

Above: Ancho - Hand-filleted Cantabrain Anchovy on Crouton with Smoked Tomato Sorbet Bottom Left: Pollo Escabache Al Miguel Spiced Chicken Tapa on Crisp Crouton Bottom Right: Queso Quince Past Cigar with Whipped Goats Milk Cheese

Overall our favorite tapas was the Pollo Escabache followed by the Anchoa. I'm a big lover of goats cheese and loved the flavor of this rather plain looking little Queso, but I found the quince paste chewy and difficult to eat. It probably didn't help that I didn't put the whole thing in my mouth, instead I tried to bite it in half all lady-like and ended up looking completely the opposite.

Tapas is my favorite gastronomic indulgence, I love the sharing and socializing that comes with it and also because it is inexpensive in comparison to other restaurants. For me Movida Next Door falls short here. I'm just too deeply invested in the traditional tapas formula, these delicate little mouthfuls are more a amuse-bouche than tapas.

Go see for yourself and you decide.

Happy adventuring!

Movida Next Door
164 Flinders Street (Corner Hosier Lane)
http://movida.com.au/movida-next-door/