MoTivation for flavour

Food Critic without a face Alex Beazley,

almost makes dining at MoVida a religious experiance. 

 Hi, my name is Alex Beazley, and I’m a Movidaholic.

MoVida (the original, at 1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne).

Rain, hail or shine (in this case rain), whenever I touch down in Melbourne, I make tracks for MoVida. I maintain I hold the quickest Airport to Movida time bar none. I am also well and truly happy to fight it out with the plethora of lonely planet guide holding Scandinavian tourists, the various and ethnically diverse wedding processions rolling down Hosier Lane, the hooded graffiti artists, and finally the horde of regular Movidaphiles usually lining out the door. I don’t even get a table. But by hell or high water I will be squeezed onto a bar stool, next to a drunken Irish man, and between a pair of too cool for school Melbourne-ites. Yes, I really do rate this place quite highly.

Eating at Movida should be easy, but many people get it wrong. The less time you spend faffing about the better, it’s a busy place and the staff, despite being excellent, have a lot on their plate. This is how I do it. Sit down, yes you heard me, bums on seats please, the toilet, phone call, domestic disturbance outside can and will wait. Ask for a glass of dry sherry/beer/white wine, whatever is good/would usually take your fancy. Next, ask for one of every tapa on the menu. It’s that easy. Suddenly, despite being the most recent person to sit down, you will have a drink, bread (for $1, which is donated to charity) and tapa with banging flavours arriving all around you. This will be much to the envy of those ‘indie’ hipsters beside you who decided to google translate every Spanish word on the menu. Sure thing buddy.  

Technically, the food and the flavours are not overworked or overcomplicated. It’s not ground breaking stuff, but rather consistent, flavoursome and genuine food. Since my last visit earlier this year the menu had changed and yet all of my favourites had remained. Perfect. My favourite Movida dish by far is the Caballa Ahumada ($6) or cold smoked mackerel with pine nut gazpacho sorbet. The smoky, nutty, sweet thing going on here is something I can still taste to this day. The Sopa ($4) or garlic soup with calamari was not nearly as garlicy as it sounds, and the Anchoa ($4.50) or anchovy crouton with smoked tomato sorbet was another main stay menu item for all the right reasons. Braised salt cod tripe ($4) is not for the faint hearted and for a small dish packs in the flavour. All in all there were 11 tapa on the menu as of late September, and none of them disappointed. My sampling of the larger dishes included the Bistec Tartare or wagyu tartare ($18.50) and Pulpo or chargrilled octopus ($25.00). These were equally successful in the taste department and certainly reasonably portioned. I did, and much to the amazement of staff, splash out on a further 3 desserts, of which the salted chocolate and olive oil ice cream was the one I remember most fondly. 

It would be easy for a popular place like MoVida to start slacking on the little things, but as far as I could see, the toilets were clean, the cutlery and crockery polished, the food was simple but well-presented and the staff remained cool, friendly and informative from start to finish. If you haven’t eaten at MoVida yet, I’d hop to it. And for those in Sydney, I hear the MoVida there is just as good!

Final words:

Bookings for a table is essential, but ‘walk-ins’ (let’s say no more than 3 people) can often find bar space.

MoVida Bar de Tapas - 1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne Open lunch and dinner 7 days a week: 12pm to late For bookings: +61 3 9663 3038 - See more at: http://movida.com.au