With a pig as their logo that was either drawn by a kid in kindergarten or a maestro, what more incentive could you want to try this place?

What did we eat?

Note: this is where I disgrace myself by not remembering the proper Spanish names of the dishes and use proper grammatical English words like ‘thingy‘.

Anchovy & watermelon sorbet	Oysters
Potato-tomato-cheese sauce thingy	Beef cheek in cauliflower puree
Not enough thinly sliced wagyu	Paella

> More photos & dishes available on our Flickr stream

What I liked:

The location is great, it feels kind of secluded until you get the after-work corporates rocking up after 5pm making a ruckus (me included).

What I didn’t like:

If I remember correctly, master chef George Colombaris tells me that paella should have a crust and that one which doesn’t has failed. By that standard, I would say the MoVida one failed as I could’ve cooked a better crust using my crappy $30 Breville rice cooker.

Top tip:

Book ahead, even on a  weekday. Otherwise go early or just sit out on their terraza and enjoy.

Rating:

6.5/10 – whilst the food was good overall, can’t say I was particularly wowed by their dishes.

On a completely separate note – can you believe this if the first post for 2010?!?! Happy extremely belated new year peeps!

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MoVida Aqui
Level 1, 500 Bourke Street
Melbourne, VIC
Phone: +61 3 9818 3141
Operating hours: Mon-Fri: 12 noon until late. Saturday: 5pm until late
Web: http://www.movida.com.au/

With the End of Financial Year, several things happen. There are heaps of sales, you can put in your tax returns and some people get promotions at work. Luckily I have such friends that are better at their jobs than I am (Congratulations to them!). So the celebration dinner was held at La Paella. I know nothing about Moroccan or Spanish food. The only thing I’d learnt from MasterChef was that a good paella should have a crusty base.

What did we eat?

KeXin, Wancy, Jono and WiFi (I was the special guest this time!): The Andulucian Banquet. This consisted of…

• Mixed dips served with home made bread.



• A mixed platter with fried cheese, chicken shasliks, Spanish omelette, garlic mushrooms and salad.



• A chicken and seafood paella – there was hardly a crusty base but it was still tasty. I found the crust kinda salty.



• Coffee/tea with almond biscuits – we didn’t get to this stage…see What I didn’t like.

What I liked:

• The Moroccan mint tea, especially while it’s hot. Once the tea cools down, the tea is too sweet.
• The garlic mushrooms. They only served the heads/caps of the mushrooms but they put the garlic sauce inside the heads/caps

What I didn’t like:

• The teapot holding the tea was a bit silly. It was completely metal…so the handle was hot while the tea was hot.
• My friends didn’t help me with the paella (I ended up eating about 2/3 of it). They were quite full after the mixed platter. But this isn’t really the restaurants fault.

Top tip:

The banquet is quite filling so pace yourselves! Also, opening the lid of the teapot doesn’t work like it does at Yumcha.

Rating: 7/10. But I’m definitely not ready for another paella yet…unless someone eats the bigger portion.

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La Paella
217 Sydney Road
Brunswick
Phone 9380 6955