Thursday, March 14, 2013

Movida Sydney, Surry Hills

I waited TWO long years to get a chance to eat at Melbourne's darling, Movida but just mere months after one of my long held dining wishes came true Movida moved north and opened in Sydney. Typical.


It seemed remiss not to take advantage of them being virtually on my doorstep now (well, 20kms from my doorstep which is closer than Melbourne) so Miss M and I make a booking (yes, they take bookings) and headed on down for dinner.


Although I didn't want to compare my Melbourne experience with my Movida dinner in Sydney I just couldn't help it. Whilst I liked my dinner in Melbourne I didn't love it. The food was just as delicious as I'd hoped but we ordered wrongly - all little tapas dishes which meant we left hungry. I wish the waitstaff there had given us some direction.  I didn't make the mistake of ordering wrongly this time - and we had a super helpful waiter who helped us get it right.


We kick things off with a drink - I've not idea what I was drinking...I just asked from something white, cheap and not nasty. This $11 glass didn't disappoint and went down a treat - nice and "crisp".


Dinner starts off with some freshly baked crusty bread that has been dusted with sea salt and served with Spanish olive oil.  After demolishing this we start our meal with BOCADILLO DE CHORIZO - grilled chorizo and padron sandwich ($7.00 each). This is all a  fancy way of saying "slider" (aka trendy, mini-hamburger). No matter what you call it, it  really is delicious. The chorizo is perfectly spicy and the Padron (pepper) is crisp + sharp enough in flavour to cut through the fatty chorizo.


Next up we have CALABACIN - zucchini filled with Crab served with Pea and Mint Gazpacho ($9.00 each).  These were fresh + tasty little morsels though a little pricey but I guess crab meat isn't the cheapest thing to come by.  I love the CIGARILLO DE QUESO - Goat’s Curd and Quince Cigar ($5.50 each) - when we tried it in Melbourne and it didn't disappoint this time. Sweet + super crispy quince cigar wrapped around lusciously creamy goats cheese = good stuff!


We had a few meaty dishes coming up as our main so a salad was in order and  the ENSALADA DE TOMATES - Heirloom Tomato Salad with Avocado, Pickled Cauliflower and Tempura White Anchovies ($18.50) - was a perfect choice to offset our meaty mains. I especially loved the zingyness of the pickled cauliflower and fresh, natural flavour of the heirloom tomatoes. And of course, you cannot go wrong with a serve of slightly salty anchovies.


The special of the night CONEJO - rabbit stuffed with chorizo + served with glazed shallots and turnips ($24.50) was a lovely dish that was surprisingly quite delicate in flavour.  I expected the flavour of the rabbit to be fairly strong and gamy, but it was actually very mild.  I liked that the chorizo was encased in tender minced meat rather than wrapped a "piece of meat" - I think this added to the lightness of the dish. Last up is the delicious COSTILLAS - Spicy Pork Ribs on Charcoal ($35.00) - there's nothing light or delicate about these tender, meaty and slightly salty ribs. Oh boy!


There's always room for dessert when you're sharing, right? We choose the special of the night - burnt orange ice-cream served with a rich chocolate brownie that had been embedded with dulce de leche ($14.50). Yes, it was as rich and decadent as it sounds!


Movida Sydney is at 50 Holt Street, Surry Hills. Phone them on 8964-7642.

MoVida Sydney on Urbanspoon

33 comments:

  1. I loved that tomato and anchovy salad :) I'm still yet to visit the MoVidas in Melbourne.... I'll get there one day...

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    1. It was a great salad - I loved it. The anchovies were stellar.

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  2. Replies
    1. I know, right! So good and so well seasoned.

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  3. Interesting food...I would love to try the quince cigar, yum! The rabbit sounds delicious too.

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    1. You'd like this place Jane...really fun and tasty food.

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  4. so glad they have opened in Sydney!!! yay

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  5. All looks and sounds amazing! Love the way you ordered your wine - I do that too sometimes (love recommendations!). Will def. have to get myself to Movida...

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    1. I have no idea about wine other than I don't want it to cost more than a bowl of ramen.

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  6. I wanted to try one of the Melbourne MoVidas before Sydney's but I think I'll just go ahead and go local. $11 for a glass of white is not that cheap, huh?

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    1. Go with Sydney - it's good and I think it was better than my Melbourne experience. Yeah, not cheap wine but I only ever have one glass so it's OK.

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  7. Oh hello chocolate brownie! Is the rest of the menu aimed mostly for a meatasaurus?

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    1. I think you'd struggle to get a good feed here - whilst not everything is meaty, much of it has seafood.

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  8. Everything looks amazing!!! And that dessert.....yummm....

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  9. I have to say that when I went to Movida's in Melbourne I really didn't understand what all the fuss was about. It was all nice, but not really anything special to me. But I think maybe it's just because I'm not really into Spanishy tapasy food.

    I'm not really interested in trying the Syd one. However, I do think these photos make it look quite the yum!

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    1. I love Spanish food...but we ordered wrongly in Melbourne and I really wanted to waiter to step in and tell us we needed to mix things up a bit. Food was tasty, but I was hungry aferwards :(

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  10. Oh Movida! LOVE LOVE LOVE. think I need to go again now :)

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  11. Still haven't been yet!! Mm... Who can resist brownies?

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  12. When we went I must admit I wasn't blown away. I haven't been to the any of of the Melbourne establishments. Food was good, honest and there were a couple of inspiring dishes, but there were a couple of hohum ones too.

    Shame you didn't try the almond fondant, that was the outstanding dish of our meal - wars have been waged over less!

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    1. I really enjoyed our dinner here - more so that in Melbourne. I think I had low expectations which is probably the best way to approach most places as it's easy to be impressed that way.

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  13. Have heard such epic things about this place and really looks like it did not disaapoint! That dessert sounds soooo good and I think I have to go just to gorge myself on the lamb shoulder on the menu hehe

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    1. Yes go! We could arrange to do a blogger dinner there maybe - it's been awhile between eats hasn't it?

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  14. This might be a big call... BUT these dishes look better than the Melbourne one! I know what you mean by being left a bit hungry at the Melbourne place. I was like that too but it was still tasty. I love the look of those ribs but most of all, the food at this place looks so honest. The Melb one was nice but probably a bit too fancy for 'tapas'. You have persuaded me that I need to check out the Sydney one hehehe

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    1. I'm 100% in agreement with you. I think they had more "big" dishes here so it was easier to mix things up a bit. You should go...you'll like it!

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  15. Funny that, I can't wait to go to the original movida in melbourne. i get the chance to go this week. I am so excited! so glad you enjoyed yourself here. I did too when I got the chance to go! everything really amazed me.

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    1. I think I'd like to try Movida Next Door on our next Melbs trip - it's probably more of the relaxed tapas style place I was hoping for. Enjoy your trip!

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  16. Great review. Can i ask how much it was per head approx, Would $100 fill you up?

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    1. Hello Alex - from memory I think we paid about $80 each for our dinner...we were well & truly full and both had a glass of wine each too.

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    2. Wow that was quick!

      Thanks for the help.

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