Miro Tapas Bar, Sydney

One of the things I love about tapas is that you get to share everything - which for me means no pleading with people to have a little taste of their meals! Tonight we're at Miro Tapas Bar to farewell MB who is jet setting off to Europe for 2 months - lucky him! And by some divine miracle from the food gods we get seated at the only well-lit table in the whole place. Not so good for the ambiance but definitely good for my photos =D

Sangria - $20 for a jug

We start off with a jug of sangria for the table, which is sweet and fruity. Very drinkable.

Calamares al Sol (strips of calamari, golden browned on the hot plate with a special salsa) - $12.00

We order a whole lot of tapas to share depending on everyone's preferences and luckily we end up with lots of different dishes. First up is the calamari with salsa verde which is a simple yet delicious dish. The calamari is also very tender.

Champignones al Ajillo (garlic mushrooms) -$11.00

Next is the ubiquitous tapas dish: garlic mushrooms. These are juicy and have a great garlicky flavour.

Japaz, Neutral Bay

Japaz is a restaurant which combines both the Japanese Izakaya style and Spanish tapas style of serving small plates, often accompanied by drinks. The idea of Japanese-Spanish fusion intrigues me, so we make a booking for 8pm and a bunch of us venture out to see what Japaz has to offer.

Sir D and I are fashionably 15 minutes late (since we got caught up in Masterchef!) but the others arrive on time. When we arrive, Queen Chu tells us that the waiter has asked about our order several times already so we quickly make some selections. Midway taking our order, the waiter excuses himself to serve another table which BLT in particular finds very rude. We end up ordering about 12 dishes between 7 of us, since none of us are big eaters, and the waiter insists that this will not be enough and recommends that we order fewer selections but double up on them. However, we decide that we prefer to sample more of the menu so we stick with our order - to which the waiter again insists on ordering more dishes. This overattentiveness continues throughout our meal, and whilst his concern for our appetites was genuine, many of us find it quite unpleasant (as though he was trying to milk more money out of us!). Apart from this, the service is otherwise impeccable with dishes being removed promptly after they are finished and water being topped up regularly.

Fried eggplant with honey and balsamic - $11.00

The first dish to arrive is the fried eggplant, which is crumbed on the outside with soft, juicy eggplant on the inside. The honey balsamic dressing tastes sweet at first, but then the flavour of the balsamic takes over. I'm not usually a big fan of eggplant but I actually quite like this dish.

Crumbed portobello mushroom - $9.00

The portobello mushrooms are also crumbed in the same way as the eggplant with the mushroom juices oozing out with each bite. I enjoy this dish but it could probably do with a bit of sauce to give it a bit more flavour.

Scallops with a sweet soy and onion butter - $5.50 each