Movida Sydney, Surry Hills

Dining at Movida Sydney (left); Sangria - $39

I first fell in love with the food at Movida when exploring Melbourne and splurging on a nice meal at Movida Aqui. When I heard that the Movida team were opening a restaurant in Sydney I was super excited, and determined to share the fabulous food with my family.

To say that they are busy is a bit of an understatement. I booked weeks in advance to secure a table on a Saturday night but trust me, it was worth the wait because the food was just as amazing (if not better) than my experience of Movida in Melbourne.

Anchoa - $4.80

The menu is divided up into a few different sections of smaller tapas to larger raciones dishes. The tapas are served as individual portions so it was up to us to select how many we wanted of each. I'd heard so much about the Anchoa dish, which is one of Movida's signatures, that I had to try it this time. The salty Calabrian anchovy with the cool smoked tomato sorbet was an amazing combination of flavours and I would definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Movida.

Cerdo croqueta - $7.50

We tried the sticky pork croquettes with sauce gribiche which were little deep fried pucks of goodness. The sweet and sticky pulled pork inside the croquettes was tender and flavoursome and the sauce gribiche provided a bit of creaminess to the dish.

Pinxto de pulpo gallega - $7.80

The octopus pinxto with potato and paprika sounds quite ordinary but this tapa was out of this world! The octopus was so incredibly tender and I wished we had ordered one each of these so I could have one all to myself!

Bocadillo de chorizo - $7.25

Spanish Terrazas, Sydney

All you can eat tapas!

A post on OzBargain advertising all you can eat tapas for $29 leads a group of us to hightail it down to Spanish Terrazas on a cold and wet Tuesday night.

Inside Spanish Terrazas

We've made a booking but it's not entirely necessary because the restaurant is large and spacious with plenty of seats on the night. We also spot a couple of other large groups feasting on tapas which gets us rather excited.

Garlic mushrooms and Chargrilled capsicum

The list of tapas is 21 items long which leaves us spoiled for choice. To minimise food wastage, there is a limit of 3 tapas per person per order, and you can order more after these are finished. Sounds good to us, since there are 6 of us dining so technically we can order 18 items off the menu.

Chicken chorizo and BBQ chorizo

When it comes time to order, we are limited to only ordering half the originally intended 18 items for fear of food wastage. This is a little disappointing to us but we understand about the food wastage (there's starving children in Africa!) so on the promise that the second lot of food will come out after we are done, we concede.

Chicken drumettes

The food comes out relatively quickly and we dig in with gusto. The garlic mushrooms are a favourite of mine and are deliciously garlicky with a touch of chilli as well. You can't go to a Spanish restaurant without trying the chorizo either and there are two types on offer. The chicken "chorizo" is really more of a chicken sausage and has a mild flavour, while the BBQ chorizo packs more of a punch.

MoVida Aqui, Melbourne

Before my trip to Melbourne, I made sure to plan my meals to make the most of my time there. One of the restaurants on my hit list was Movida, and while the majority of my friends went to watch the musical Hairspray, I met up with Phuoc who also happened to be in Melbourne at the time to pig out at Movida Aqui.

Interior

We book a few weeks in advance to make sure we don't miss out. We're led inside the restaurant which is warm with wooden tables and chairs, and given a modern funky feel with milk crates overhanging the bar area that have light bulbs trapped inside.

Sangria - $35 per jug

It's a warm day so for drinks we get a jug of white sangria to share. The sangria has some lovely citrus flavours and definitely serves as a fantastic refresher before we start on the food.

Complimentary bread

The menu is broken up into small plates, grilled items and rice dishes which includes paella. Phuoc is keen to get the paella so we order a few small dishes keeping in mind that we have a big bowl of rice and seafood coming our way. After we place our order, the waitress goes over to a table and cuts up some slices of bread for us. It's served with a dish of olive oil and is wonderfully soft in the centre. In hindsight, I should have saved some for sauce-dipping later but it is too good to resist and I polish off my share in no time.

Bomba - $4.50 each

Spain Meets Japan @ Japaz, Neutral Bay

I've always been fascinated by fusion food and how you can take two seemingly distant cuisines and merge them together into one. Japaz is a place that cleverly fuses Spanish and Japanese cuisines by creating small tapas or izakaya style dishes using both Japanese and Spanish ingredients and techniques. Tonight we're dining at the SIFF Drink and Dine event held at Japaz (at a discounted rate thanks to a hungry.digital.elf!)

It seems like we were not the only ones to take up the offer since we see other tables taking photos of their food too, including the awesome Mademoiselle Delicièuse and Monsieur Poisson from spoon, fork and chopsticks. The dinner consists of eight courses paired with matching sake. As soon as we're seated, we're given the first sake of the night which is served as a sangria with lemonade and little cubes of apple and orange.

Gaspacho with Soumen Noodle

The cloudy sake sangria is paired with the first course of the night, a gaspacho with soumen noodles. The dish is cool and refreshing, with the acidity of the gaspacho and soft slipperyness of the soumen noodles. There are a few drops of herb oil on top of the gaspacho as well as a clove of black garlic, which is surprisingly mild and doesn't have the bite of normal garlic.

Sashimi of Lobster with Crushed Spanish Gordal Olives and Tomato Seed Dressing

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