Movida Next Door

I have heard of a lot of things about the Movida series of bars and restaurants, but never had the chance of going to any one of them.  Last Saturday, finding Hardware Societe already pack full, and didn't want to wait, we decided to wait a little longer for Movida Next Door to open and dine there.

Knowing that this is a place that will be packed soon after it opens, we decided to more or less wait outside its door for it to open at 12pm.  Looking into the alley way, between Movida Next Door and Movida Bar De Tapas Y Vino, there are around 8-9 people waiting around for both to open.  So I guess we made to right move to be there early to make sure we do get seats.

More or less right at 12pm, we walked into the place and were greeted and lead to the seats facing Flinders street in the corner.  After briefly looking at the menu, the waitress came by, and introduced us to the lists of specials from for today.

There were so many options!  And she speaks so fast that after she finished, I can only remember those few ones that I thought we might order...

Rather than just having water, I decided to go for something different, and went for the Grapefruit drink  the waitress suggested.  It was not too sweet and very grapefruit-y.  It's a shame that the photo didn't do the drink justice.  It was actually a very beautiful pink colour.  But because the lighting wasn't quite good, it came out quite light and dull in the photo... Oh well.

This is the complimentary bread that was served after we ordered our meal.  To my surprise, it came out with olive oil rather than butter.  Well, Spanish place, I suppose.  It was a nice way to start a meal, since we were so hungry by that time.

The first of our tapas to come was the Croqueta - Fried Croqueta of Wild Mushrooms.  This, is ABSOLUTELY the highlight of the meal.  I so wish I had order more of this.  One each was definitely not enough...

It was so crisp on the outside and so smooth and rich of mushroom flavour on the inside.  Ah, I can still taste of the flavour even at this moment.  The mushroom filling inside was just, so smooth and creamy and... just amazing!

Then there was the Bomba - Chorizo-Filled Catalan Potato Bomb with a Spicy Sauce.  This came out so cute, with its round shape and the blob of sauce on top.

Basically, it was a potato ball with a bit of mashed chorizo in the center with a bit of spicy sauce.  I must admit that when it came, I had already forgotten that it's filling was chorizo and did wonder what the filling was.  Like the Croqueta, it was very crispy on the outside and the potato and chorizo mash is absolutely lovely on the inside.  And the sauce!  I made sure I use the fork to scrape every bit of it and ate it all.

Interestingly, it seems everyone that came to the place will either order at least one of those, or both.  I guess this must be the most popular dish of the place.

The next to come was Pollo - Chicken Skewer Grilled on Charcoal.  This came as a bit of a disappointment.  Taste-wise it wasn't bad, but the meat was too dry.  We were glad that we only ordered one rather than one each.

Then came the special, Gamba, which are pan-fried(?) Tiger Prawn with some kind of aioli...I really don't remember.  The menu was actually for three prawns only, but the waiter, seeing that we have two person sharing the meal, suggested that we can increase it to four prawns so that we can have two each.  The aioli sauce was very creamy but seems to lack a bit of bang to it.  The prawns also feels like they lacked a bit of salt.  But it did taste fresh and it was nice.

The other plate we ordered from the special menu was the Pato, which was a confit duck leg with some sauce with some vegetable...again, I really don't remember what it was exactly.  The duck leg was very nice, with crispy skin, and very tender meat that is literally off the bone.  The sauce, although I don't remember what it was, had a bit of a plum taste to it, kind of sweet, but not overpowering.  It was a very nice compliment to the duck meat.

Last to come was the dessert.  I was torn between this, or Churros Con Chocolate - which is Spanish Doughnuts with Rich Drinking Chocolate.  I was SO tempted to order the Churros, but thought that it might be too much with the rich chocolate.  So instead, I chose something lighter, the Blood Orange Sorbet.  I forgot what exactly it was called, I think it was something like Sorbet Sanguine.  Basically it was Blood orange sorbet, with Orange gel, mandarin, and Almond crumble.  As I imagined, it was a very light dessert, a very good finish to the meal.  The sorbet have a blood orange taste to it, but not too sweet or overpowering.  And oh I loved that almond crumble.

Overall, it was a satisfying meal.  I think I will come back for more, especially the Croqueta and the Bomba.  But one thing to keep in mind.  Better to come early than late.  Movida opens on Saturday at 12pm, and it was already packed full by 12.30pm...