MoVida Next Door

The aptly named MoVida Next Door is one of the hot spots in the city. It is a soulful (meaning: full of souls or too damned crowded) bar in Hosier Lane, just next to Forum Melbourne, obscured in an artsy alley embellished with abstract graffiti and inspirational quotes, its outer façade too, does not lack the painted, witty, light-hearted jokes, which one can enjoy while waiting for a table. 

After Spring's gig on Tuesday, herself, Jayden, Edwin, Kaili and I decided to have a post production celebration dinner. Instead of Movida Next Door, we planned to go Movida. Unfortunately, there was only one table in Movida which could accommodate five and it was occupied. The waiter advised us to try our luck next door, literally. Still, it was an eternity of waiting and we were cold and starving.

We could not wait any more after getting a table. We were squinting at the menu and the specials board, trying to figure out the Spanish words in dim light. In the end, we ordered platija, mejillones, camarones, embutido, codorniz, two bombas and churros. I did the ordering, with the mock Spanish accent and the signature lisp.

Now, to get to what those words mean.

Mejillones.

Mejillones means mussels, not just any mussels but the sweetest mussels that I have ever tasted. There was no doubt about their freshness. Every pair of those iridescent shells cradled a sizeable mussel within. Each of those treasures were firm, succulent and absolutely exquisite. Upon biting them, them just broke apart and the pieces just bounced around my mouth, unleashing the torrent of juicy  goodness from within. Words utterly fail me at this moment in doing justice to the mussels. They were hands down the very best. I would have to credit MoVida Next Door for having found the secret to the miraculous mussels, by marrying them with a light broth. As such, the natural flavour of the mussels was put on stage and in the limelight, with nothing to mask or kill the flavour. On the other hand, the broth was flavoured by the sweetness of the mussels, which Kaili and I would have drank had the pot not been so heavy or if we had a spoon. 

Embutido.

Embutido is just a generic term for sausages. MoVida Next Door serves three types of meats for their version. One is a salami with fennel and aniseed, another thin slices of loin ham and the last being a spicy, chorizo-like ham.

The salami was probably my favourite. It had a more chewy texture due to the hardened spots of fats. The tastes of fennel and aniseed were quite prominent, which gave the salami a more complex flavour as compared to the usual overly salty ones.

The loin ham was quite a new experience for me. It was rather bland and was masked by the taste of olive oil that was drizzled on the board. I suppose one could call it a healthier and more premium ham, due to the light seasoning and the price. The texture of the ham was also typical of expensive ham. It had the texture of grated cheddar, only meatier and slightly softer.

The last of the lot was the spicy ham. There was a stark contrast between that and the loin ham due to the burst of saltiness and spiciness upon chewing. Texture-wise, it was somewhere between the salami and the loin ham. It was not too chewy but not too soft and quite a delight to chew on.

Platija.

Platija simply means flounder and MoVida Next Door fries theirs with butter, jamón and sour peppers. For me, the idea of frying whole fish until crispy with butter is just strange. However, only one side of the fish is fried until crispy, the other just looks like steamed fish. Interestingly, the sour peppers gave the butter sauce a slight hint of sourness while the jamón, salty on their own, did little to the taste of the dish as a whole. The fish itself was amazing though. It was fresh as can be as the flesh was firm and gave a lot of bite. Still, I think it is a rather unpleasant way to cook such a wonderful fish.

Codorniz.

Codorniz means quail. Jayden did not made much fuss about what to order but was rather insistent on the quail and he got what he wanted. The first thing that came to mind when the dish was served was: where is the quail? After digging in the jar that was served together with some shaved, white thing, four pieces of large croutons, we found a rather cute piece of quail meat. The quail, apparently, is pan-seared and then soaked in sherry and pomegranate. By itself, the quail had a wonderful, slightly rubbery texture to it which made it an absolute pleasure to bite. I wondered whether it was the sherry that altered the texture of the meat or was it like that to begin with. One thing the sherry did do was make the quail very sour. Though the idea of eating meat in vinegar is quite appalling to me, the quail had a refreshing quality to it.

When eaten with the croutons and the white things, it was quite a wide range of textures in one mouthful. The croutons were crispy and crunchy, the white things had a fibrous texture and the quail's was as described above. It was certainly an explosion of flavours, which would leave those who are curious and analytic about tastes flustered due to the rather chaotic mix. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think it could be both.

Camarones.

Camarones means shrimps. These were tiny shrimps deep fried and heavily salted, served in a paper cone, on a wooden board, with a wedge of lemon and aioli, a rather novel presentation. The shrimps were crispy but not completely dry. Despite being thoroughly deep fried, the flesh still retained some moisture.

By themselves the shrimps were terribly salty but when dipped in the aioli, the creamy sourness balances perfectly with the saltiness. It certainly made a good snack. The only thing I have against this dish is the portion. It was by no means hearty.

We were still quite famished after the five dishes. So we ordered some tapas and a dessert.

Bomba.

By now, one would expect another literal name for the next dish. If so, this dish would come as a shocker. It does not take a polyglot to figure out what "bomba" means.

The menu describes the Bomba as a chorizo-filled Catalan Potato Bomb with a spicy sauce. I guess it reminded me of Indonesian perkedel (potato cakes), just with a more Mediterranean touch due to the spicy sauce. The crust was crispy and the potato inside was silky. However, at AUD 4.50 a piece, I would expect the Bomba to stay true to its description "chorizo-filled". I could only find two pieces of chorizo in each of those golf ball sized balls. This one really let me down.

Churros.

It would be an understatement to say that Spring and Kaili were enthusiastic about the churros. It was all they wanted from start to end.

MoVida Next Door's churros are powdered with cinnamon instead of castor sugar, which made it less in-your-face and more of an adult taste. Diners only looking to satisfy their sweet tooth would not be able to appreciate the subtlety of the churros and the dip, which they described in the menu as drinking chocolate. The drinking chocolate is atypical of those usually used as dips. It was not too thick and too sweet. Instead, the taste is more of a complex amalgam of nuts and cocoa.

All in all, MoVida Next Door has a mix of great, good and decent dishes. Fortunately, there was nothing that stood out by putting me off. When it comes to seafood, the freshness is guaranteed but their way of cooking might not be so suited to my taste. Would I return for another meal? Probably for the mussels or if MoVida, which is next door to Next Door, has any vacancies, it would be a much better choice.

I would like to credit Edwin for being my lighting specialist for the night.

1 Hosier Lane,

Melbourne,

VIC 3000.

03 9663 3038

Google Maps does not seem to have 1 Hosier Lane as MoVida Next Door. However, I will still include a map.

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Happy Birthday, Edwin! (The Point)

Before I begin, I would like to apologise to Edwin for the long overdue post.

The Point.

Mmmmm... fresh meat.

The Point is one of the more famous fancy steakhouses in Melbourne. A standalone building situated in the tranquil Albert Park, the restaurant is not only renowned for excellent steak but also a picturesque view of the famous lake. It was also where we celebrated Edwin's birthday this year.

Mimi, Edwin, Keith and me.

Since it is a steakhouse, most of us ordered steaks except for Kaili who ordered lamb. As such, this review is going to be extremely short as compared to those where I review more than five dishes.

Avoiding the exorbitantly priced Wagyu in the menu, I quickly skipped to the grain fed section. This time, I ordered the 250g grain fed eye fillet.

Eye fillet.

My first impression of the steak was better than that of most other steaks. The crust was nicely lined with char marks, not completely burnt and dried, the bone with the marrow was placed neatly on a pile of what seemed to be coleslaw, and the surface of the plate was immaculate. It looked highly professional.

However, looks are more often than not deceiving.

Definitely not medium rare.

Cutting the steak open with the knife took more effort than usual. The resistance that the meat put up was not typical of medium rare steaks. As I pried open the cut, I was rather appalled. The meat was almost completely browned. It was more cooked than a medium well steak.

I called the waiter to the table and told him I ordered a medium rare. He looked at it and said, "that is definitely not medium rare," and left with the plate.

For the next ten minutes, I had to watch everyone else enjoy their meal while I had an empty spot in front of me on the table. Fortunately Kaili fed me some of her lamb.

Murraylands grain fed spring lamb, charred baby leeks and vincotto dressing.

The lamb dish was absolutely beautiful. 

The lamb cutlets were served pink and the other cuts were cooked to perfection. It is rather rare (pun intended) that lamb is served this pink but that was the reason why Kaili and I loved the cutlets so much. The meat was succulent and moist from being drenched in a generous serve of the dressing. Upon an effortless bite, the meat is easily compressed and the dressing and juices flow from within onto the tongue. The pairing of pink spring lamb with the thick, intense sauce was just perfect.

The thin cut of meat and fat was a new experience for me and Kaili. We have never seen that cut of lamb before. The meat, being so close to the fat, was soft and supple. It goes without saying that the fat itself is capable of melt-in-your-mouth action. The hair-thin layer of skin had a jelly-like texture and completely absorbed the flavours of the dressing. The savoury dressing accompanies this cut well, rendering the fat less nauseating than it would have been without the sauce.

Another part of the lamb served was the lamb shank. Slow-cooked to perfection, the meat just disintegrates in the mouth. Fully infused with the vincotto dressing, the meat was packed with strong flavours. My only problem with the lamb shank is that there was not enough of it.

The part that is kept hidden from view in the photo was what seemed to me like lamb kidneys. To me it was perfectly cooked, and there is not much more to it as kidneys just taste like kidneys. Kaili, on the other hand, is not a fan of entrails, and left almost all of them to me.

Eye fillet take two.

After ten minutes, the waitress who took my order came back with a plate of steak. She apologised for the blunder with the first steak and told me the chef gave complimentary cuts of their best meat, the Blackmore Wagyu.

Something like medium rare.

This time, the chef got the steak almost to the right rarity. Still, it was a bit dry from the crust to about half an inch into the steak.

There was really nothing spectacular about the steak. It was just a typical eye fillet one can get from any of the more famous steakhouses in Melbourne. The steak was tender and juicy in the middle and was adequately seasoned. It was good enough to eat on its own as the beef was naturally flavourful.

All the beef dishes are accompanied by peppered fig chutney, black garlic butter and house mustard. My favourite among those would be the peppered fig chutney. Sweet and spicy with a texture similar to sundried tomatoes soaked in oil, it embellished the savoury beef well by giving it a sweet and tangy flavour. The black garlic butter tasted like regular garlic bread butter and was nothing to shout about. The house mustard, on the other hand, was something to shout about, not in a good way. It tasted exactly like wasabi and totally robbed the beef of its natural flavours.

I have also sampled a few of the sauces. The red wine sauce which I ordered was rather subtle as to not mask the beef's flavour. It had a toned down sweetness which made it pale in comparison to the peppered fig chutney. The bearnaise sauce was too dilute for me, which made me question the point of having the beef with the sauce since it hardly did anything to the flavour. The piece de resistance would have to be the mushroom sauce. Thick and dark with an ostentatious display of complex flavours from different mushrooms, most prominent of which shitake, the sauce is probably one of the best mushroom sauces that has graced my tongue.

The bone marrow was nothing special. I suppose it is eaten more for texture than taste. It was quite rare and was still pink. It was akin to eating jelly, just a lot bloodier.

Last but not least, the Blackmore Wagyu slices. They were so precious that I was only given four pieces by the chef, one of which I gave Edwin as a birthday present, another I fed Kaili with. I would have to say that the Wagyu slices made me a little exasperated and consolidated my disappointment in the restaurant. They were by far over-seasoned. It made me wonder whether the meat was aged by salting. It was a blatant insult to Blackmore Wagyu. Texture-wise the beef was perfect. Thoroughly marbled, tender, succulent, but just too damned salty. That, to me was the deal breaker.

Perhaps it would not be fair to judge after eating once at a restaurant, but more often than not, a restaurant has only one chance to impress. Being a renowned steakhouse, The Point has managed to kill off whatever expectation I had for it prior to dining there by serving salted Wagyu. Will I return to The Point? Probably not when I have places like Bob's.

Aquatic Dr,

Albert Park Lake,

Melbourne 3206,

VIC.

0396825566

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