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just another typical melbourne place - taking you for a fool. massive disappointment. just another typical melbourne place with melbourne attitude and unfounded angriness and attitude from the staff. when i say typical, i mean it promises a lot, it looks good, but when it comes to the food, just keep going along and you will find something better just about anywhere. small portions, nothing flash, no taste in anything, but by god they’re quick to punch your order into the cash register. the girl serving us looked like she was working at gitmo prison camp such was her attitude and inability to even crack one smile (we tried on numerous occasions). the tall, skinny, metro, uni-student-looking guy pretending to know about the wine list knew as much about wines as he probably did about the arts degree he was studying...very little. i think he was angry with the world as well. as i said earlier, just another typical melbourne place that is taking the customers for fools. oh and if you’re looking for a place with atmosphere, forget about this place because all you will find there are people who are more interested about being tucked up in bed with a tea whilst reading their book on contemporary melbourne architecture than going to a cool place to have agoodtime and eatgoodfood. peace out.

not up to scratch. went for dinner on a monday night, restaurant was rather full. service staff was fantastic although both of them run off their feet . our food when it arrived was tasty but seriously not enough of it , one main arrived before the entree , the entrees arrived all over the place . we had to wait quite a while for the entrees and the mains arrived quite scattered. my husband ordered pork belly which was yum but he ordered it as a main and all he received was one small piece of pork belly on a plate !! nothing else !! to be fair they did not charge us for the two entrees and potatoes that we ordered but never arrived but seriously melbourne has many fantastic restaurants with great food . they really need major organization in the kitchen !!! the food wasgood, service was great in fact the waiter kept apologizing but it wasn't his fault the kitchen was woeful!! mixing up entrees, missing dishes and no where near enough food !!! mains were seriously entree size in other restaurants !! we will not be returning !

diisappointing.... i ate at this restaurant last night - whilst all the food was quite nice - it lacked wow factor. there was no outstanding dish, no outstanding flavours....

all three self-confessed foodies agreed on the night - it all sounded tempting and was adequate (though the rump was tough) without being delicious, it was nothing memorable and we won't be going back.

i expect more from a restaurant that has scored 14.5 in the agegoodfood guide.

sampled on the night:

entrees:
local olives manzanilla, bella di cerignola, ligurian & nocellara
white anchovy & piquillo pepper on toast
salmon bolas, lemon alioli
charred eggplant with yoghurt & pommegranate
piquillo pepper tortilla
sobrasada bomba

mains:
prawn & calamari fideos
chermoula chicken with bulgar & sumac
chargrilled rump cap with wild mushrooms
nicola potatoes with romesco
beetroot with smoked ajo blanco

dessert:
pomegranate & orange blossom sorbet with sugared pistachios
pedro ximenez & muscatel ice cream
poached quince, honey labneh, hazlenuts

what a "fabuloso" place. small and cosy, soft lighting. been meaning to come here since last year, finally did it. our plan was to come in and go for the cheap tapas and grab a glass of wine. we pretty much ended up ordering most of the dishes off the tapas menu and one off the charcuterie!
we started of with the olives and joselito jamon, which was soft and a fresh way to kick things off. the domino effect started off here, where we ordered the oyster dish which was presented on a hot clay dish still bubbling in the creamy harissa and shallot sauce and with a lemon to squeeze over- unbelievable. the mushroom and manchego cheese croquets then came out which was equally as delicious. they were finished in about a second. we succumbed to ordering the paella dish withy black rice and seafood, which took 30 mins to cook.
while we waited the harvey bay scallop dish was scoffed before i could try it. the feedback was prettygoodwith that one. we also tried the crispy eggplant with honey and sherry vinaigrette was outstanding. the flavours of all these dishes were astounding, yet not overly rich.
when the arroz negro paella came out, it was the icing on the cake. the black rice was something different i hadn't seen from the usual paellas i've eaten. although it looks it, the paella wasn't too heavy. the seafood was cooked to perfection and very fresh. i love squeezing lemon over my food, so i found the taste of the lemon over everything highly satisfying. we struggled to finish the whole paella amongst three people, so it's a decent serving- value for money. we probably could have skipped two tapas dishes, but our decisions were clouded with the constant flow of their delicious plic plic and pinot reds that we downed over the four hour event.
we capped things off with the dessert platter, which once again exceeded our expectations. the crème brille was cooked to perfection, which passed my spoon tap test on the top of it and then silky throughout when my spoon went through the dessert.

$215 was then divided amongst three people,goodvalue for many different dishes, well worth it.

thanks to our handsome spanish and very accommodating waiter who took care of us for the whole duration and thanks for rolling us out the door. fitzroy you've done it again.

pure class here. it’s a gorgeous place. the restaurant looked magical spotted from the street on a welcome balmy melbourne evening. inside was wonderful too and much enhanced by a wobderful sound system. the initial service was superb. it’s not easy to beat being served by agoodlooking foreigner with a lovely smiling manner and an encyclopedic knowledge of the menu and wine list. so, we were near sold before we’d had anything to eat or drink.

thankfully, we adored our meal from start to finish. it started with excellent sourdough, top quality olive oil and fantastic peppery dukka. we then had a succession of marvellous small dishes. mushroom croquettes, deep fried mussels, harvey bay scallops (quote from our seafood obsessed friend “those scallops are the best ever anywhere”) and stuffed peppers. we couldn’t fault any of these wonderful dishes. they were exceptional. we concluded with a magnificent seafood paella which was replete with seafood and flavour. i’ve only tasted one better. it was superb.

our wine tonight was a white tempranillo. we’d never had anything like it. it’s a beauty. we concluded with a lovely douro ruby port and a muscadelle. both were wonderful.

this is a very verygoodrestaurant. no wonder it is so highly rated. highly recommended

what great food in this little gertrude st gem! great tapas,goodwine list including somegoodspanish drops.
had the set menu which was reallygoodand covered the couple of things really wanted to try. the tuna carpaccio was so good

amazing food was just delicious the duck was cooked perfectly and beautifully presented flawless flavours. everything was great thank you so much for a wonderful dinner to the wait staff and kitchen both did an amazing job. keep up thegoodwork.

this place seems to have a decent following and it’s on the golden mile of gertrude street with a cute but pokey interior. we started with croquettes which were nice enough but perhaps needed a little more seasoning. the bone marrow with ox tongue was our favourite dish, oozing flavour and deliciousness - would have happily had a second serving. next we had the whole flounder with the charred cos lettuce salad. the fish was nice enough but the salad was a bit of a let down. i found the goats cheese purée a little tart and the lettuce did nothing for me. overall, agoodmeal, but nothing spectacular. trying to get bread (to mop up sauces and bone marrow), was a little difficult and it was as though it was being rationed. also, we were seated at the table between the end of the bar and the front part - my chair got knocked or i got flicked by the staffs apron each time they zipped through - that doesn’t enhance the dining experience. the final gripe was that the white napkins left white fluff all over our laps and shirts - they need a new laundromat service. when paying, the pleasant enough waitress asked if we had enjoyed the meal and we said something along the lines of “good but not amazing.” we eat at the original movida regularly enough and i guess we compare all our melbourne spanish meals to them. the waitress scoffed that movida has two hats so anada couldn’t possibly be compared to them. movida consistently costs us approx 20-30% less than anada’s meal and we always leave much more full and contented. needless to say, we grabbed dessert elsewhere. we will stick to movida next time. this wasn’t a terrible experience but it was far from amazing.

we were excited to try out this restaurant after seeing it on sbs’ the chef’s line. arriving to a friendly welcome we were seated and promptly offered the drinks menu and water while we waited for our third party to arrive. being my mum’s 69th birthday i had brought a cake along to celebrate and asked if it could be popped in the fridge which the waitstaff was happy to oblige.

started the night on agoodnote but unfortunately it ended on a bad one. like the last reviewer we had high expectations for the food but found it was ok. some items were standouts like the paella and croquettes but others fell a bit short (mini eggplant and beef).

the food aside, while we expect that sometimes with service ordered items may be forgotten we weren’t expecting the attitude when the bill came when i pointed out a beer had been charged to us that we never received. i politely pointed out that this wasn’t delivered to our table only to be greeted with a snappy “well i won’t fight you on that” from the waitress, in which she proceeded to snatch the receipt back and storm off.

upon returning i thought it best to check the receipt again to notice there was a ‘cakeage’ charge of $7.50. i mentioned to our waitress that i wasn’t made aware there would be a charge to bring the cake into the restaurant and that it wasn’t stated anywhere there would be such a charge. this was met with hostility with her saying it was rude to ‘bring in a cake from outside’ and that the cakeage is noted all over the website. well i’ve looked on your website and cannot clearly see where the ‘cakeage’ fee is written on it anywhere in either the conditions or menu section or any other for that matter. and as i pointed out, i don’t mind paying the ‘cakeage’, but it would be ‘polite’ of the restaurant to point this out beforehand and not assume patrons know about such a thing whether it is a ‘common’ industry thing to do or not. seeing a surprise additional charge on a bill is never a nice thing and the attitude wasn’t appreciated either.

not a great end to my mother’s birthday but hey now we know ‘cakeage’ is a thing.

if you want amazing spanish food i highly recommend añada... delicious and fresh food,goodselection of wines and great service. it could be a little expensive but it’s worth it!

food was delicious. especially smoked duck torrija was amazing. wine (prana tempranillo) was good. they explained each dish very well. atmosphere wasgoodand people was friendly. look forward to go in back again soon.

😱lizzie’s first impression: the ambience, the food and the staff here are all impeccable - one of the best spanish restaurants i have had the pleasure of trying in melbourne!

🍩lizzie enjoyed: i loved every dish especially the duck and the muscles! the negroni cocktail was also very delicious - sogoodwe ordered two each.

🍅lizzie did not enjoy: n/a

🥇lizzie rates overall: the best spanish tapas and share dishes and i would come back here time and time again !!

great service.goodwine. not a fan of the dessert platter however. none of the 5 items were led by myself or my partner. cosy little place and would return

what a great night. 1st time here and i can tell you won't be the last. great atmosphere, spanish musicgoodfood we share some tapas and we had the paella meat for me and fish for the better half both was amazing great service and really nice selection of wine.

verygoodfood! however, staff were not very attentive - we had to ask to see the menu, had to ask to get our orders taken, and the waited tried to take my drink before i was finished (and the restaurant was not busy enough to warrant the service received).