Bomba Tapas Bar & Rooftop — Restaurant in Melbourne

Dimly lit during night time, Bombabar was a good place to catch up with friends, bustling with laughter and loud conversation.

We had an early booking and started off with cocktails, which were delicious, refreshing, and hard to fault. The red wine sangria was too easy to drink with just the right amount of sweetness and spice to purvey a great meal with friends.

Although some of the food was hit-and-miss, they were mostly delicious. The standouts for the montaditos were the “bone marrow, Wagyu cecina”, which was sweet and savoury at once --we’ll be dreaming of this for days to come! The “escalivada of eggplant, capsicum & shallot” had a smoky flavour we loved. Of the mains, the vegetarian dish was the star: we really loved the “cauliflower, saffron, paprika & sorrel,” which had a thin char enhanced by a creamy sauce. These went extremely well with the “heirloom tomato, burrata, pickled onions” verduras.

The bits we didn’t like were the “paella of barramundi, pipis, calamari, scampi” and the tapas of “charcoal grilled pork belly, Pedro Ximenez, apple, fennel chicharrones”. Although they cooked the seafood well, I didn’t get as much flavour in the rice; we would have picked another dish from the raciones instead. As for the pork, I couldn’t get a hint of the sherry, apple, or fennel. It tasted a lot like other, middling pork belly in Melbourne. The "patatas bravas" were too salty but filled us up nicely.

The staff seated us quickly and the time between tapas and the mains was long enough for hearty conversation. Our server was attentive and efficient --our drink orders arrived quickly, too, and kept us occupied for the wait for paella, which was well within the expected 30 minutes. There are no specials here, but the server explained the menu clearly, and kept our water glasses full.

In all, we had a wonderful experience, and our only regret was the pricey but not impressive paella. This is a bustling bar with delicious cocktails and good food, lively for a night of catching up, and would be a great choice while on this end of...

P1 Wagyu and chicken liver good.

P2 beef tongue tastes good, it’s tender but it’s very sour, I hope the chef may consider about my opinion to lower the sourness of it. The octopus is just average level, not amazing or surprising, but just very average. The pork belly is ok, I like the combination with the almond, but my girlfriend said she doesn’t like it. The bone marrow is the best of the night, it taste so good, we both agree that one to be the best one of the night, if you find it hard to choose the tapas, this one is a must! The spanner crab salad is the second best, I love the taste, and the crab meat taste so fresh, love it!

P3 croquet is good with melting cheese in it, and the capsicum is the alternative choice we had that night since they don’t sell the burnt peach on menu any more, I think the capsicum one taste fresh and sweet, but maybe I am too familiar with Mexican food, the flavor of it is not a surprise for me. P4 the lamb shoulder paella taste good, the lamb shoulder taste tender and delicious, but my personal suggestion for others who wants to try it is not to squeeze too much lemon juicy on it, it will influence your experience of tasting it in a bad way; and I think maybe a little bit more chopped parsley could do better. The potato sides are good as expected and the chipotle sauce is really good! P5 deserts are my regressions that night, the egg tart crust is not crispy at all, the bottom taste sticky and chewy, like the pastry is raw, it is definitely a disaster! The other one is the crème Katelyn( I can barely remember the name of it) all I remember is the crust on the surface is just too hard and too thick! I am really not expecting it to be like that!

If it is not the desert that night our experience should definitely be 4-4.5stars, but the desert just kills my mood and appetite, I hope the chef may notice...

🧀 Ricotta Chive Montadito, Goats Cheese and Garlic Croquette, 7+ Score De Palma Wagyu Cecina 🐙 WA Octopus, Eggplant, Charcoal Grilled Pork Belly 🥔 Lamb Chillindron, Moreton Bay Bug, Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus 🍫 Churros

Bomba Restaurant and Rooftop has been a front runner for Spanish food in Melbourne for years and have recently undergone a million dollar renovation. It is unpretentious and cosy, with intimate seating and moody lighting downstairs, and amazing views of the city from the rooftop terrace upstairs. 🏙

The restaurant menu is tapas style designed to be shared. At the time of dining they were only doing two set menu options $65 or $85 however their A La Carte menu is now back on offer. As I had a @payo_australia voucher to spend we went with the $85 which had 10 dishes. 🇪🇸

Their Garlic and Chive Croquettes were some of the softest and lightest I’ve ever had and the Octopus had that amazing, strong BBQ flavour to it. The Pork Belly was rendered well and complimented beautifully with the peperonata. The potatoes were super crispy and the additional churros with gooey chocolate sauce we ordered for dessert was perfection. 🍫

Unfortunately the Lamb was really fatty, the small pieces of meat we did get though tasted really nice. The Asparagus, Eggplant and Moreton Bay bugs were quite average.

The 10 dishes averaged at around $17 each which in the end seemed abit pricey considering they were all very small. I think the value could have been improved by even just including dessert. My score may have been higher if it wasn’t a set menu because there were some dishes on there i wouldn’t have ordered. I would definitely return again for the A La Carte or to check out the rooftop snack...