MoVida Aqui — Restaurant in Melbourne

Summary: the restaurant has a strong reputation in Melbourne but our experience was severely disappointing. The dinner started out promising but ended terribly.

The food: Food flavours were pretty good despite how small the portions were. Tuna tartar was great Mussels in the tin were pretty basic but tasted nice Charcuterie board was poor quality and tasted like it was bought from Woolworths Anchovies; the flavours in this tapas was nice but the cold tomato sorbet served with it is extremely cold and quite uncomfortable to eat. Mains (beef cheek, lamb, octopus, croquettes) were all pretty decent but the slow and drawn out pace of service meant we were pretty keen to get the dinner over and done with. Also the croquettes taste like frozen chicken nuggets which of course taste good, but not what you want at an exxy tapas restaurant. Wine: pleasantly surprised. We had a temperanillo which was reasonably priced and very tasty. Dessert: a boring selection of creme caramel and churros. Churros were overcooked.

Experience: We arrived for our booking at 6:30pm and ordered our food. Quite unusual to me that each tapas dish had to be ordered in individual portions rather than small plates. After being told by the waiter the food would all come as soon as it was ready, the tapas and appetisers slowly came out one by one and quite slowly. By 8:00pm we were asked to move to another part of the restaurant since our sitting was over. Fair enough but by this point... only 3/5 of our main courses had come out. At our new table by the bar, one main course arrived at 8:05pm, but our last dish arrived at 8:55pm. It was frustrating because we needed to continually enquire with our waiters where our last dish was and were told....'oh its coming'. Clearly the waiters didn't check and were simply giving a standard response. This was made more frustrating by the fact the waiters were very focused on filling our sparking water (which costs money) but had no idea how many dishes we have left during our meal. Finally our dish came but only after we told the staff we want to cancel the dish. The waiter was kind enough to not charge us for the final dish due to the 60mins delay. This was the saving grace for the restaurant otherwise we would of been well upset. There were multiple occasions we tried to get the attention of some of the waiters but they seem to only respond to customers if they fit within 'their sections' as only certain waiters would respond to us while the remaining will walk passed us, ignore us, or tell us they'll get our waiter. I also note that the restaurant was not even that busy on the Saturday evening we went so this level of service is quite lacking.

The other reviews of this restaurant are quite positive so perhaps an off night for the restaurant but overall, we had a very disappointing experience and probably wont be in a rush...

TLDR; expensive for small portions and average flavours, no ambiance as you are rushed out the door ⛔

Came here to celebrate an occasion and had mixed feelings about MoVida Aqui.

Firstly, big issue was the feeling of constantly being rushed by the staff. We had a 5:45pm booking on a Wednesday night, with tables around us still free. We had about five tapas, two mains, and two glasses of wine between two and we were out before 6:45pm! And trust me we were not intentionally eating quickly. The staff were attentive to the point of buzzing - like a mum that is dusting the living room when you're just trying to chill - TOO MUCH! The tapas were flying onto the table basically at the same time and mains came out with absolutely no break in between. Dishes were being pulled from under us when we still had the tapas in our hand. Please guys, let the dust settle. After finishing our mains they were taken within a split second and then we were quizzed on whether we wanted the dessert menu. Three times in 10 minutes. We couldn't even sit there without the bill being plonked in front of us. Inelegant.

The food is overly pricey. Set menu is $90 but even going a la carte gets costly. The spirit of tapas is kind of quashed as MoVida has decided to make 1 x tapas a "bite" for one person. They recommend against sharing which reduces the experience as the fun of tapas is sharing. An expensive bite at that - $13 each approximately 🫰

Overall the food is not bad, not mind blowing, however the experience and cost really killed it for us especially when there are plenty of amazing and more breathable restaurants in Melbourne CBD. Highlights if you're coming are the calamari sandwich, quail, and broccolini. Tartare and pan fried potato was so-so. The beef cheek unfortunately was overly rich and unbalanced. It was saturated in a thick red wine sauce which was overpowering and the cauliflower just added to the heaviness of the meal. Not my favourite.

Overall, I don't think I would return. Part of the high cost of restaurants at this level is the expectation of good ambiance and a relaxing conversation. Not hovering your hand over your dish in an attempt to keep it on the table. I'm sitting for a three dollar restaurant not a Springvale laksa 😔

I won't...

ORDERED: Aperitivos 🐟  Crudo: Cured Hiramasa kingfish, tomato oil, chilli and citrus emulsion ($24.00)

Tapas 🍅  Anchoa: Hand-filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet ($6.00 each) 🐑  Tartar: Roaring forties lamb tartar with fermented cauliflower leaf, ancho chilli and fresh horseradish ($8.50 each) 🥔  Bollo: Pan fried potato filled with sobrasada and red mojo ($9.50 each)

Raciones 🦆 Arroz Caldoso: Wet style bomba rice, duck leg, Otway shiitake, pancetta, broad beans and saffron ($50.00) 🐖 Cerdo: 400g Western plains pork cutlet cooked over charcoal with hispi cabbage and black garlic sauce ($48.00)

Postre 🍨 Sorbete: Mango sorbet with yuzu jam and olive oil crisp ($17.00)

I spent $114.50 here which included 1 drink!

REVIEW: Heard that the Anchoa was the Movida special and an iconic dish. Ordered it and it was certainly a different experience - the saltiness of the anchovy wiht the sweet smokiness of the tomato really balanced each other out. Really cool dish.

The two dishes which were part of the mains portion "Raciones" needed to be ordered early because of the longer cooking time 🕠. Appreciated how the waitress gave us the heads up early!

The arroz caldoso was interesting. Using bomba rice, it's different from the classic aborio rice since the aborio doesn't hold its shape as well when cooking more "wet" dishes. It's still a short grain rice which was great in retaining and carrying the flavour across. Wished the duck had more flavour, as it seemed to be great in the crunchy skin but felt it was lacking depth in the meat.

We definitely preferred the cerdo from the raciones. I'd recommend this! The pork was cooked extremely well with a smoky flavour from the charcoal 🔥, and a garlic sauce with a sweetness and saltiness that was incredibly addictive. Hispi cabbage was soooo moist, and was a great compliment and wrap with the meat.

Interesting and good place to have Spanish food. Great environment and service that was very bubbly and attentive. Verdict is still out whether I'll go try the Movida group, but currently no plans...