Añada Bar & Restaurant
197 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy, Victoria 3065
w
www.anada.com.au
e
email the restaurant contact only not for bookings
t +61 3 9415 6101
open 6.00pm till late 7 days
FOOD Añada Bar & Restaurant is a cool establishment; always packed they are constantly juggling tables. An inexpensive experience we think diners are well advised to seek the advice of the floor staff when choosing from the menu. Unlike Movida where we confidently recommend anything on their menu we feel that Añada does not show the same devotion to the entire menu as Movida or Bar Lourinhã.
Parts of our meal were brilliant, parts lack luster.
Fried squash flower stuffed with pancetta and mahon cheese $4.50, so so, rabbit empanadilla $4.50 simply exquisite, beetroot salad with labeneh and nigella seeds$8.50 dull and boring. Crumbed lambs brain with pork belly and lentils a nothing dish that would be mocked by anyone with an ability to really cook offal. Yet, the potato cake stuffed with lamb and sweet paprika was utterly sublime, so sublime for an instant, there was the temptation to kill my dining companions just so there was no longer a need to share. We didn’t order the Western Plains pork belly, fennel seed with smokey aubergine $17.50 but it smelled so stupendous when it arrived at our community table that everyone seated there turned their attention to the dish with an envious gaze. The recipient enjoyed taunting the table with ecstatic descriptions of how good it was. Dessert of roasted peaches might have been excellent had the kitchen taken the time to remove the furry skins after roasting. Small things count and the failure to carry out two second tasks is rather annoying.
Regardless of the criticisms in this review the great dishes were so good we would suffer the ordinary ones again (if we had to), but think we have figured how to manage the disparity in their menu items. So how to work Añada so that you only order the brilliance of their menu and don’t suffer the ‘ordinaire’? We think put yourself in the hands of the floor staff, threaten to kill them and eat them if they don’t get it right and remember this is a suburban restaurant that must cater to a very mixed clientele, so inevitably there will be dishes on their menu that may not necessarily satisfy the obsessed. And, to be utterly fair the good dishes were exemplarary!
 |
 |
WINE Excellent medium weight wine list with some wonderful Portuguese and Spanish choices, matched firmly against excellent Australian labels that have long been producing wine from similar grapes. One of the wonderful things about Melbourne wine lists is the choice of wine by the glass. We know this is easier to drive with a large population that eat out on a daily basis, but coming from a small city where such wonderful and broad by the glass choices are rare it is something we especially appreciate about Melbourne and Añada.
