Anada (Fitzroy) 05/2014

As patrons of this restaurant we paid for our meal and have no relationship with the proprietors and are unaware of any conflict of interest.

This tiny restaurant 
 
offered us either 6.00 pm or 8.15 pm seating for dinner on Friday night to make sure they could get two full services for the night which did not suit but we wanted to go so we turned up punctually for the first sitting. Service was pleasant and we had no trouble finishing our meal on time. Great chunks of very crusty moorish sourdough bread with olive oil were irresistible.

The menu is split between Tapas and larger serves, Raciones. There is a reasonable list of Spanish and Australian wines by the glass or bottle but no French wines, including champagne, at all and no BYO accepted. We did enjoy their last bottle of 2011 Don Ramon Granache Tempranillo  ($44) which was a light smooth inoffensive red. A large blackboard announces their sherries.

Tables are bare and very close to each other but the noise level was low.

We started with tapas. Sobrasada bomba were  meat balls wrapped in something like mashed potato and deep fried. There was a smear of yoghurt and a spicy sauce on the plate. A coarse but pleasant dish. ($14)

 Charred eggplant with yoghurt & pomegranate was also pretty unrefined. The difference between charred and burned is a bit academic. These tended towards the latter. ($14)

I am a fan of cauliflower and this dish, fried cauliflower with hummus and flat bread, did not disappoint. ($14.50)

Prawn & calamari fideos, Spanish for spaghetti, was the dish of the night. The calamari as tender as you could want, the prawns so crisp they could be eaten from head to tail without the prawn meat being too dry and the thin pasta a fine accompaniment. ($18)





Chermoula chicken with bulgar & sumac is quite a spicy dish. It was OK but did not greatly appeal. ($18)

If the chicken was a little spicy the slow cooked pork shoulder with almond picada was totally bland. The shoulder had been well cooked and was very tender but I would never have it there again.

The dessert tasting plate, ($25 for two) was very nice although I could taste nothing in the Pedro Ximenez & muscatel ice cream of the Pedro Ximenez in the ice cream. The churros with bitter sweet chocolate were very good and the rest of the plate, pomegranate and orange blossom sorbet with sugared pistachios, crema Catalana, poached quince, honey labneh, hazlenuts was interesting without being of particular distinction. 

A single serve of crema Catalan ($12) had very creamy custard.
The success of this place is because of a combination of being at the right place at the right time and creating a pleasant bistro style atmosphere.
Score: 13.5/20