A tapa in Spanish is a lid. This, if you pause to think about it, makes a good deal of sense. When I’m eating tapas, I generally manage to keep my own lid intact. There’s much to be said for a little judicious eating when a good Rioja threatens to claim your sobriety.

This style of snacking has its origins in a humble round of bread. Long, long before the bliss that is MoVida emerged, a little dough lid was used to protect a glass of wine. Some theories suggest this was to keep fruit flies away from one’s sweet sherry. Other less reputable thinkers suggest it was to keep people like my partner away from one’s sweet sherry.

Who knows, and indeed, who really minds about the beginnings of this small wonder?

Tapas, a term that refers to any small dish served with drinks, is magnificent. Going to a tapas bar is a marvellous way to eat and a downright sensible way to drink.

For Melbourne’s Consul General of Spain, Miguel Utray, sharing tapas is also an important social ritual that involves a bit of leg work.

“Tapas is a way of nurturing the spirit and body by means of a social encounter with many people in a short period,” he says. “We will have a small circuit of bars and take a small drink and a small portion of food in every one of them. The more exquisite the food, the better.”

This kind of exquisite tapas crawl can thankfully be replicated in a fairly compact city like our own. There are a few great places to try within stumbling distance of each other in the city. Among them, MoVida and Bar Lourinhã are both recommended by Utray.

At Bar Lourinhã, traditional dishes like spiced chickpeas and spinach are on hand alongside more modish offerings like Wagyu carne cruda and shaved baby beets. Wagyu beef has also found a home at MoVida, where owner/chef Frank

Comorra’s cecina claimed The Age Good Food Guide’s inaugural Dish of the Year award in 2007. You really haven’t lived well until you’ve tried this heavenly dish of air cured Wagyu topped with a poached egg and truffle foam.

Around the corner at Canary Club, try the pan con tomate manchego and Jamon Iberico. (Please note: once commenced, a love for great Jamon will send you to debtors’ prison.)

There are a few Spanish wines on the menu but, as with sister venture the Hairy Canary, this is a joint in which to devour cocktails. Try a Sour Spaniard or a Pino Canario.

According to Utray, good tapas bars can be found the inner suburbs as well.

The stalwart Spanish Club in Fitzroy serves up stellar tapas in its front bar. In typical St. Kilda fashion, Lola’s Tapas has set up shop in what used to be my local drycleaners.

The wine list is entirely Spanish at Basque Tapas & Wine in Windsor. Mahou and Estrella Damm, and Alhambra Especial are among its imported beers.

At $9.50, Gambas al pil pil, sizzling garlic & chilli prawns, is one of the priciest dishes on the menu. You only get two, but they’re worth it. The servings here are small, but with most dishes hovering around the $5 mark, it’s a great place to eat broadly. This is the ideal place for beginners to perfect their ardour for tapas staples like Croquetas de bacalao (creamy salt cod croquettes).

Even if it does occasionally mean I must find a wheelbarrow to extract my partner from MoVida, thank the deities of pleasure that tapas has finally and truly arrived in Melbourne.

“I must say that as a Spaniard I can find anything I need or almost everything in Melbourne,” says the Consul General. “Even if it can sound a little bit strange, I feel that Melbourne is a city that wants to be Mediterranean.” 

It doesn’t sound strange at all, sir. We’ll take the compliment!

Bar Lourinhã
37 Little Collins Street, Melbourne
Tel: 9663 7890

Basque Tapas & Wine
159 Chapel Street, Windsor
Tel: 9533 7044

Canary Club
6 Melbourne Place, Melbourne
Tel: 9663 1983

Lola’s Tapas
35-37 Blessington Street, St Kilda
Tel: 9534-0092

MoVida
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne
Tel: 9663 3038

The Spanish Club
59 Johnston St, Fitzroy
Tel: 9417 4059