V Rating: VVV
Where: 465 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst
When: 6pm - late, 7 days a week.
Tel: (02) 9357 3033
Price: Cold: $6 - $16. Lunch: US$9-$34. Dessert: $9 - $15.

My friend, J, the, and I went to see the beautiful, moving and original Pan’s Labyrinth on Thursday night at the Palace Academy cinema on Oxford Street. The movie started at 7pm, and I was determined to squeeze in dinner beforehand. However, I often find myself at a loss for a good restaurant at the top end of Oxford Street.

We wandered past the small cluster of restaurants between the cinema and Taylor Square, ruling out food we’d eaten the previous night (Thai, Japanese) and somehow ended up in front of Cantina.

As I’ve written about before, for many years I avoided tapas bars because I assumed that they wouldn’t be vegetarian friendly. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by both Kika and Mojos, but after Cantina I’m a convert. Their delicious food proved to me beyond a doubt that tapas is a vegetarian friendly affair.

Cantina offers some classic Spanish tapas dishes, but the menu also draws on Spain’s Mediterranean neighbours, Portugal, Greece and Morocco.

We ordered the patas bravas, sauteed baby spinach with toasted slivered almonds and raisins, sauteed field mushrooms with garlic and parsley, and roasted beet salad with goats cheese dressing and walnuts.

Cantina’s food was simple, but beautifully prepared. The roast beet salad was a highlight. Using the goats cheese as a dressing and drizzling it over the beets was a great improvement on crumbling it into the salad, which is the way I’ve eaten this salad before.

The spinach sauteed in a slightly creamy broth was just beautiful with the sweet raisins and almonds, and had both of us reaching for more.

I am a sucker for a potato dish, and judge tapas bars on the quality of their patas bravas (cubed, fried potatoes in a chili, onion and tomato sauce). Cantina gets full marks. The perfectly cubed, bite-sized potato was golden and crispy on the outside, and the tomato sauce was spicy without being too hot. In fact, these were so good I found myself (accidentally) eating straight from the tapas dish. Ahh, the social challenges of eating food off small plates. Fortunately J, the was too polite to comment.

We didn’t have time to try Cantina’s desserts, but with classic choices like creme catalana, churros and saffron poached pears it’s on my to do list for next time.

I’ve wavered before Cantina on other occasions when I’ve been to the Verona or Academy, but always averred in favour of one of its neighbours. Perhaps it is the beautiful, but slightly sombre decor, quite different from the exuberance of some of Sydney’s other tapas bars.

What a fool! The food is a cut above, and the service is friendly, professional and fast. It’s the perfect place for dinner before or after a movie at the Palace, but would also make a lovely choice for a lingering night with friends. Definitely a new favourite.

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