Tuesday, March 13, 2007

De Los Santos

175 Brunswick St,Fitzroy, VictoriaTelephone: 03 9417 1567

For years now De Los Santos has been serving up some of the city’s best Paella, or so I was led to believe. It’s true that they’ve been serving Paella and other traditional Spanish food for years, but as far as it being some of the best, I didn’t find that the case.
To start we were served up some Sourdough Bread. I never knew that it was possible for Sourdough to actually be too sour. It was sour to the point that it was almost bitter.
We ordered the Seafood Paella for two for mains. There was lots of shellfish on top of the Paella and about 3 prawns as well. The Mussels really didn’t seem all that fresh and it would have been great if the prawns could have been de-veined, prior to cooking. The rice was gluggy and overall wasn’t a great meal.


The restaurant was hot and stuffy. Admittedly it was about 28c on a warm summer’s night outside, but in a busy restaurant with only one small air-conditioner it was quite uncomfortable.
Maybe some of the other meals on the menu might have been better, because the place was quite busy, but if you’re looking for some good Spanish Paella, try around the corner on Johnson St, you’re pretty sure to do better than here.

8 comments:

thanh7580 said...

De Los Santos was definitely a disappointment. After going to Movida one week, the next week I went to De Los Santos and from their great web page, I thought it was going to be good. I should have known from the empty restaurant on a Saturday night that it wasn't a good sign. Every dish was very poorly done, especially the paella. And they tried to copy a lot of dishes from Movida, but done quite badly.

I definitely recommend you go try Movida (if you haven't already) as they do a great paella, and every other dish hahaha. As for the bread, the Movida bread that they serve for free is some of the best bread I've ever eaten. The next time I go back to Movida, I must ask them where I can buy the bread.

Adski said...

oh yeh... i forgot that I actually paid for that bread at de los santos!
I have been to movida. The food was very nice, but I found it to be very expensive for Tapas, we spend $50 on food to have with a couple of drinks and barely had a couple of pieces of food each. I did notice though that De los santos did attempt to copy a few dishes though.

thanh7580 said...

Movida is expensive, no arguments there, but the food is done so well that I would go back occasionally. I didn't like De Los Santos at all and will definitely not be going back there.

Kazmic said...

I went to De Los Santos maybe three years back I thought they weren't too bad... maybe it was the sangria talking... Movida is on the pricy side but I thought their paella was reasonable.

If you would like to try another tapas place, Bar Lourinha is brilliant...

If you don't mind having a few pints before your spanish meal, try Robert Burns Hotel - 376 Smith Street, Collingwood. Let me know what you think.

Love your reviews and photos by the way.. and had a look at Ezard Challenge... Are you a chez at Ezard?

Adski said...

Hi Kazmic,
Thanks for your comments. I live just around the corner from the robbie burns. I've been there a couple of times, the food wasn't bad, I thought it was a little pricey at the time, but maybe I was a little broke back then. Word of warning though, if you're visiting the Robbie Burns, keep an eye on your valuables, my friend had her bag stolen from there and found it emptied in the toilets!
Nope not a chef at Ezards, but I would love to be (Mr Ezard, if you're reading, wink, wink!)

Anonymous said...

Good call.

De Los - overrated.

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

De La Santos - Worst Paella I have ever had! Some of the shellfish was closed, the rice was gluggy and also far too dry. They also forgot to bring our bread. One of the entrees was quite nice, would never eat there again.

Was very, very disapointing.

Anonymous said...

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