Bohemian

I found it overpriced. For example the anchovy entrée was 2 slices of toasted french bread with one anchovy balanced upon each slice. Guess the price? Well from a cost point of view this is no more than 30c. But guess what they charged??? 9 big ones. Yes 9 bucks. They’d be laughed out if Spain for that, maybe that’s why they’re here in Melbourne.

Nice seating outside allows you to enjoy the sun. Croquettas and chorizo sausage tapas to start and Razor clams, eggplant, and cos salad for mains. The croquettas were delicious crispy 3 bite morsels of goodness. Chorizo sausage was 5 tasty pieces perfect for sharing.
Salad was decent fresh greens with toasted pine nuts and a creamy dressing. Razor clams were literally served in a tin and came with 2 slices of crispy chewy toasted bread and some pickles. The eggplant was amazingly good charred generous portion with a creamy cheese crumble on top but I think too much olive oil.
The prices reflect the area. $ 31 gets you a porterhouse steak that doesn’t come with any sides. Steak was a good cut of meat but you have to pay $ 8 or more for mushrooms or beans to go with it.
Service was friendly so no complaints there!

Possibly my favorite Melbourne eatery.
Great variety of Spanish food at fair prices.
Usually great service too.
Perfect for small groups with lots of yummy sharing options.

Not your usual tapas but teally nice nonetheless.
Prices are reasonable. .3 of us ate for $ 120.
Service is great

With a colourful and warm exterior, Bohemian Bar adds a bit of needed bit of vibrancy to South wharf and with its Spanish theme carrying through to the inviting interior, after a sangria or two you can easily forget you’re just outside a massive shopping centre in DFO. Like all their neighbours, Bohemian has some decent happy hour specials that carry through to the weekend pre-​dinner hours too.

Love love love this place! Food is delicious, dessert is delicious and the sangria … You guessed it — delicious!
Great for functions too, a definite place to unwind and relax with the occasional flamenco dancing night and great drink specials

The food was just fine. We split a tapas plate and some wine.
But the staff, while absolutely nice, seemed completely uninterested in serving us. We had to flag someone down for a menu, find someone again to order, could never get the attention of staff without getting up and asking for help, and had two glasses of wine that we ordered and were just never delivered.
Again, nice enough but not particularly attentive.
A nice space and pleasant with the doors and windows open.

A seriously pleasant surprise! Don’t normally head this way along the river, but what an experience!
Prices were on the up side but hey pretty decent joint!

Great tapas: melt in your mouth calimari, crispy on the outside/​goopy on the inside croquettes, decadent velvet cake (could have done wout the maracapone but more fresh berries). Great service. Good (not great) location on south wharf. Will go back and bring other mates.

Let’s just get it out of the way that Bohemia is an actual place, very far away from Spain and that tapas are not served there. Now, on to the actual restaurant.
Bohemian Bar is a delightful tapas place on the South Wharf area that I’m sure would have been packed if we had visited on the weekend or a summer night. As it was we had the place, and the staff’s attention all to ourselves. The music, and movie choices were excellent so if our conversation with another couple ever lagged, which it did only sparingly, I would be greeted with scenes from a John Lennon documentary or nice Van Morrison vocals. Seriously, mad props on the atmosphere.
We had a long dinner with a slow succession of delicious dishes: whitebait fish, chorizo, potatoes and eggs, zucchini flower, rabbit paella, and of course a cheese course for dessert. The wine and sherry were paired wonderfully. Since we were sharing between four people I probably would have liked to order one more dish but they were all pretty jam on heavy, not normally a complaint but I had also had a huge helping of jam on for breakfast. A little more variety in tapas would be welcome, especially green things. I need lots of greens on my menus.
All in all, I would happily return.

Warm atmosphere with friendly and helpful staff. The food is delicious with some contemporary flair on traditional Spanish food. We had a few different tapas, and the potato cake with an embedded quail’s egg was wonderful. I had the vegetarian paella which was a creative combination of beetroot, carrot, and radishes with edible flowers as a garnish. They have a nice beer, wine, and cocktail selection too.

I don’t normally head along this part of the river and this restaurant is a surprising find on the fringe of the South Wharf DFO. The cocktails were top notch — I had one which tasted like a Splice icy pole and I was very happy (it’s the one with gin and fruity flavours). The lamb cutlets entrée was so delicious… I wasn’t a fan of the ravioli — it’s served cold and it just would have been nice to know that in advance. A great vibe and I imagine it would be good for groups too.

The food was very plain for what you pay. I don’t know if we came on a bad night but they were out of almost everything. The fit out was nice but it was difficult to get the staff’s attention. We didn’t hang around for desert.

After walking out of Common Man, we went next door to Bohemian. We were promptly seated at a table near a window and provided with menus and a wine list. In my possession I had a voucher for a free drink. This voucher was a few months old and were originally given out by hired hands outside of the convention centre with the hope of drawing some foot traffic to South Wharf. The host happily honoured the voucher and instead of bringing one pot of James Squire Amber Ale which is what the voucher entitled me to, he brought two which was very kind of him and the restaurant. Tapas and wine were then ordered.
Much like how fate brought me to this restaurant, the host returned at one point to advise that the bottle of wine that I ordered was not in stock and he recommended a bottle of Paco Garcia «Seis» as a replacement. It was also cheaper as an aside. This 100% Tempranillo is one of the best wines that I have had in months and at around $ 35 from this restaurant is an awesome bargain. Despite having a stuffed up nose, I noticed a strong aroma of strawberries and it subsequently went down my gullet easily. I later did some research on this wine. The «Seis» means «six» as a literal translation but as far as this wine goes, it means six months’ aging in oak which is something the winemaker is not allowed to put on the back label as per the Regulatory Council.
The flavour was just not limited to the wine. After I was done raving about the smell and taste of the Tempranillo, the first round of tapas that we ordered was delivered. Although I enjoyed every dish, the stand-​out was the morsels of quail which you eat off of a single rib bone. Other highlights for me was the chorizo and the patatas bravas which are $ 6 per dish and definitely worth adding to the tapas experience.
I am grateful to the lazy service at Common Man which ultimately led me to have a great dining experience at Bohemian where I not only found very tasty tapas and attentive service but the fact that I found a bottle of spectacular wine that I now want to source and add to my personal collection. I now must wonder what other secrets will be discovered in the South Wharf precinct in the future.

At first look the menu looks slightly kooky and not a huge amount of choice, but push through that and a little gem awaits. Once inside you feel warm and welcome. The staff are friendly without being fake and attentive without being overbearing. Amazing sandwiches and a good beer, consider spending a lazy Sunday lunch here. You will feel chilled out and relaxed a great place to be.

The octopus and the Chupa-​Chups de codorniz (quail-​thigh lollypops) were so so tasty and fun to eat, while the white chocolate brownie with blue cheese was most interesting and delicious. Good selection of interesting beer available also.

–Great décor and atmosphere. Very friendly, enthusiastic and attentive staff
–Delicious tapas and mains. Slow cooked oxtail and suckling pig mains are a standout, as are the quail thigh lollipops and patatas bravos tapas
–Disappointing Paella (rabbit loin & black sausage). For what should be a flagship dish (it occupies it’s own space at the top of the mains page), the flavours were bland overall, there was little to no crust present, and it lacked a harmony between the rabbit and the rice
–If you are very hungry make sure you order adequate tapas, as although they are rich, the mains are relatively small portioned

If one views Melbourne as an amoebic organism with the CBD as its rightful nucleus, the Docklands precinct is a pseudopod and South Wharf its newest embryonic offspring. Both are partly formed, yet vibrating with potential life. Located at the outer reaches of South Wharf, The Bohemian is a secluded bar-​cum-​restaurant venue with a wide-​windowed, papered-​over exterior evoking the great tapas haunts of Seville. The warm glow of the kitchen and of boudoir bronze lamps alight upon two dining areas — a tightly-​spaced enclosure of tables for dining and a set of long communal perches for bebidas. The spirited melody of European accents meld with the easy chatter of diners, creating an altogether atmospheric space.
…
What you will find at The Bohemian is this: well-​balanced traditional tapas dishes with a little flamenco twist here and there, diverging from the fried, salt-​ridden enemies of the arteries pervasive at other such culturally-​inclined restaurants in Melbourne. If one can perhaps overlook the few blips (and the divisive savoury slants of the desserts), The Bohemian is promising. However, it is not unforgettable. Nonetheless, it deserves a place in the burgeoning ranks of Spanish and otherwise Hispanic-​influenced dining venues — the forefather being Movida, the rest being Portello Rosso, Bar Lourinha, Anada, Aylesbury and the Newmarket Hotel (the last three being our favourites). The Boheman is more down-​to-​earth than Movida, Aylesbury and the Newmarket, a little less rustic than Anada. Here’s a toast therefore to its longevity, deserving a permanence rather a bohemian, pseudopodic existence.

The new end of South Wharf is starting to take shape and Bohemian Bar & Restaurant is an immediate eye-​catcher in this eerily quiet side of Melbourne.
Taking inspiration in its décor from the 1920s, this spanish-​tapas restaurant is a great addition to the space.
They were extremely quiet — which is normal for South Wharf on a weeknight right now so don’t be put off by the lack of patrons.
We ordered main meals (not tapas), but the friendly staff brought out some delicious nibbles while we waited for our order. The meals were all spot on. Perfectly portioned and all melt-​in-​your-​mouth. The staff eagerly took feedback as they are brand new and trialling dishes. Now is a great time to go if you want to experience something new and see the staff go to great lengths to make sure you come back.
All in all, I would say a business well worth supporting and not somewhere that has the typical tourist-​trap feel that plagues the South Wharf/​Docklands area.