Bodega

Wow! Can’t believe I hadn’t been here until this week!
After 2 years of less-​than-​quality tapas in Sydney, I’ve finally found a great Tapas place I would actually recommend to friends!
To preface, this is not your traditional tapas place — really interesting flavours and unique twists on your standard dishes.
We ordered about 6 dishes between the two of us, but I can’t remember everything we ate. However, a few highlights included:
Tongue Sliders — This isn’t the actual name of the dish but they were little burgers with cow tongue and they were freaking AMAZING. If you can get past the fact that it’s tongue, you should definitely try these. The flavours are awesome and the bread is spectacular.
Salted Cod Pancake — Wow. Sounds horrible, but tastes amazing. It was a pancake with delicious cod and an egg on top. So delicious and I would definitely get this again!
They paced the meal really well, but it meant we went through a bottle of wine before the third course was even served. So watch yourself if you’re only looking to drink one bottle :)
I’ll definitely be back to try some more dishes in the future!

A 5 star rating is pretty rare but this place is a true gem. I went here based on a recommendation and obviously the word is out because it became pretty busy around 7:30pm. Every item we had was a gastronomic delight. Our server was great too and the vibe is pretty unique. I think it def score points to bring a date here.
You must try:
The raw fish fingers (sashimi on toast with fish flakes)
The BBQ tongue milk buns (slider style)
The grilled octopus or was it squid
Probably any desert but we had the doughnuts with cheesecake and lemon sauce.

Bodega was an interesting Tapas restaurant. We ordered 5 – 6 dishes to share between 3 people and that was a decent amount of food.
We ordered the crispy duck (which my mom probably makes better Chinese style), pork belly (far too heavy), beef tartare (nothing special) and salad (ok). The big winner of the night was the buttermilk pancake with salt cod! The pancake was incredibly fluffy and the salt cod added an interesting taste to the dish.
For dessert we ordered the doughnuts with lemon curd, cheesecake and ice cream which was to die for! All three combinations were delicious :)
Also ordered wine by the glass and didn’t realise that they mostly carried South American wines… Was $ 17 for a rather small glass. Wouldn’t recommend doing so when you can get a nice bottle in Sydney for $ 30!

Amazing food here. One dish were serve at once! Service was pretty good! We walked in and waited for around 30 mins for a table for three. The waitress recommend the amount to order and we went with 5 shared dish/​tapas. Love the octopus salad!!!

Freaking love this place. And sitting at the bar makes it extra special watching our food being prepped. Def going to head back!

I’m sure everyone’s familiar with this situation: A group of friends hanging out, dinner time comes, no one can decide what to have for dinner… and then one person would say, «Pick a cuisine!»
This was exactly what we did that day. We picked Spanish — and Bodega came to mind. Luckily, when we rocked up at 7pm-​ish on a Saturday night, the place was only ¾ full and we got a table straight away. I was totally blown away by the food. It’s now my favourite Spanish restaurant, although the food’s very different than the usual Spanish tapas places we have in Sydney.

Tapas in Sydney are quite temperamental — i.e., they are either a hit or a miss. But the tapas at Bodega are pretty good though you wouldn’t expect otherwise from the price that they charge. From the several dishes that we tried, the best dish was either the fish fingers or the calamari. Would stay away from the pancake — was soggy and boring. They have an extensive wine list.

Love this place! One of my favourites in town. Worth a visit every fortnight or so.
Beautiful retro fit out, awesome music and fantastic service. Casual and trendy vibe without trying too hard.
Food is great!
Recommend the Fish fingers, Crispy Pork rind with Octopus, cabbage & green apple salad, White anchovies with Fish Pâté, Mushroom dumplings, Wagyu Beef Skirt with red cabbage, not to mention the best dessert ever of doughnuts with cinnamon ice cream, dollops of cheesecake and lemon curd. Simply divine!
Wine list is amazing too, especially the wide variety of Argentina imports.

Went to Bodega on Friday night in a group of 6. Excellent, unpretentious and honest food along with friendly, professional and fun service made this a great night out.
Highly recommended.

After long last I get to experience Bodega. The most inspired and delicious dinner I have had in a long time. Loved the service, loved the wine, loved that the place looks like it has been decorated by the Jetsons.
On food: definitely eat the grilled calamari and the roast cauliflower dish — insanely good.
Best seat in the house is for sure over the bar, but the cosy spot by the window is primo date night real estate.

Fantastic tapa restaurant on a creepy street. Lamb neck so tender and the fat is handled professionably. Bit pricy but worth it. Crispy duck is good too. I haven’t had such quality food in a long long time! Restored faith in the meaning of life!^_^Oh, the rest room is spacious, clean and smells good, very important.

Bodega’s beautiful Spanish cuisine is simply amazing. The menu is well thought out with a great selection to choose from.
I had the chance to try: Char Grilled Calamari, BBQ Wagyu Tri-​Tip, Crispy Duck, Scallops and Roast Pumpkin Salad — delicious.
I can see WHY this beautiful restaurant received a HAT and its Well Deserved.
The staff make the night with there great service. I cant wait to return and try the rest of the Menu.

So happy we got the chance to experience this restaurant. No wait but corner table was a bit tight.
Great wine list. Had the mussels, pumpkin salad, pork belly and corn tamale with eggplant. Great pace for food coming out as well.
Would love to go back and try other dishes and we would like to try porteno.

A group of 5 blokes out for a BNO (Boys Night Out) decided this would be a good spot to eat.
Actually, I decided, since I organised it — :-) and I have been meaning to get here for ages. Since we can book for five (bookings not accepted for less) it meant no lucky-​dip to get a table. And, South American style menu, meat and red wine, BNO — seems to be a match made in heaven.
Despite some dodgy drinking holes nearby, this is a good spot with a nice fresh interior — chic South American. Scoring e good both by the door kept it a nice grouping for us, plus a cheeky waitress — game on!
The menu is great — for simplicity we ordered a set menu of 5 or 6 courses, and drank some great Malbec that I have no idea of the brand or origin (South America, at a guess :-P…)
We had enough food, but we could certainly have had more — especially the fish fingers and the just-​cooked (I want to say 54degree?) egg.
Recommended, a great night out. I think. I mean, I’m pretty sure. we did drink a LOT of that Malbec.

The ‘fish fingers’ (sashimi of kingfish on garlic toast with cuttlefish ceviche and mojama) were simply divine. Everything else was so-​so. Service staff were friendly.

Rarely experienced such bad food in Sydney: lamb chops tough as leather and fatty, beef swimming in oil with very unpleasant taste. Wine not too bad but $ 14 a glass way overpriced. All in all extremely
disappointing @ $ 134 for 3 less than mediocre tapas and 4 glasses of wine.

This place was lovely (and the same owners as Porteno)! We came here for dinner on a Friday night. Though it’s a popular place, the wait was only about 5 minutes and it was well worth it. If the wait is longer, you can give them your number and wait at the bar around the corner till they call you…
Friendly staff who know their wines, delicious food, and cool atmosphere. Was perfect for a dinner for two, but looks like it would be a fun place to have a group dinner also.
Some of our faves:
— The «Fish Fingers»: sashimi King Fish on garlic toast with Cuttlefish ceviche — this is there signature dish that everyone raves about. Everyone is right. Yummy.
— Steamed Pulled Pork Bun — this was my favorite thing we had (besides dessert of course). It was the most basic, but the flavor is just so delicious — juicy with a little bit of spicy + doughy steamed bun — Mmmm!
— The Tostada
— The Banana Split for dessert — not a typical banana split — cream flan, dulce de leche ice cream ginger biscuit and bananas — so good.
Updates: Eat at the bar! You get to watch the chefs dish everything out and ask them for recommendations. Best seat in the house!

Before Porteno became the hottest restaurant in town, Bodega was the place to be for South American atmosphere and hard to get seats. I took me three visits before I was able to get a table — the waiting list opens up at 6pm, you have to physically be there to put your name down and there will be a host of other people already waiting, guaranteed.
Third time lucky, I could instantly appreciate the appeal. As a party of two, we took to bar stools overlooking the open kitchen, watching all the chefs working busily away. The head chef effortlessly carved up a whole kingfish, in no time transforming it into their «fish fingers» dish — crusty toast spread with garlic and topped with fine slices of the buttery soft fish flesh and citrus marinated cuttlefish. We also tried a substantially sized roast pork belly dish and the authentic beef empanadas — just like they make them in Argentina.
Red wine was just the drink to pair with this modern latino meal, and their selection is extensive — we opted for a malbec served by the glass.

I had always heard *amazing* thing about Bodega so I was super excited to finally go there recently but as with all overhyped experiences it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
It’s not fair to be too harsh on Bodega because my imagination can be a very potent beast but for me Bodega was just too much.
We fell for the first rookie hurdle and over ordered. Who knew Bodega was the only place in town serving up reasonable portions on share plates? So we over indulged and mixed our palate up with weird and wonderful combinations then we over indulged with the wine and somehow thought desert would be a good idea — all up it was just too much.
But as I said it’s not Bodega’s fault. This place is not for me but it might be right up your alley.
— The food is rich and filling.
— The share plates are huge and the portions are large.
— The wine list is extensive and very good.
— The deserts are superb.

Bodega is a great little tapas bar located in Commonwealth Street Surry Hills, just off Foveaux Street. Actually instead of tapas I see they call it ‘share plates’ but whatever you do call it, make sure you call in and early as it’s quite popular and does get busy so you may have to queue up.
Me and my companion get there for an early dinner and thankfully get straight in although I see it’s also open for lunch so that may be another option if you want to avoid the evening crowd.
My head is in a spin as I read through the menu. I could happily try everything on here but I have to make some tough decisions. A few shared dishes later and the famous Bodega fish fingers which is some kingfish sashimi on a garlic toast, the dish I was told about prior to coming here, make the highlights short list and for me so did the stuffed peppers.
If you don’t have the budget to wash it down with a whole bottle of wine, then a Spanish lager should suffice. There are also some wines by the glass.
Get in early and avoid any waiting but if you do have to wait, it’s worth it.