Chato Tapas Bar |
Chato Tapas Bar
921 High Street
Thornbury, VIC 3071
Ph: (03) 9484-8554
Website
As you may know, we spent the entire month of August this year in Germany - what a treat to be able to take such a long holiday! However, it did mean I had to turn down quite a few invited events - one of which was the launch party of the new Chato Tapas Bar in Thornbury. So I was thrilled when owners Jenny and Maria Echevarria-Lang invited me for a meal after I got back.
Chato is located on an up-and-coming stretch of High street. They're an all day eatery with a Spanish flair - they do breakfasts, lunches (including a menú del dÃa) and dinners. We visited on a Friday night to find the restaurant full and buzzing.
Chato Tapas Bar |
Chato Tapas Bar |
Left: Pink martini, Right: Red wine |
At dinner, Chato offers a range of snacky little tapas bites, as well as larger dishes like paella and fideuà . If you came in a group, I think a few tapas and a larger dish would make a great meal, but as we were there in a pair, we made up our whole meal from tapas items. We saw a few tables ordering the Jerez y Tapas or Chatos y Tapas (five sherries or small glasses of wine with five matching tapas, presented on a wooden board), which looked super fun if you were up for a big night!
Particularly impressive were the pinchos xistorra (fried Basque sausage wrapped in thinly sliced potato), and the whole char-grilled sardine - so fresh and lovely! (Eating this made me wonder why I don't eat whole fried or grilled fish more often). Patatas bravas are a must order for me, because fried potatoes.
You may remember that on my most recent trip to Paris, I had a life-changingly delicious jamón ibérico de bellota, and when I saw that Chato have a 42-month pata negra on the menu, I just had to order it. Amazing Spanish hams for the win!
Jamon- 42 month pata negra (50 grams) - $26.90 |
The pata negra certainly didn't disappoint. It was soft, with a lusciously creamy layer of fat, and a gentle saltiness and smokiness. It was served with extra virgin olive oil, tomato puree and char-grilled bread. Just incredible! I highly recommend this!
Jamon! |
Leche Frita (Fried Milk) - creamy custard deep-fried and drizzled with an orange honey syrup and vanilla bean ice-cream - $10.90 |
We ordered the leche frita (fried milk) primarily out of curiosity - it's a traditional dessert from the north of Spain, made of vanilla custard, set firm and cut into pieces, then crumbed and deep fried. Here it was served with a vanilla bean ice-cream and a lovely bitter orange honey syrup, which offset the richness of the fried milk. Really lovely.
Sopa de Sandia - $11.90 |
New to the menu was the sopa de sandia, a chilled watermelon soup with soft meringue, mint, and crumble sprinkled on top. It was really light and refreshing - and will be especially nice in the hot weather.
It was a really fun and delicious evening - thank-you to Jenny and Maria and the team at Chato for having us!
Sarah and Sandra dined as guests of Chato Tapas Bar
1 comments
The aged jamon is so divine!! And the pinchos xistorra sounds SO good (how could potato wrapped sausage ever be a bad thing?).
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