Lotforty

LOCATION
At the end of Kings Lane - turn down Palmers Street from Oxford and look for a little dining precinct on your right. Walk past the restaurants to the end of the ally and turn right.

PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIA
Mix one part Darlinghurst bar, one part Melbourne laneway restaurant and a whole lot of sangria together to make Lotforty – a hole-in-the-wall tapas bar where the sangria is served rich with fruit and wine, and the share plates are substantial enough to tackle any main course. Much like those tucked away bars of Melbourne, the restaurant can be a little hard to find, but this makes your visit feel all the more exclusive.

Sit in the cornered courtyard on casual, boxy tables and chairs to enjoy the steamy summer air that makes the sangria taste sweeter, or go inside where the stairs are lined with candles, quirky painted powerlines hung with Converse shoes line one wall, and everything feels a little edgier.

Lotforty’s tapas dishes have pizzazz and don’t rest on chorizo-driven stereotypes. Velvety slivers of swordfish carpaccio drizzled in lemon juice and capers make a palate-cleansing start best enjoyed with the white wine version of the Spanish punch. Shallow-fried baby squid are moreish morsels of chip-like crispy curls that sparkle with lemon sea-salt and chilli flakes. Slices of glossy, honey mustard pork belly drip their sticky glaze over sweet potato puree, spiced red cabbage and green beans. Fried pumpkin ricotta balls have lava-like centres within their crumbed casing, while thin slices of duck bundled together in a golden-crepe wrapping are served on sweet tamarind plum sauce with al dente broccolini.

Desserts are delightfully messy with a wispy meringue dome hiding vanilla ice cream, zesty lemon curd and mascarpone cream, smashed into layers that swallow up the broken pieces of crispy white shell. A plump crepe pillow crowned with ice cream and drizzled with butterscotch sauce is cut open to ooze sunny lemon curd.

Tapas is all about sharing, and with Wednesday and Thursday night specials that serve $10 jugs of sangria, or any two tapas with a jug for $30, there is all the more reason for you to bring along your friends to the little Darlinghurst corner that couldn’t get any cooler.

Edwina Storie