Lulo Special Events, Quality Modern, Spanish Restaurant, Melbourne
Hawthorn does Iberia
It's Spanish without stereotypes, and Michael Harden likes it
Not so many years ago, a Spanish restaurant in the suburbs would have been all about bullfighting posters, wall-mounted castanets, chunky wooden furniture and a Gypsy Kings soundtrack. Depressingly, the theme park-look would probably have been more Spanish than the food.
But now, thanks to Spain’s current status as a culinary superpower and the rise of the shared dish, Melburnians have become increasingly able to distinguish our racion from our postres and now expect authenticity over cliche.
LuLo Spanish Tapas Bar
789 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn. Call 98188321OWNERS Matt Waldron, John and Renato Virgona
CHEF Matt Waldron
OPEN Monday to Friday, noon -3pm; 4:30pm-late;
Saturday, 5:30pm-late
Licensed. All cards and EFTPOS
COST About $80 for two, plus drinks
Hawthorn’s LuLo is very much the modern Melbourne-style Spanish eatery. With its wooden floors, moulded white chairs, long dark wood bar and excellent modern Latin soundtrack, LuLo gets on with the business of channelling modern Spain.
Flexibility is the key here with a mixture of small bites and more substantial dishes, which are as easy to share over a few drinks as they are to structure into a three-course meal. Co-owner and chef Matt Waldron takes most of his cues from Spain, but his travels through South America have also influenced some of his dishes (beef served with chimichurri and wonderfully crisp cassava chips).
Escabeche of kingfish ($13) was generously proportioned with sizeable soft textured piece of fish (served cold) flavoured with a tomatoey-vinegar marinade and served with crunchy pickled vegetables.
The lamb cutlets ($6 each), coated in a mixture of ground chorizo sausage and paprika, were immensely rich and beerfriendly, while the lamb pinchos ($16), two skewers of smoky tender lamb cooked pink and served with roasted capsicum, were expertly cooked and addictive.
Pork rillettes ($12) came wrapped in cabbage and sprinkled with walnuts, while the excellent calamari ($20) was crusted with pistachio nuts and maize flour and tossed with fresh herbs and dried capers. Also good was a fig salad ($12.50), which included good leaves, sweet figs at the peak of their powers and nuts that added an extra textural layer.
The churros ($10) here are worth the price of admission alone, hitting the table straight from the fryer, coated with plenty of cinnamon and sugar and served with a very good dark dipping chocolate.
LuLo is a smart, focused and well-run joint that references Spain while keeping its feet firmly on the Hawthorn ground. It’s the type of tapas bar every suburb should have.
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The wine list sticks mainly to Spain with some forays into Portugal and South America. Prices are reasonable and there are handy tasting notes. The 2006 Muga Blanco ($42) is a blend of vivra and malvasia grapes and is an elegant, dry white with a nice lemon acidity that goes well with the food here. mwm