Morena Restaurant review 2024

At Morena, triple down on spuds with this deliciously elevated snack that will change the way you see the humble veg.

Morena is the third Melbourne restaurant by Peruvian chef Alejandro Saravia.

There are two ways you could look at Morena.

The downstairs dining room isn’t designed for guests, toilets are a two minute walk down the road, and you may need to do a cheeky Googs of a few menu items before ordering.

Yet, it’s home to some of the most delicious snacks I’ve had all year, wine I’ve never heard of let alone tried before, and so much soul.

Throwaway line or not, ‘there’s nothing like this in Melbourne’.

Chef-owner Alejandro Saravia is going back to his roots at his ambitious third Melbourne restaurant.

The Peruvian chef (best known for Farmer’s Daughters and Victoria) rubber-stamped his Sydney restaurant of same name at the luxe 80 Collins hub last month.

He’s also dropped a bar next door too, Barra, which gave me serious FOMO when I walked past. It was buzzing, and on this visit, initially Morena was not; all whisper quiet, aside from the chefs clattering in the open kitchen.

Am I early for a Friday night dinner? Where are all the people?

Potato, three ways.

“Follow me,” my waiter said, as he guided me up the dramatic white stone staircase, which snakes up to another secret level.

Here 65-seats are hushed by dim lights, with tan leather bench seats hugging the room’s perimeter creating cosy nooks to settle in.

Ahh this is better, someone hand me a pisco sour.

On food, Morena is a Latin American love affair. Unlike Farmer’s Daughters or Victoria, which champion Gippsland and homegrown produce respectively, each Morena dish is an ode to either Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela and Peru.

The wine follows the same bent, most indigenous grapes I’ve never tried before.

I can’t say I’ve encountered most ingredients used in by Saravia or group head chef is Samuel Rivas either, nor am I familiar with how they should taste.

Though it was unanimously agreed: Morena’s snacks are superb.

Sunny citrus-spiked coral trout.

The prawn doughnut ($11 each) is an elevated take on popular Brazilian street food, piling sweet Ebi prawns onto a shatter crisp doughnut piped fat with a spiced black bean, pumpkin puree and a Brazilian prawn stew (Vatapa). At once fresh and indulgently rich. I want more. Same goes for that venison tart ($11 each) tiny raw meat and salsa pixels explode with vibrancy across the palate, shrouded by a wave of mystery — is that corn? A tropical fruit? (I’m told plantain).

My favourite is the unofficial potato three way.

Olluscos ($11 each), a speckled purple white root veg similar to the spud, is braised, pureed and cured for the ultimate off-road textural adventure that’s spicy, sweet and earthy. Very clever cooking.

Morena’s venison tart is an explosion of colour and flavour.

Outside of snackville we dive into both raw and cooked seafood; coral trout tiradito ($26; similar to ceviche, sliced differently) cuts a ghostly, almost translucent figure against a sunny Tigers Milk marinade made with aji amarillo chilli, yuzu kosho and fermented mandarin (add a glass of spine tingling Argentinian white Torrontes to match) and the tempo-changing, lone charry king prawn ($26) slicked with sun dried chilli paste.

Larger shares include Morena’s Rolls Royce of meals: 300g of suckling goat for $70 smothered in an aged mole with corn tortillas to wrap at your leisure.

There are also flame tickled steaks — from wagyu to grass-fed striplon for $85 to $160 a pop.

Though the gentler grilled grouper loin ($55), served with prawn dashi and squid and octopus stew (fosforera), appealed as I’d slurped a variation of this months earlier at Footscray’s Papelon.

A new world awaits up the stone staircase at Morena.

The stew brims with a similar seafood depth and bourbon like sweetness, the fish is beautifully cooked and the portion justifying of our decision to order the rum-soaked flan (quesillo) for dessert ($16)

Special shout out to sommelier Pablo Toledo on wine duties for giving Latin America’s unsung grapes a chance to properly shine. There are also choice Aussie faves sure to please.

I do wonder how “Morena posh” will perform against its buzzing bar sibling; which has more snacks, relaxed vibe and arguably sexier offering for Melbourne eaters at the moment.

Though Morena is worth keeping in your back pocket for something uniquely special.