La Cita, King Street Wharf

I find it quite surprising how quiet La Cita is on a weekend afternoon- its location is quite good, overlooking the harbour (and plenty of tourists walking around), their food is pretty good and their lunch specials are great value! Nevertheless, the quietness does make for a more pleasant experience for us as it means we get our privacy and food is served promptly whilst we relax in the warmth of the winter sun, watching as groups of tourist hop on and off the ferries departing from the wharves. 

La Cita's lunch special menu offers some pretty good deals- at $10, you can get yourself a serve of nachos and a main! We make a mental note to come back another time to try them, but we're after a more substantial meal today.

Mixed Entree Plate ($39)

And substantial is definitely the word to describe the entree plate, which we order as a result of not being able to decide which entree to order. I've tried their tapas plate before, which is similar but less pricey, but it's definitely worth the money to go for the mixed entree- you get a ridiculous amount of food in it!

There was honestly not one component on this plate that we didn't think was amazing- we were surprised that the seafood was really fresh, especially the prawns in cocktail sauce (not pictured) which had a surprising crunch. The salt and pepper squid was also was fried perfectly, with the squid being firm but without the chewiness that it usually comes with. The lamb cutlets are deliciously and tender, without the strong lamb taste that lamb sometimes has.

The empanadas were rather large as well- they could easily have served two of them with a side salad as a pretty substantial main, as they're stuffed with plenty of meat. The pastry is nice and crispy

Smoky BBQ Ribs ($21)

Because we're so full from the entree already, we're a little unsure whether we'd be able to make it through the mains when they arrive, especially as the BBQ Ribs come in a rather large serving! The wedges are nice and crispy, and there's a substantial serve of salad to go with the ribs. The ribs themselves are pretty tender and the sauce is quite tasty (the menu mentions it's marinated with tomato, BBQ sauce and pineapple juice!) though the meat itself doesn't seem to have much flavour unfortunately.

Mixed Paella $30

We're a little disappointed that the paella doesn't come in a paella pan, but they do make up for that by serving the paella with a generous amount of seafood- seriously, there's more seafood than there is rice! We like the addition of chorizo, but we don't find the sauce to be flavoursome enough as it tastes like tomato sauce, lacking the complexity.

Affogato $8.5

And to finish off with something sweet but not too heavy, we choose an affogato. As much as I enjoy it, I rarely order affogatos as coffee keeps me up at night when I have it too late during the day, but luckily it's still early! And what's not to love about a delicious scoop of vanilla ice cream and a shot of espresso?