Britain gets guide to best tapas bars

A guide was launched in London yesterday which picks out the best places from the “tapas bar phenomenon” taking hold in the UK.

Written by wine correspondent Anthony Rose and Isabel Cuevas, author of the Tokyo Tapas Bar Guide, the book is called The Tapas Bar Guide and comprises 30 bars from around the UK.

Speaking to the drinks business at the book launch on Wednesday evening, Anthony Rose said that the guide “was the first of its kind in the UK”.

Rose said that there are around 150 tapas bars in the UK, from which he visited 50 of the most highly-rated, before choosing 30 of the best to go in the guide.

“We were very selective,” he said, noting that “the ones in this guide have taken tapas to a new dimension”. However, he also recorded that there are still a lot of places in the UK which “pay lip service to the idea of tapas, without a decent wine list”.

Describing London as the epi-centre of the tapas bar phenomenon, and the best city in the world to eat tapas outside Spain, he observed the spreading of high quality bars from the heart of the capital into the outskirts, mentioning Boquería in Brixton, Angels & Gypsies in Camberwell and Trangallán in Newington Green.

However, the book also includes tapas bars in Manchester, Leeds, Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Penrith and Aberystwyth.

He also said that Soho tapas bar Barrafina gaining a Michelin star was “really significant for the tapas bar scene”.

Rose stressed that the book was only made possible due to sponsorship from Mahou, González Byass, Codorníu and Torres.

The book has been published by Grub Street and retails for £10.99.

Click here to see db’s top 10 sherry bars in London, while the authors’ top 10 tapas bars can be viewed on the next page.

The Tapas Bar Guide: top 10 

Camino/Bar Pepito

Barrafina/Fino

Brindisa

Capote y Toros

Copita

Hispania

Ibérica

José/Pizarro

Morito

Salt Yard