Vineria San Telmo, Seville, Spain

Located in the Santa Cruz barrio, Vineria San Telmo offers fresh and delectable tapas at a very decent price.

It was after savouring an extensive selection of tapas at the terrace of this crowded eatery that I decided to support Spain for the World Cup. Not that I care much about football, but the country which produces the mouth-melting bellota ham definitely deserves my full devotion.

As its name suggests, Vineria San Telmo also offers a large selection of wine, but having spent the day under the burning sun of Andalusia, we went for sangria instead to cool down.

The menu was enticing and we wanted to try everything. Despite the temperature at 45°C we were ready to have a proper feast and the waitress had to calm down our enthusiasm as we started to order frenetically one dish after the other. Apparently 10 tapas would be enough for two. Indeed, it was.

Marinated raw salmon with olive and caper tapenade

Raw gambas carpaccio with sesame seeds and soy sauce

 Jamon ibérico de bellota

 Sauté mushrooms with deep-dried onions

Tomato, eggplant and goat cheese "rascacielos" 

(=skyscrapers, why on earth this name?)

Tuna a la plancha with onion tempura and garlic sauce

Argentinian veal with mustard sauce

 Foie gras a la plancha with lichi

 Spanish beef filet with dried grapes and pine nuts sauce

Chorizo criollo

Our favourite tapas were the raw salmon, the raw prawns carpaccio (so fresh), the bellota ham (yummy), the "skycrapers" (!) , the veal and the beef. Personally, I also enjoyed the foie gras very much but the texture may not suit everybody's taste.

The weaknesses were the mushrooms (not savoury enough, which is quite surprising as Spanish cuisine tends to use a lot of salt) and the tuna (I like my tuna steaks pink and those were slightly overcooked).

We were so full after our ninth dish that we hardly tried the chorizo criollo. At that point I would have gladly swapped it for a lime sorbet. Had it been served at the beginning of the meal, we would have certainly appreciated it.

We paid 60 EUR for ten tapas and two jugs of sangria. It is probably possible to find cheaper tapas in Seville, but given the freshness of the ingredients you will find at Vineria San Telmo, it is worth paying the extra.

Cost:  3-5 EUR  per tapa, 5 EUR for a jug of sangria.

A sample of the menu: