We bid a fond farewell to Gibraltar having decided to make our way to Jerez on Sunday.
It wasn’t far and we arrived early afternoon.
I would have like to have booked a sherry-tasting session but there didn’t seem to be any that day. Howver whilst Googling, I found a place called Tabanco San Pablo which dates back to 1934 and had excellent reviews so we thought we’d pop that into Google Maps & set off on the bikes.
“Tabanco” traditionally was half tavern where you could have a drink or eat some tapas, but also half wine shop, as they used to sell wine in bulk as well.
We arrived and it was busy – full of locals – and we were lucky to get the last inside table. The wooden stools were smaller than usual – like being at an infant school ! They didn’t speak English so Dave translated the menu (with an APP ON HIS PHONE !!!) and it provided some insight as to what was on the menu.
So we started off with 2 medium sherries (and they were SO drinkable – like a really nice version of Harvey’s Bristol Cream !!!) plus:-
- Pork Cheeks
- Meatballs
- “Dress” Potatoes (that could have been Dave’s APP not coping too well 😂)
- Some spicy chorizo-type sausage
The dishes arrived sporadically which is why there are individual photos of them rather than all of them at once…
We carried on with the sherries (plus Dave had a beer) and then ordered:-
- MORE Pork Cheeks (that was Dave !!!)
- Russian Salad
- Dish of the Day (the waiter recommended it & we had no idea but which was sort of like a warm, tomato-ey hummus – really tasty 😋)
… and right at the end they brought us bread !!! Which would have been nice earlier to mop up the lovely sauces that the meatballs, sausage, etc. were sitting in.
Fabulous place – would highly recommend – it was really authentic plus our waiter was lovely and looked after us really well 😊
As it was Sunday late afternoon by then, a lot of places were closed but we had a cycle round in the sunshine and there were LOTS of fountains (with no water !!!) and Dave picked 2 oranges from one of the many trees everywhere (but later tried one and said it wasn’t nice 🥵) and bibbed back to The Van to cuddle up & watch a film (The Hitman’s Bodyguard – Ryan Reynolds & Samuel L Jackson – very watchable (clearly) as neither of fell asleep – for a change !!!)
