My favourite style of sherry, Oloroso, we drank with meltingly good pork cheeks with mash and rolled lamb breast. The latter I’d not come across before. They were small parcels of lamb, a little crispy on the outside and great with lentils” “This place is beautiful. And there is sherry in its finest incarnations. Go there. And spread the word...”

“The tavern is dominated by wooden barrels and a charcuterie, where legs of cured meat hang temptingly from hooks. The smell of jamón lingers deliciously in the air’.”

“It’s a fine place to sneak away for lunch if you’re working in the area.” “You can choose to go all out with a sherry pairing menu…or simply sit near the barrels in the cutest part of the bar, a cosy haven to while away an afternoon.” “sherry is back, sherry is cool”

“We’d recommend the lamb with puy lentils, rosemary and salsa verde…and if you’re in a sharing mood, the seafood board was excellent. Sardines have never seemed so special.”

“The trick to eating at Tabanco is to be open-minded and trust that everything is going to taste amazing.”

“Tabanco is just about as close as you’re likely to get to a traditional Jerez tabanco” “What really sets Drakes apart from the slew of tapas joints cropping up across the city is the quality of sherry.” “An English/Spanish menu sees all the usual tapas favourites replaced with an interesting and imaginative array of dishes. Food: 10, Service: 10, Atmosphere: 9.”

“Its main calling card is that it is currently the only place in the UK that you can sample sherry “en rama” (unfiltered from the barrel) – but to be honest what really impressed us was the warmth of the welcome and the plethora of small plates.” “Tabanco has much to recommend it. No new friends? Here’s a perfect place to start making them.”

“Drinking sherry poured straight from the butt (maybe using barrel instead of butt would avoid the double entendre!?) represents the purest form of sherry consumption” “The barrel of Fernando de Castilla palo cortado at Drakes is the full monty…It sang alongside a plate of jamón – intense but with a delicacy and precision that marks this out as one of the best examples of this style that I’ve ever come across.”

“The front bar feels like it was built for first dates and intimate chatter.” “The food…opts for more original, traditional Andalusian dishes. Our tip: get the sherry matching tasting menu…all delicious.”

“The restaurant boasts such dishes and drinks as would delight even the most discerning of gourmands, while for those who are yet to expose themselves to the wonders of the world of sherry-drinking, Tabanco is the perfect place to start.”

“The room feels authentically Andalucian.” “The cured meats, from Iberico pork tongue to goose rillettes, are all excellent. The jamon was a stand-out as were the cured sardines.” “Lively, authentic and unpretentious”

“Tabanco looks and feels properly Andalusian…you could easily believe you’re in southern Spain.” “Drakes’s USP is sherry ‘en rama’ – from the barrel, as it’s served in Jerez. The rare palo cortado, with its savoury, saline edge, and the rich, nutty, dry oloroso are mind-blowingly intense.”

“Forget ancient vicars and maiden aunts – Tabanco’s sherries are fresh and innovative.” “Tim Luther and Nigel Howell’s authentic tavern serves excellent Fernando de Castilla sherries from the cask and sells them to take away.”

“Standing at the bar on a warm evening, picking at olives as the barman filled me a glass of sherry from the barrel, I could just about have been in Jerez de la Frontera. Except this was the West End and Tabanco.” “It takes the authenticity of London’s sherry scene to a new level — the first tabanco, serving straight from the barrel, that I’ve seen outside Jerez.” “There’s also a Sherry Trail around nine central London bars and restaurants. I made it to four: it might have been more had I not found Tabanco has a whole barrel of perhaps my favourite sherry, Fernando de Castilla’s Antique palo cortado. Be warned: some sherries can make you want to linger for a long time.”

“Tabanco prides itself on offering a seriously impressive selection of rare and premium sherries straight from the barrel” “The menu is extensive..scallops with avocado purée are smoky and cooked to perfection with the purée balancing the cured flavour of the salty molluscs. Rolled lamb breast, puy lentils, rosemary and salsa verde is an excellent staple main to share, as well as the beef short rib with crushed parsnips and thyme jus.”

“Mackerel pâté and soda bread sits alongside the jamón. Instinctively, we keep it Spanish and are rewarded with silky cured Iberico pork tongue laid out like shingles on a roof, gorgeously sweet-smoky roast piquillo peppers with almonds, and punchy cured sardines with catch-your-breath pickled shallot.” “Main dishes…braised pig cheeks work brilliantly with an Oloroso sauce and crushed hazelnuts.” “More Oloroso adds a sharp complexity to a chocolate tart…the filling doesn’t half go well with a glass of sherry”

“The defining oleic fleeciness of a plateful at the new Drakes Tabanco is offset beautifully by oloroso direct from the barrel”