IT’S rare to find a wine bar where you can actually eat properly.
La Tizona in San Pedro Alcantara is one such rarity.
Drinks-wise it is hard to go wrong when the restaurant is owned by a wine importer and distribution company.
And El Cid has been providing Andalucia and further afield with a range of top quality plonk since the early 1980s.
At La Tizona you’ll find a few hundred references of what’s available from the nearby bodegas of Ronda to the faraway chestnuts of Mendoza, in Argentina.
Even better, there are over two dozen available by the glass including a Sauvignon from Italy (Saude) and a Pinot Noir (Domaine de l’Aigle) from Valle de l’aude in France.
And the wine list also changes every few weeks, while it counts on one of Spain’s best beers by the glass, Ambar, one of only two independent breweries left, owner Agustin tells me.
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But that’s not my favourite thing about La Tizona, which has been open in the heart of San Pedro for a few years now.
This strategic spot has an all-day kitchen and an adventurous menu that matches its wine.
It also has one of the nicest terraces in town, a superb place to watch the world go by.
Keep an eye out for Agustin, a well known local padel player, who knows a lot about the local culinary scene.
“We know how important it is to serve up quality dishes and ingredients as San Pedro keeps going further and further upmarket,” he explains.
Menu wise it has a big range of things: great Iberian ham, superb local cheeses and a good mix of starters including a cold salmorejo soup from Cordoba and a guacamole with garlic octopus and smoked chili sauce.
I really liked the Gildas with an olive, pepper and anchovy and truffled Iberian burrata, tomato,
oysters, with an avocado and smoked fish salad.
There was a decent range of specials of the day including poached leeks in olives with chives in lime juice cooked in a wood oven very slowly.
Another special was the rabo de toro (oxtail), nicely braised and served with puree potato.
Next up we had the avocado and smoked fish salad, which was salmon, cod and trout and should have been a disaster but actually somehow worked really well.
To finish I tried the lovely blue cheese Stilton soaked in a Pedro Ximenez from Huelva for 90 days. Talk about punch. I was still tasting the following day.
For more information visit www.latizona.com
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