In the heart of the eternally cool Halles Saint-Gery district, in the main part of the building that used to be part of an Ixelles convent, the "Bar à Tapas"r assumes the typical Moorish accents of the South of Spain, where the tapas tradition is rife.

A few bits of basic terminology are always good to know namely that the word tapas comes from the word lid which in earlier times was used to protect the jugs of alcoholic drinks. People started to enhance the drinks with increasingly tasty bits and pieces Spanish-style lentils, chicken fritters with honey sauce, pata nagra (the finest of hams!), serrano, Galician-style octopus, queso mandrego, and so on and so forth.

In all, twenty-odd cold tapas...

...forty-odd hot tapas, four max tapas, five combined dishes (vegetarian, mixed fish, mixed meat, king prawns, charcuterie), and two formulae know as El Madrileno (three tapas of your choice or one maxi with one normal) and Superior (four tapas of your choice or one maxi with two normal plus coffee) - and that's still without counting the dozen or so desserts, including a fabulous Catalan cream and a caramel flan that's the chef's pride and joy.. and heaven knows what else!

On your lunchtime

The midday lunch consisting of four "set tapas" or three of them plus one "at choice" in the Superior version will be wonderfully accommodated by an excellent wine from the Iberian peninsula. A good tip? Be sure to taste the Duron Gran Reserva!

Innovation since January 2008

Discover the third address of the same owners... "L'En-face" ("The One Opposite"). Where's that, I hear you ask. Well, quite simply, opposite (or almost) the Tapas Bar of Rue Saint Géry, in the centre of our capital. It's no longer a restaurant, but a cool discobar with a modern-day looks in which you will be able to spend your more pleasurable evenings. For an aperitif or digestive, (why not both?), with your tapas, the new "En-face" address awaits you every day of the week, from 17:00 until?