Grab a counter seat for a quick sherry and a plate of jamon, or book a table for a longer tapas dinner. Weekends around the market get busy, so come early or sit at the bar.
Tapas Brindisa sits on the edge of Borough Market on Southwark Street, the restaurant arm of the Brindisa Spanish food importer that has supplied London kitchens for decades. The draw for drinkers is the sherry and wine counter, where fino, manzanilla and oloroso pour by the glass alongside an all Spanish wine list. It pairs that with serious tapas built on the same ingredients Brindisa sells to chefs across the city.
This is a bar for people who treat sherry and Spanish wine as the main event rather than an afterthought. It suits a market day lunch, a pre theatre stop near London Bridge, or the opening move of a tapas crawl. Anyone after cocktails or a quiet corner should look elsewhere; the counter is convivial and busy by design.
The room runs from a standing friendly counter to a tiled tapas dining room, with hams hanging and the market trading just outside. SquareMeal describes it as a Borough Market institution built around Brindisa's Spanish imports. The counter is the seat to ask for if sherry is your reason for coming.
Borough context is everything here. The bar sits inside one of London's oldest food markets, and the ingredients on the plate trace directly to the importer behind the name. That provenance is the difference between this and a generic tapas bar.
Sherry is the headline, with a by the glass list running from bone dry fino and manzanilla through to nutty amontillado and sweet PX. The wine list stays all Spanish and reaches into regions you rarely see by the glass. Sherry pours sit around 5 to 8 pounds. Start with a chilled fino and a plate of jamon iberico, then let the counter steer you toward a richer style. The food, from croquetas to grilled prawns, is built to match.
A Borough Market crowd fills the counter, a mix of market shoppers, London Bridge office workers and visitors fresh off a food tour. Lunchtimes and weekends run busy and loud; early evenings midweek are calmer. The mood is convivial and standing friendly, and the dress is casual.
A weekday early evening at the counter for sherry and jamon, or a market morning before the lunch rush.
What to order
- 01
A chilled fino or manzanilla
- 02
Jamon iberico de bellota
- 03
Croquetas de jamon
- 04
A glass of Spanish red
