Sant-Yago

Sant-Yago opened on Clarendon Road in Southsea in 2014, the work of Jon Welch and Sarah Weir, who built their tapas bar around Jon's kitchen rather than any single region of Spain. The menu borrows the format of small plates and sharing dishes without pretending to be strictly traditional, changing with the seasons and running to vegetarian, vegan and coeliac options alongside the meat-heavy classics. A cocktail list is built specifically to match the food rather than sit apart from it. The dining room sits within a run of independent shopfronts a short walk from Southsea's seafront, doing steady midweek trade as much as weekend covers. It is unfussy about authenticity, favouring a kitchen that treats tapas as a way of eating rather than a fixed script.