Getting Mezze

An hour before arriving at Number 22, I texted my wife from work to check if it was OK to resign on the spot after a particularly horrid day. She gently advised me to wait until after dinner.

Thank goodness she did: Number 22 is a local that never fails to raise my spirits with its innovative and regularly changing tapas menu and excellent Spanish wine list.

Run by Spanish wine and food enthusiast Chris Adnitt, Number 22 has attracted a loyal local following in the two and a half years since it opened. It draws a surprisingly-wide clientele, although this being Herne Hill there isn't exactly dancing on the tables.

A fairly large bar gives on to a dark, minimalist dining room; down a slightly cramped return with more tables there is a courtyard at the back. Service is swift and efficient.

Although Number 22 boasts an extensive cocktail list and interesting wines, the food is the main attraction. There are old favourites such as chorizo a la sidra, a whole chorizo, admirably meaty and spicy, cooked in cider; the charcuterie plate tempts with high-quality Spanish ham and salami. The paprika squid is cooked just so, tender but still resistant; croquettes of Picos de Europa blue cheese are disgracefully moreish. At the moment they also offer small green Padron peppers, fried and salty with a hint of bitterness.

But Number 22's larger portions of more inventive tapas are well worth exploring, too. Clams came in a delicately flavoured saffron sauce; baby artichokes were good with chunks of thick-cut Serrano ham. Some of the combinations work less well: the sauce accompanying the lamb cutlets with drunken apricots was too sweet. And while I enjoyed the very fresh seared tuna loin - cooked to perfection, pink on the inside - the sun- dried tomatoes and caramelised onions it came with seemed superfluous.

Adnitt's enthusiasm is also clear in the wine list, full of unusual and fairly priced bottles. It's certainly the only place in London that I've seen Txomin Etxaniz Getaria, a zingy Basque white (£25), while the full-throttle red Mas Igneus Priorat is a steal at £26. Perhaps most impressive, though, are the sherries: not only can you buy half bottles of decent manzanilla and fino, but also Fernando de Castilla's heart-stoppingly fragrant and complex Antique oloroso and amontillado. (If you've got the stamina, Number 22 also sells two of the same bodega's fabulous brandies).

If there is one weakness it is the desserts. There aren't many and they aren't very Spanish - not that puddings are a major component in Spanish cuisine. My wife's chocolate mousse with sultana de coco and orange coulis was pleasant although not unlike a mouthful of Bounty bar.

Much better are the cheeses. The Monte Enebro goat's cheese had a powerful and irresistible tang, served with a slice of unusual pressed fig and almond loaf; the extra-mature manchego, accompanied by quince membrillo, was sublime, especially with a glass of Lustau Palo Cortado sherry.

Indeed when the waitress took our drinks order, she said: "You're sherry drinkers, aren't you?" Maybe I really have been hanging out at my local too much lately.

Number 22
Half Moon Lane, London, SE24 9HU