Tapas Bar Near Me in Crouch End: Bar Esteban on Park Road

In Crouch End, a search for tapas bar near me leads to a zinc-topped bar on Park Road that has been pouring sherry since March 2013. Bar Esteban, at number 29, was opened by Scottish record producer and sherry enthusiast Stephen Lironi with Barcelona-born executive chef Pablo Rodriguez and Bilbao-born general manager Naroa Ortega. It is a neighbourhood room, and it cooks with the confidence of central London.

Each founder brought a different skill to the room. Rodriguez trained at the Michelin-starred Jean-Luc Figueras in Barcelona, then cooked in London at Barrafina, Moro and Morito, three of the kitchens that defined the city's modern tapas scene. Ortega began her career at Asador Etxebarri, the Basque grill house in the village of Axpe, and Lironi is a Grammy-nominated producer who describes himself on the bar's site as a professional drinker from Scotland.

That Scottish thread runs through the bar list too: the house Scottish negroni, £14, mixes Isle of Harris gin with Campari and Fernando de Castilla vermut. The group has since grown to two sister restaurants, Escocesa in Stoke Newington and Maresco in Soho, but Park Road remains the original, with its zinc counter and small tables tucked into a north London shopfront.

The para picar section is cheap and quick. Marinated olives, homemade bread with alioli and crispy chickpeas are £5.50 each, pan con tomate is £7.50 and pimientos de padrón are £9. Boquerones, the white anchovies marinated in vinegar, cost £11, and croquetas de jamón with parsley mayo are also £11. Sobrassada with honey, the soft Mallorcan sausage spread on bread, is £12.50.

Tortilla is a house signature at £11, or £13 with prawns or jamón folded in. Chipirones, fried baby squid, are £14. A simple first order for two would be bread and alioli, padrón, croquetas and a plain tortilla, then a pause to read the specials board before moving on to the vegetables and the bigger plates.

For cured meat, 50g of jamón ibérico de bellota costs £22.50, and the Iberian charcuterie board is £14.50. The cheese board of La Peral blue, Manchego and Monte Enebro goat's cheese is £15.50. Order the ham early, since it is sliced to order and pairs best with the fino or manzanilla you will probably start with.

Vegetables hold their own. Beetroot salad with ajoblanco, the chilled almond and garlic soup, is £9.50, as are the fried aubergine with walnuts and sugar cane honey and the grilled cauliflower with mojo verde. Courgette flower in tempura stuffed with goat's cheese is £13, and patatas bravas are £7.50. On the current specials list, chargrilled leeks with romesco and almond flakes are £11 and a sea bass ceviche with radish and grapes is £13.

The mariscos section is where you share. Arroz con pulpo, seafood rice with octopus, is £19, gambas al ajillo arrive bubbling in garlic oil at £17, and grilled stone bass with green asparagus is £18.50. The rice is the dish to order if you are a group, and it pairs well with one of the dry amontillados from the sherry list.

On the meat side, chargrilled marinated lamb with roasted aubergine is £18, crispy pork belly with mojo verde is £16.50, and slow-cooked oxtail served with talo, the Basque corn tortilla, is £16.50. That oxtail is the plate that most reflects Ortega's Basque roots. For dessert, Basque cheesecake and chocolate ganache are both £9, and single scoops of house ice cream are £4.

Bar Esteban treats sherry as the house drink and prints a pairing rule on its menu: fino or manzanilla if it swims, amontillado if it flies, oloroso if it runs. Barrero's Gabriela manzanilla is £9.50 a glass, £32 a half bottle and £58 a bottle, and the Fernando de Castilla fino en rama is £9 a glass. Fernando de Castilla oloroso is £7.50, the cheapest glass on the list.

The serious pours are the 30-year-old antique sherries from Fernando de Castilla: antique oloroso at £14 a glass, antique amontillado at £14 and antique palo cortado at £15.50. For dessert, Ximénez-Spínola PX is £12 for 50ml. If sherry is not your thing, vermut over ice with olive and orange is £8.50, and the cocktails, from a pisco sour to a paloma, are £14.

The kitchen is closed on Monday and Sunday. From Tuesday to Thursday it serves 6pm to 10pm, on Friday 5pm to 11pm, and on Saturday it opens for lunch from 12pm to 3:30pm and again from 5pm to 11pm. Saturday lunch is the only daytime service of the week, and the earlier 5pm start on Friday suits an after-work plate.

Reservations are taken online through SevenRooms, where you can choose a table or a seat at the zinc-topped bar, which serves the same menu. The bar is card-only, and an optional 12.5% service charge is added to the bill. Let the team know about allergies when you order, as the menu asks. Gift vouchers are sold online through the bar's website, a useful present for anyone who lives within walking distance of Park Road and has not yet tried the antique sherries.

Park Road leads off the Broadway, so the walk starts at the Crouch End Clock Tower, the red-brick Victorian landmark at the centre of the village. From there the Parkland Walk, a nature trail laid along a disused railway line, is a short stroll away, and it is a pleasant way to arrive on foot from Highgate or Finsbury Park in daylight.

Crouch End has no Tube station, which keeps the evening crowd local. The W7 bus links Finsbury Park station with Crouch End and continues up to Muswell Hill, and Alexandra Palace sits on its hill to the north if you want a view of the London skyline before dinner.

Address: 29 Park Road, Crouch End, London N8 8TE. Kitchen hours: Tuesday to Thursday 6pm to 10pm, Friday 5pm to 11pm, Saturday 12pm to 3:30pm and 5pm to 11pm; closed Sunday and Monday. Book through SevenRooms on the bar's website. Card payments only, with an optional 12.5% service charge. Sister restaurants are Escocesa in Stoke Newington and Maresco in Soho.