Tempo

Ah le tempo, bar des soirées Erasmus de l’université de Cantabrie.
Pour boire un pot entre amis, c’est sympa les soirs de match mais sinon, on né peut pas s’entendre, la musique est à fond. Ce n’est pas très grand, il y a une micro piste de danse. Les prix sont abordables en happy hour.

This great tapas bar nestling on a hill above the southern entrance to the Tunel de Tetuan is relaxed and effortlessly cool. A long, horseshoe-​shaped bar splits the place roughly in two, with a bright and sofa-​strewn area on the one half giving way to a darker dance floor area on the other side. The well-​stocked bar is very well tended by excellent and friendly staff, one of whom was an incurable anglophile who spent all night talking to us enthusiastically about Camden Market and ‘gin y tonica’!
However, it is the food that is really good at this place. As a very general rule, every bar in the north of Spain will specialise in one type of tapas. Tempo’s speciality is a modern rehash of the ubiquitous patatas bravas, potatoes with spicy tomato sauce. Despite being told by quite a few locals we had spoken to that Tempo’s patatas bravas just had to be tried, we could not really believe that anyone could bring something new to this most basic and simple of tapas. How wrong we were! The Tempo patatas were served in long, fat and thick sticks, like gigantic chips, with two holes cut in to each chip. One hole was filled with a delicious and above-​average spicy bravas sauce, the other with alioli (garlic mayo). This was a great ‘modern’ twist on the old favourite and really tasted so good, it would have been worth going to Tempo just for that! However, the atmosphere and prices also commend themselves, with four beers, the celebrated bravas and another tapa coming to the grand total of EUR14! Lovely place, and great value.