Espacio Eslava is a two sided restaurant.  One side is tapas only and the other is a white tablecloth, reservations only restaurant offering tapas as well as appetizers and full plates.  It is small – only about 9 tables – with soft background music and friendly waiters, although they had limited command of English.  Tables are well spaced and service is nicely paced.  At the restaurant side you can order any of the tapas served next door in addition to your regular menu options.  The waiter heavily encouraged us to try the 3 highlighted tapas written up as part of the menu.  

 

Tables receive big chunks of bread that is fairly dense and doughy with a good crust.  It was better than most of the bread we’d had in Seville but still not great bread.

 

They served an anchovy amuse bouche that was on crispy toast.  It was very good.

 

The tapas were the first things served from what we ordered.  The Cigar for Bécquer – a brick pastry cigar shaped with cuttlefish and algae.  It was an eggroll like wrapper that was filled with spinach-looking filling that was blended with cuttlefish.  There was a light dipping foam on the side which was tangy and frothy from a beaten egg white.  It was a little more theater than I like but nevertheless it tasted excellent.

 

A slow cooked egg was served on a boletus cake with a caramelized wine reduction.  The egg was still nicely runny and the mushrooms were really strongly flavored.  Another good one.

 

Lastly was the foie gras, hazelnut bread and bitter almond jelly.   The foie gras was really smooth and served on a 1/4 inch slice of hazelnut bread that added a bit of crunch to the piece.  The jelly on the side was also a good addition.  This was rich and my favorite of the three tapas.

 

A plate of the day was fresh artichokes with fried garlic chips and bits of cod.  It was excellent.  The cod added texture as did the garlic and both had lots of flavor.

 

For an appetizer we had Little bags of blue cheese and Pedro Ximenez reduction.  They came 6 to and order so we split one.  The coating was quite crispy and then they were filled with a very mild blue cheese (almost reminded me of onion soup mix dip) and dribbled with a sweet sherry sauce.  The thin wrapper was very fun but these are heavy and rich so I’m glad I only had 3.

 

We had inquired about the Roasted pork ribs, a main plate on the menu, with honey glaze and the waiter was nice enough to bring us a sample of them.  They were in a very sweet sauce and tasty but he had been correct in steering us toward the goose foie and lamb leg instead, as a main plates.

 

The main plate of lamb leg was baked on rosemary with sultanas (raisins) and pine nuts.  It was huge with a sauce like honey on top and around it.  The lamb was nicely cooked and the nuts added a good crunch to the dish whereas the raisin added a chewy texture.  Fried potatoes were also underneath the leg and they soaked up the sauce nicely.   It was good.

 

The other main plate was the goose foie braised with pumpkin compote.  It was two huge gummy pieces that were cool in the center.  It also had a sweet sticky sauce with a perfect richness to it, but I found it off-putting to have the foie cool to the touch.  Otherwise it would have been a really good dish.

 

For dessert we tried a Manchego cheese ice cream served like a heavy semi fredo.  It had some goji berries on the side and chunks of cheese and ground nuts inside.  It was most interesting and delicious.  I found myself continuing to go back for just one more bite.

 

Our other dessert was Sokoa or a cake  with sherry and caramel cream.  It was sweet and not as heavy as it looked.

 

 

We finished with a sour cherry liquour that had a bit of liquorice in the taste and was sweet and yummy.