Tapas bar that's packed out on weeknights is the closest you can get to Spain without flying

At 7.45pm on a Wednesday, every table in Bar San Juan on Chorlton’s Beech Road is taken. The tiny kitchen behind the bar is slammed, the order checks stretching the length of it, and flames licking up from the grill.

Spanish is the only language being spoken, and loudly, while the telly plays Spanish TV - there are some dancing ponies, the Spanish answer to QVC and the weather. It’s 39 degrees in Cordoba this weekend.

There’s nothing much to suggest you’re not in a neighbourhood bar in Seville. Even down to the square napkin dispensers on every table and the little paprika tins filled with small forks for your tapas.

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There are two spaces left at the shelf along the side wall, opposite the bar, so I grab them, beneath a picture of a hugely handsome bearded man from the 80s. The two gents who follow 60 seconds later are told it’ll be 40 minutes. Phew.

You didn’t used to be able to book at all here, but now there is a loose reservation situation in place. I’d recommend not risking it. Back when it opened, it was inside or nothing, but now they have a covered front and side terrace. How the kitchen copes with it is baffling.

So few places are packed like this on a Wednesday night these days. Maybe because there’s less money around, people are less willing to take the risk. People know this place is good.

For the past 13 years, it’s been serving up pretty much the exact same menu, save for a couple of daily specials. Today it is gazpacho andaluz at £3.80 a cup and pork fillet cooked in beer for just under £7.

A couple of weeks back, it was named the best reviewed restaurant in Manchester. Not voted for by hoity toity food