Bodega Santa Bárbara, tapas and island wine in Teguise

Villa de Teguise can be seen in half a day: the church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the Spínola palace, the white lanes where the coaches unload at around eleven. But the old capital only looks like itself once the groups have gone, leaving pale stone, wind and a handful of tables outside. One of them, at Calle de la Cruz 5, sits in front of a black door cut into a white wall: this is the Bodega Santa Bárbara, and it is worth the stop even if you came to Teguise only to take pictures.

Outside there is a cactus in a bed of black lapilli, a prickly-pear pad hung on the wall like a painting, a barrel, a parasol. Inside, a room with terracotta floors, pale wooden tables and the bar at the back. The chalkboard by the door carries the menu and also the words La Tunera Shop: the little house shop, with wine, spirits, oil, honey, craft beer and jam. You come in for a glass and leave with a bottle. The Guía Repsol has given it one of its Soletes, the mark it keeps for places with substance and no starched tablecloth: here it lands right.

The dish you come back for

On the day we dropped in, the octopus was not on the printed menu: it was one of the specials, which change with whatever comes in. It is the dish in the opening photograph, and on its own it explains the place better than any description. A whole tentacle seared until the suckers caramelise, laid on an orange purée of sweet root vegetables, with pickled red onion, slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, a few leaves and two edible violets. Around it, pimentón dusted across the plate. It is not decoration: it is the measure of smoke that holds together the sweetness of the purée and the sea in the octopus.

The same octopus, another time, arrives on a warm flatbread with sprouts, sliced radish, pickled onion and a sharp white sauce: something between a taco and a pita, eaten with your hands. That is where you see what the kitchen is doing: a Canarian base, modern tapas technique, and a detour through the Mediterranean and the Middle East taken without any craving for fusion at all costs.

The menu, and its vegetable half

The fixed menu is a tapas menu, meant to be ordered to the middle of the table and shared. Hummus comes in three versions: classic (€8), mushroom (€10), with meat (€13). Then Canarian banana chips with guacamole (€7), falafel with tandoori sauce (€8), papas arrugadas with mojo (€6), meatballs with tzatziki (€8), garlic or tomato bread (€6), fries with sauces (€6). At the richer end sit duck foie with raspberry jam (€9) and a bread flan with Cantabrian anchovies, basil coral and burrata cream (€10), the most worked plate on the list.

Anyone who does not eat meat is not making do here: the plant-based part is not a corner of the menu, it is half of it. On an island where vegetarian still too often means a mixed salad, the difference shows. Stuffed pitas run from €12 to €15 (falafel 12, Greek 13, Iberian 15), and the house salad — simply called Lanzarote — is €14.

The sharing boards are the most direct way to taste the island and the mainland in one meal: Lanzarote cheeses €14, Iberian cured meats €15, Iberian cebo de campo ham from Extremadura €19, or the mixed board for two with grilled bread at €27. To finish, the Lanzarote goat's cheese ice cream with honey and walnuts (€6) is the most local thing on the sweet list; then brownie with vanilla €7.50, house muffin €5, a scoop of artisan ice cream €3.

The wine, which is where the name comes from

It calls itself a bodega and the wine list earns the word: it looks to the island's own wineries, to the volcanic malvasía grown in the lapilli hollows of La Geria, and it does not stop at the two or three labels found everywhere. Ask at the bar what they have open — this is a place where the question is taken seriously. A dry island white with the octopus and the banana chips is the pairing that arrives by itself.

Before you go

The opening hours are unusual and worth confirming: the house works Monday to Thursday and on Sunday during the day, while it closes on Friday and Saturday — the exact opposite of nearly every restaurant on the island. Sunday is Teguise market day, the biggest on Lanzarote: the Villa fills from ten in the morning and the few outside tables go early. The number for bookings is +34 690 82 45 01.

The old centre is closed to traffic: leave the car in the car parks at the edge of the village and walk in, five minutes. What it costs: two tapas and a glass of wine stay under €20; with a board, a couple of plates and dessert you reach €25-30 per person. For what comes out of that kitchen, in the island's old capital, that is an honest price.

Website: bodegasantabarbara.com