You might wonder why we’ve put Indalo on this list. “It’s not a wine bar,” you say. “It’s a tapas restaurant.” Well, tapas was made for wine, just like pretzels were made for beer. And Indalo, unlike other places billing themselves as wine bars, actually serves wines by the glass (over 25 wines, in fact, starting at only ¥35 a glass, or ¥170 a bottle). And it gets better. The food is very good – simple Spanish stuff that strikes a chord in this reviewer’s heart for its sincerity. Bread smeared with tomato, a plate of jamon Iberico, and a glass of Tempranillo… what could be better than that?

The wine list here doesn’t take too many risks (we’d like to see some more Spanish and Portuguese stuff – and the owner assures us they’re on the way) but it’s so fairly priced by Shanghai standards it deserves heaps of praise. They have a great happy hour deal as well: from 5.30-8pm you receive a cold tapas for every glass of wine you buy, and if you order certain bottles you get five.

We stuck to small bites, and were floored by one dish. Tender squid stuffed with garlicky ground pork, served in rich pools of its ink with a dribble of aioli, is simply one of the best things we’ve eaten in a Spanish restaurant. Other tapas, like their authentic bacalao (salted codfish) rolls, chicken and tomato salad with dill, stuffed mushrooms and crusty bread were so in tune with our wine that we opened another bottle. And that, after all, is the point.