You could create a new selector in your CSS to overrule the padding-top
and padding-bottom
rules of the .nav-tabs > li > a
selector. See bootstrap.css line 4068 (as per the CSS file used on the Bootstrap documentation site).
.nav-tabs.nav-stacked.nav-condensed > li > a {
padding-top: 4px;
padding-bottom: 4px;
}
/*original padding value 8px*/