Sant Pau in Nihonbashi is the Tokyo branch of a restaurant that holds three Michelin stars in Spain. It’s a famous place with two stars in the Tokyo Michelin guide too, and as you’d expect with those stars, the prices are no joke. Honestly it’s a pretty heavy commitment for me to go alone, but following the wisdom of the ancient sages that “split n ways, you could eat a whole cow,” and figuring that if not now then when, I went with a friend. My high hopes for Spanish food, a field I still hadn’t explored, played a big part too.
The waiting room.
It’s in the annex of COREDO Nihonbashi. Being the annex, it’s a bit away from the main building, but COREDO itself is connected to the subway station, so it isn’t hard to find. I arrived about ten minutes early and was shown to the waiting room. A cozy, stylish space.
They bring you a glass of water.
As always I went in having done almost no research, so I didn’t know, but a restaurant with a waiting room like this can fairly be called top-tier. Compared with this, Narisawa, where I’d been the day before, was very casual.
There’s a bar as well.
The selection wasn’t really big enough to call it a proper bar, but they had all the representative bottles for each type. It seemed like a safe place to drop by when entertaining business guests.
A painting
A painting of a fish that somehow looks like a rat. It seemed to be the work of a contemporary Spanish painter, and it left a strong impression.
The plate
Rimmed in gold. Calm yet luxurious. It’s a bit of a contrast with the flamboyance of Joël Robuchon.
Since it was a Spanish restaurant, I ordered a glass of sherry.
Not that Spanish sherry is especially delicious, but you can’t drink it anywhere other than a Spanish restaurant, so you have to take the chance. Besides, someone has to keep drinking sherry so that the rest of us can have single malts aged in sherry casks…
Bread
Before slicing it, they bring over a huge loaf to show you.
They also put long, thin crackers on the table.
They seem to serve as a welcome dish. I usually eat these with drinks, so it felt a little odd…
Cold soup
It comes chilled. A nice appetizer.
There is a course menu, but for the small bites they gave me a separate menu.
Fun idea.
It has drawings too, so it is easy to follow.
July’s theme is red, apparently. The dishes are made to match, and on the back was the menu for the dessert that comes at the very end.
Okoze with cayenne pepper and azuki beans
I couldn’t work out every ingredient myself. The thing on top looks like a chili pepper, but it’s just for show. Not spicy at all, and delicious.
Tomato farcie with vegetables
A single bite.
Filo with cheese, apple and red pepper
It looks a bit like a Chinese-style pan-fried dumpling, but it was really delicious. Crisp on the outside and nutty inside.
Red fruits with vinagreta
This was refreshing too. Right from the starters I could feel the difference in level from an ordinary restaurant.
The bread from earlier
Generous slices.
Tomato and watermelon velvet, kuruma prawn, cucumber, basil
This was midsummer, so the menu was mostly dishes with a refreshing, cool presentation, and this one fit that concept perfectly. I loved it.
Kinmedai (splendid alfonsino) coca, artichoke textures, endive
The flesh is really firm and springy. First-rate in taste as well as looks.
Suzuki (Japanese sea bass), curry sauce, Amakusa citrus, green papaya
The pairing of curry sauce and fish felt very fresh, almost light. The sea bass was cooked nicely. I’ve been eating a lot of sea bass this summer…
Iberian pork pluma, mango, onion, Jamaican pepper
The sauce and the cooking were so spot on that it almost felt like jelly. They cooked the pork so well that it was chewy and tender. At this level it holds its own against beef. It came close to my ideal of a meat main.
And so the light meal ended and the dessert time I had been waiting for arrived. For the first dessert you can choose between a cheese plate and a regular dessert.
If you order the cheese plate, they give you a separate menu.
It describes the five cheeses.
The regular dessert: a jewel box of fruit
They’ve packed loads of fruit densely into that little cube. It was hard to cut, but fun to eat.
But the cheese plate was far, far more satisfying.
At a normal restaurant the cheese comes on a trolley, but each cheese has such a strong character that unless you have exactly the right wine with it, being able to eat off the whole trolley doesn’t do much for you, truth be told. And it’s not as if a restaurant has lots of wines for you to drink after the main course. Here, though, each different cheese is served with a dish that suits it perfectly. The flavors get stronger from right to left.
Almond ice cream and Fleur de Maquis (sheep’s milk); daikon, carrot, piquillo and Cantell (goat’s milk); bread, wine and San Jorge (cow’s milk); hazelnut cookie and Maroilles (cow’s milk); watermelon jam, rum and Verzin (cow’s milk)
The strong cheeses are matched with fresh dishes, and the fresh dishes with tangy cheeses. The last one is rich like a blue cheese and goes wonderfully with the sweet watermelon jam. It’s one complete dish built around cheese, served in five variations, and it looked like it would go with any wine. I’ve never seen such an appealing cheese plate in my life.
Glass No. 4: rice, gin, olive oil, lemon verbena ice cream
Another fun ice cream dessert. You break the lid-like thing on top and mix it with the jelly and rice crackers underneath.
And then another ten desserts come out.
Piruleta (polo de piruleta)
It tastes a little like cheap corner-shop candy.
Pumpkin pie, truffle chocolate, Amakusa citrus and cidre sticks
The pumpkin pie was chewy and really delicious.
Dessert plate
Baileys borracho cake, banana mini ice cream, curry crunch chocolate, raisin butter sandwich, basil macaron, financier
An endless storm of a dessert feast. The borracho cake was moist and my favorite of the lot, but not a single one of the others was a letdown.
Herbal tea
After savoring every dessert, I quietly enjoyed my tea and left.
The entrance
It’s pricey, but it’s a place that will definitely satisfy you for it. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the main restaurant in Spain, but the Japanese branch is plenty satisfying, so if you can afford it, I recommend going at least once.