When I booked Aponiente a while back, I had no idea what to expect. Tucked in El Puerto de Santa María, a little town known for its beaches and sherry production, it did not say much to me. Was I headed to a tourist trap or was I going to get the real deal?

Aponiente, calle Francisco Cossi Ochoa, 11500, El Puerto de Santa María, Cadíz

Aponiente is tucked away on a (normally) quiet street behind the small train station, on the banks of Guadalete river. Being located behind the train station does not sound like the most glamorous place to be but the building Aponiente occupies is an old mill that they converted into a peaceful dining space, so it evens it out.

We have to address the “normally” I used above. We never check these things but we definitely should start looking up whether anything of interest is happening where we will visit. It seems that there is ALWAYS something happening in Spain and I bet it will only get busier and busier as the summer unfolds.

This time it was actually a Moto Grand Prix taking place in Jerez de la Frontera (where we stayed the night before)! I will not get into a lot of the details here but instead of coming to this quiet port town to stroll around the promenade and old town for a few hours before dinner, we stepped out of the train to a complete mayhem of thousands and thousands of motorbikes everywhere. Revving, skidding, one-wheeling, racing and causing an immense commotion everywhere we went. This unhinged me a little bit and I was not sure whether I was ready to embark on a fine dining dinner in such a state of mind.

Fret not, the second we stepped onto the grounds of Aponiente, it was like the outside world has completely shut down. I am not sure what it was exactly that brought me this sense of relief but after a few frustrating hours trying to ignore the biking shenanigans, I could finally breathe. The gates behind us closed and it felt like I was home.

When you arrive, you are seated in a lounge area where you get served a welcoming drink and you spend some time relaxing, unwinding and, most importantly in my case, getting into the right mind space to enjoy the upcoming dinner. When we first came in, there was another couple seated in the same lounge area and there was another lounge located opposite ours that had guests as well. Everyone gets served a drink and a few appetisers here and then they get taken into the restaurant space proper one dining party at a time.

We were served this lovely Forlong Burbuja Rosado 2020. It is made in Andalucía region, more specifically the city of Cadíz, which is located just 10 km away. It was very light and refreshing. It had some light sweetness and was full of strawberry and raspberry notes. We were being thoroughly topped up on the regular and it really set a good tone for the night.

The first appetiser to arrive was squid sashimi with adobo sauce. I would not necessarily call this a sashimi as it was clearly made from a minced squid or, at least, the texture when we ate felt like it. I liked this appetiser a lot – the squid tasted fresh and due to its texture was light and easy to eat (no chewiness at all). Adobo (I had no idea it is originally Spanish), added a little bit of a vinegary tang. As I learned, adobo is a paprika, salt, garlic and vinegar mix originally used to preserve/marinate food (like cazón en adobo which is Cadíz specialty). Delicious AND educational.

Next came date biscuit with seabass bacon. I did not know this yet but the seabass bacon was setting the tone for the entire dinner to come (I will explain it later). Date biscuit was sweet and chewy, the bacon was not too dry and had a nice smoky flavour to it. What’s not to like, eh?

I have a notorious dislike for sea urchin, so I always specify that I prefer not to have it in any form, shape or size in my meal. Hence, instead of chef’s signature sea urchin blini with burn butter foam, I got served a monkfish liver with the creamy and acidic toppings I cannot recall now. What I can recall is that they did nothing to cut through that monkfishiness of the liver and I am now debating whether to put fish liver on my “do not serve me this” list. Matas said that his sea urchin got lost because of the thickness of the blini, so neither one of us were impressed by this appetiser much. On the other hand, tortillitas de camarones or shrimp fritters were truly lovely. Incredibly crispy, not at all oily, a little bit salty with a fresh balance of those green dollops of parsley crema.

After spending some time in the lounge area and finishing the appetiser part of the dinner, we were escorted to our table for the night. We were taken on a little tour first, where we got acquainted with the origins of the building that used to be a tide mill. We saw some old-school relics from the time the mill operated too. Then we walked by the open kitchens (yes, multiple) where we got to see some action and say hello to the chef, Ángel León (extreme right of the picture).

The tour through the mill was taking so long (I am making a joke! It was not THAT long) that a temporary station was waiting for us where we got poured a glass of sherry and got to snack on another small appetiser. This sardine slightly grilled on charcoal sat atop a bed of burnt eggplant on a toast made from actual fish scales. The sardine was rich and smoky, the eggplant creamy and the toast was puffed up and crunchy. This was a tasty bite complimented mightily by the fino sherry.

The sherry served at this station is Yodo fino en rama made here, in El Puerto de Santa María, specifically for the chef of Aponiente. Only 1000 bottles are produced and they are only available at the restaurant. The sherry was very dry and bright, full of seaside notes, yet not too briny.

We were seated by a big window where we could see the tide coming in and some wildlife leading their wild lives: there were crabs and herons here and there. The other side of the dining area had smaller, ship-like round windows that neither Matas nor I would have cared for, so we enjoyed our window into the wild.

The dining area is quite big and they only serve around 40 diners every night, so it feels rather spacious. At the same time, I thought that the wooden ceiling elements made the space feel a little bit cramped. I know these two statements are rather contradictory but my evaluation stands: it was spacious on the horizontal axis and cramped on the vertical. Do with this description what you like.

At the beginning of the dinner service we were given a cute booklet explaining the raison d’être of Aponiente. It was very beautifully made in the watercolour style in various shades of the sea. You can watch the video and see the subdued and thoughtful elegance the book emanates.

It starts by asking why Earth is called Earth when there is so much water everywhere, same for our bodies – our composition mirroring that of the sea too. Aponiente invited us to sail with them into the unfathomable vastness of the sea, forgetting Earth for a moment and allowing ourselves to be engulfed by the sea.

The middle of the booklet shows some of the aquatic creatures that will be served, detailing the parts used in beautiful water colour creations. The next pages list the “Water Planet” menu as well the names of members of staff working that day.

The last page called “The Sailing Day”is the most personal and it lists such seemingly trivial things like the date of the dinner, the sunset time, the tidal wave and so on. It truly is a little piece of art with enough heart and mind poured into it to make it feel special if only for a while.

The restaurant space and especially the space between the tables was quite wide, so many things came on wheeled stations that were driven to every table. This is how we got our bread delivered: on wheels! The bread was accompanied by a plankton butter which tasted not too far from how an abandoned seabed at a low tide would smell but it grew on me as the night progressed.

With the bread station wheeled away, what appeared to be meat on wheels came out next. But wait a minute, what was all of this meat doing at a nice seafood restaurant like this? Remember when I told you that the seabass bacon will set the tone for the night? Well, the tone said to expect to be thoroughly bamboozled by what was coming next. And next came not meat on wheels! It was actually fish on wheels!

In the context of food marketing, I do not like the idea of introducing things as things they are not. This does not make much sense, I know, but the best examples would probably be “vegan bacon” or “almond milk”, etc. In the context of this dinner, however, it did not bother me at all. It did not feel forced. It actually felt rather seamless.

So, from the cold cuts on wheels we were served: “fish discard products” mortadella, “morcilla” in biscuit, monkfish liver paté, tuna jerky and we were also served tuna belly “jamón“. This cold cut station situation felt very tongue-in-cheek but I also enjoyed the sustainability reference that was made alongside it. I think two of the more interesting options on the plate were mortadella and morcilla (blood pudding) both of which were made using fishes and fish parts that otherwise would have to be discarded.

Next came a very light soup/sauce with the crunchy sea veggies. This dish felt super light: the cream was rich but very delicate and the crunchy greens were very fresh. La Má was the first wine we were served with our chosen wine pairing and I have to tell you, this was the best light white wine I have ever had. I have tried looking for this wine but there is not much information about it at all. 4ojoswines is a team of four women (our sommelier included) that produce small batch wines in El Puerto de Santa María. This wine, like many others throughout this dinner, is only available at Aponiente.

Let us talk about our wine-producing sommelier and the wine pairing options. At the beginning of the dinner we were introduced two wine pairings: local, mostly consisting of wines and sherries made in the region (€150) and classical, a pairing picked from the wines coming from around the world (€300). I do not think it is hard to guess which pairing we picked in the end.

In all honesty, the sommelier did not paint a good picture around the “other” pairing. It felt like she was rather dismissive about this second option from the get go. Which raises the question: why have it in the first place if you do not believe in it? I wholeheartedly agree that the local pairing was a more exciting option, so do away with the fancy pairing and let your passion for local wine flourish. She truly came alive while talking about the local wines but seemed rather dispassionate about the other choice. Which is both interesting and alarming I would say.

The next dish was introduced with a little sea snail shell. The dish was a two-parter and came out on some very beautiful crockery that I absolutely loved. If you remember my love for DiverXO crockery, this took it to another level for me. While the approach of DiverXO felt great yet haphazard in the hindsight, the crockery at Aponiente was seamlessly uniform: every plate was different but it existed within the same universe of white, thin, textured clay.

The first snail dish to arrive was covered with a creamy, fluffy cloud dusted with either plankton or seaweed dust. The other snail dish was actually snail meat stuck to an herb stalk and it was incredibly fragrant, especially with the different fresh herbs that were placed on top. The dishes were served side by side and provided a contrasting eating experience.

The soup that came next was made with shaved razor clam with potatoes and cream. It was silky, velvety, rich and smooth.

You will notice as well that I am not talking much about the local wine pairing that we took to accompany our dinner. It is hard to talk about it because I honestly have no idea what we drank. Half of the wines and sherries came to the table in non-descript brown glass bottles that bore no insignia, no labels, nothing. I can tell you upfront that I absolutely loved the pairing but if you asked me what I had, I would give you a blank stare and mutter something along the lines of: “oh, you know, some very very interesting things”.

The next dish to come out consisted of oysters with tear peas. The oysters were actually cut into smaller pieces and it made for an interesting eating experience. I do not think that the oyster was completely raw, I would hazard a guess it was treated in some way first as it did not have any of that raw briny-ness and while it was also plump, it felt quite firm to the bite. The tear peas are in short season at the moment and they were so delightful: sweet and tender.

Remember I just told you it is hard to talk about this wine pairing? Well, for the next two dishes we were served two sherries at the same time (to compare the two sherries with the dishes and pick what pairing we like more).

If you have read my blog entry on Jerez (and if you did not, go read it now), you know all about sherry production by now. Well, buckle up as this gets interesting. Both of these sherries are produced by Bodegas Yuste in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Only 500 bottles of manzanilla are produced yearly. I will give you a little refresher: manzanilla is a sherry produced by biological aging (under flor).

Raya Cortada, on the other hand, is a completely new creation that reverses the sherry aging process on its head. This sherry STARTS with oxidative aging (like oloroso) and after four years it gets further aged under flor for another year (if I remember correctly, this is the first sherry that came out of that experiment). Both of these were very interesting, especially Raya Cortada which I preferred as a pairing for my food (Matas liked manzanilla more).

We have not seen any stuff on wheels action for a while, so here came frozen cuttlefish on wheels to remedy this situation. The idea was to use this Japanese shaved ice machine to create incredibly thin ribbons of cuttlefish that will get immediately cooked in the warm broth.

This cuttlefish soup was excellent. This is hands down my favourite dish of the night. The thin ribbons of cuttlefish were truly shining in the slightly sweet broth. I truly cannot describe you what it felt while it was being eaten because this sensation was very new to me. Kudos to the chef. Amazing dish.

Can you forgive me the restroom selfie? Also, tell me that water feature mirror-sink duo is not awesome?!

These are just a few pictures for the context on how big this place actually is. The first picture is the cathedral ceilinged corridor towards the entrance hall. The same hall continues down along the three open concept kitchens that eventually lead you into the dining space.

Again, this is only one of a handful of bottles that are actually available for purchase in the world outside of Aponiente. Osborne La Honda Amontillado en Rama is a very old sherry of over 22 years. And while I do not remember much about this particular drink, I can tell you that Osbourne winery is very unique as it is located below the level of all other bodegas in the area and that creates conditions for development of sherries with unique characteristics.

This dish is hake served with bilbaina sauce. This is probably my least favourite dish of the night. The fish had a lot of that fishy/briny low tide seaside floor flavour.

By the way, the bread on wheels did not make another appearance throughout the night but the bread was basically being served non-stop. Midway through the dinner it got switched to a different bread and for this dish we were served a dark bread with rye flour.

Here is some insider information on how I write my blog: I usually structure it around pictures, followed by a few initial comments that I will further expand on at a later date. Well, the following text captures 99% of my comments, so I will leave it as is for your amusement:

“Was this sherry served alongside this dish called “Salt marsh skins”? I do not know, I do not recall and I was not given any information. Probably, not.”

This Atlantic “porchetta” takes us the full circe from seabass bacon to fish cold cuts to this which is the belly of tuna wrapped in moray eel skin. To say that it was interesting would be an understatement.

In one of my previous posts I said that I liked being provoked and challenged by the food I am served. Well, this dessert did provoke and challenge me all right. This is strawberry jelly with assorted seafood. Yes, strawberry jelly with bits and bobs coming from clam, oyster, mussel, scallop and more. Did it taste weird? Oh heck it did! Was it delicious? Heck no. Did I found it enjoyable and amusing? Amusing, yes, enjoyable… the jury’s still out on it.

Cambray is another one of the wines that is either only produced for Aponiente or in such a small quantity that there is no information available on what it actually is. Did I like it? Aye, by this point we had quite a bit to drink, I was no longer focusing on what is getting poured in my glass.

Another two-drinks dish. Maestro Sierra is a sweet Pedro Ximénez sherry produced solely for Aponiente. The other drink came from yet another non-descript brown glass bottle with no labels whatsoever.

This was my favourite dessert of the night – a seaweed tarte tatin. It definitely looks way scarier than it was. I would say it was actually a very pleasant dessert, definitely complimented by the drinks we were served before.

At this point of the dinner another moving prop was wheeled in. I think this was meant to symbolise the casks that hold sherry that inspired our last dessert. The first part of the dessert came on a small wooden plate and included a sphere made from the young wine that is used to make sherry made to look like a shriveled Palomino grape. Alongside it a soft marshmallow made with flor was served. I really liked both of these. The wine sphere was both sweet and sour and the flor cloud had an interesting yeasty note but was again sweet and sour at the end.

The second part of the third dessert was all chocolate. The little pieces in the middle of the picture were all left to soak in different sherries: oloroso, Pedro Ximénez, amontillado. I am not a big fan of chocolate, so this did not do much for me. The last, and in my humble opinion the best, was the piece on the plate because it was filled with sherry vinegar. This one I loved because it combined the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the sweetness and acidity of a burst of PX sherry. I had a lovely cortado to go along with the chocolate and spent way too much time appreciating the crockery and that cute little clay branch stirrer.

Before we left, there was one last bite to savour. This small jelly bite was absolutely delightful. It was made using Szechuan flower buds that are known to cause a tingling sensation and tingled it did.

We took one last picture together before heading to our waiting taxi that had to take us to our hotel in Cadíz. What can I say, I did not really want to leave. Aponiente proved to be an incredible venue. This dinner was so lovely and relaxing. The atmosphere was great. The service was great. Just a perfect night out.

Summary

The food: I would call this “innovative seafood menu” and it delivered. 10/10.

The drinks: the wine and sherry pairing was absolutely fantastic. I just wish we were given a wine card to take home. 9/10.

The service: was truly outstanding. Attentive enough yet not overbearing, polite and easygoing at the same time. 10/10.

The atmosphere: 100% an amazing location. So quiet and so peaceful. Truly magical. 11/10.

The gift: what is it with fine dining restaurants in Spain? Where is my teeny tiny gifty that I can take home to enjoy? We were given another booklet which was absolutely beautifully made but does not have much value beyond collecting dust until it is trashed. 5/10.

The bread course: hey, they actually gave me bread! Not one but three breads! And the bread kept coming and coming. I generally would prefer a smaller amount of more interesting bread but who am I to complain? 8/10.

The damage: the tasting menu costs €270 per person, while the wine pairing costs €125 per person. The first few glasses of wine, water and coffee were complimentary. Great value for money. 10/10.

The summary of the summary

Was this the most mindblowing dinner I have ever been to? No. Does it lose value from that? Absolutely not. I loved this dinner from the minute I stepped into the quiet oasis that Aponiente offered and I love it still. I keep remembering it and it keeps filling me with that elation and joy. Truly an outstanding experience.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Aponiente. Dinner here proved to be a slow and steady affair without any of the unnecessary noise and flashy distractions. This was masterful seafood cookery in its purest form and sense. Simple. Elegant. Delicious. Can I go back? When can I go back?