Amapola Restuarante Espanol

If you're close by checking out the Photography Museum, and are tired of the typical Japanese fare or curry, Amapola is a nice change.

The restaurant advertises itself as a Spanish restaurant, but alongside the paella, Spanish omlettes, and flan they also serve pizza and pasta. While the food might not be spectacular it not bad either and the set menu is a great deal. I got the Paella Set meal, and 1600 yen included a drink, salad, soup, appetizer, bread, a huge plate of paella and desert. My friend got the pizza set meal, and for 1000yen got a drink, bread, salad and a personal size pizza. They are definitely generous with their food and you leave the place stuffed. My friend loved her pizza, and I really liked the mushroom soup and the wedge of spinach omlette that came as my appetizer. The paella was pretty dry (but some people like it like that), and definitely lacked some of the strong safron and seafood flavor. Dessert consisted of a matcha cake and a smidge of "flan." The "flan" is pretty typical for Japan, nothing like the original, sweet, caramelly-eggy Spanish concoction it is, but still decent.

While over-all, the food isn't bad, it definitely lacks that authentic European flavor. Considering it's in Japan though, it hits a lot closer to home than a lot of the places.