Aponiente Review: Ángel León’s Three-Star Marine Revolution in El Puerto de Santa María

First Encounter (2014)

When I first sat down in a small corner restaurant in El Puerto de Santa María in June 2014, I had no idea that this would one day become the three-star restaurant I have visited more often than any other — eighteen times so far.

I had read an article in Iberia’s in-flight magazine about Ángel León, described there as El Chef del Mar. His restaurant was said to be one of the most innovative seafood places in Spain and, at that time, held a single Michelin star. That story was enough reason for me to travel there.

El Puerto de Santa María lies across the bay from Cádiz, part of the famous Sherry Triangle together with Jerez de la Frontera and Sanlúcar de Barrameda. It is a place where Andalusian tradition meets the sea — home to ancient bodegas, weathered sailors’ houses and a certain quiet melancholy. What the town still lacks, however, is a hotel worthy of Aponiente’s brilliance.

That first dinner, on a warm evening in early summer, began with a chorizo made entirely from fish — provocative, but strangely logical. The “Gran Menú” (€148) continued with a sequence of seafood dishes, including an early version of tortillitas de camarones, the crispy shrimp fritters that are still part of the menu today. I was fascinated by the use of plankton — at the time a completely new idea — appearing in dishes such as a vivid green plankton risotto. Dessert was a playful banana cooked in salt like a fish. The sherries were outstanding, if poured a little too generously.

I returned a few weeks later. When the restaurant received its second Michelin star later that year, it came as no surprise.

The Tide Mill and the Third Star (2016–2017)

By 2015 the cooking had become noticeably sharper and more precise, but the real transformation came in 2016 with the move to its current home — the Molino de Mareas El Caño, a restored tidal mill on the edge of the marshes.

It is a perfect setting: a building that once moved with the rhythm of the sea now houses a restaurant entirely devoted to it. The 2016 menu (€195) was already rich in imagination — one course featured a sauce made “tableside” using an antique French duck press, but filled with crabs instead of duck.

When I visited again in the summer of 2017, I joked with Jorge Ponce, the maître d’, who had been there since my very first meal, that a third star seemed inevitable. A few months later, in the autumn of 2017, Aponiente joined the small circle of Spain’s three-star restaurants.

Maturity and Radical Beauty (2018–today)

Over the years, Aponiente has evolved into something deeper. The cooking became more intellectual, yet somehow more emotional. León’s cuisine is no longer about novelty — it is a vision of what the sea could mean for the future of food.

There were moments that bordered on the surreal: a luminous soup made with living plankton, served in total darkness; a “cheese” that looked like Camembert but was made from cuttlefish protein; caramelised octopus as dessert; frozen, finely shaved squid with mango sauce — light, marine, almost ethereal.

The charcutería del mar has become one of Aponiente’s signatures, especially the “ham” made from bluefin tuna belly, aged in the style of Iberico ham. It began here and soon appeared in restaurants across Andalusia.

Wine has always been one of Aponiente’s strengths. The Sherry pairings are exceptional, often drawn from casks selected exclusively for the restaurant. On one occasion, I was offered a taste of a sherry more than a hundred years old — not part of the pairing, but shared as a quiet gesture of generosity and pride. It remains one of my most memorable experiences there.

Highlights of the 2025 Menu

The 2025 menu (€310) begins, as always, in the small pavilion beside the Molino de Mareas El Caño, with a series of salty snacks — including the now legendary tortillitas de camarones.

Once seated in the main dining room, the sequence unfolds with Japanese-inspired bluefin tuna top neck, murex snails, a delicate flan of fish roe, sea urchin served in corn, and a spectacular fish liver dish of almost foie-gras depth. Later come the surprisingly tender roots of seaweed in a marinera sauce, razor clams, and a sardine parfait encased in moray-eel skin. Desserts finish with the theme: seaweed transformed into liquorice, gels and gummies — a marine finale that is as strange as it is poetic.

A Laboratory of the Sea

Aponiente is not for those who seek comfort or familiarity. It is for those willing to eat what they have never tasted, and to follow León’s vision of the ocean as a boundless source of flavour and life.

Dining here is not just a meal — it is an exploration of the sea’s potential, guided by a chef who has devoted his life to it. Perhaps, one day, it will be seen as the beginning of a culinary revolution.

Aponiente remains one of Europe’s most visionary dining experiences — a restaurant where the ocean itself becomes the ingredient, the inspiration, and the message.

Travel Notes

El Puerto de Santa María is perfectly located between Cádiz and Jerez de la Frontera. For accommodation, I recommend the 5* Casa Palacio María Luisa in Jerez — a beautiful city mansion with impeccable service and understated elegance. Just a short walk away you’ll find LÚ Cocina y Alma, a two-star restaurant with an extraordinary wine cellar and the unusual but brilliant idea of aging butter.

For a more produce-focused seafood experience, explore my guide to the Best Fish Restaurants in Spain.

For a more classical and intimate expression of Andalusian seafood, you can read my review of Skina in Marbella, a two-star restaurant now operating at clear three-star calibre.