Mr. Sato experiences the all-you-can-eat bread heaven…at Kamakura Pasta

Why skimp on carbs when you can instead go all out and eat double the carbs?

In his close to 50 years of living, our Japanese-language correspondent Mr. Sato has still never been to a number of popular chain restaurants. He finally made it to the Japanese-style spaghetti specialty restaurant Goemon just one month ago, and was pleasantly surprised by the experience of eating spaghetti with chopsticks there. Next on his list to conquer was another Japanese-style pasta place called Kamakura Pasta.

Kamakura Pasta is a nationwide chain with about 180 locations from Hokkaido to Okinawa. Out of those, 115 locations offer a special deal for bread lovers. The particular location that Mr. Sato chose to visit is in Tokyo’s Ichigaya district and is thankfully one of those 115.

Once inside, Mr. Sato took his first look at the menu. There are 15 regular lunch items, which he couldn’t help but compare to Goemon’s 20 choices.

There are also four lunch sets that you can choose from if you’d like a little more variety. The most popular one, Set 4, includes pasta, a small salad, a drink, and three types of bread. However, you can pay an additional 120 yen (US$0.83) if you’d like to convert that side bread into the all-you-can-eat bread feast.

Mr. Sato’s unquestionable favorite kind of Japanese-style spaghetti is the kind with tarako (cod roe) in it, but it wasn’t on the menu. He instead ordered Set 4 with “Kamakura-style carbonara with thickly sliced bacon” as the pasta and upgraded to the all-you-can-eat bread. In a moment of weakness he also added on crema catalana with pistachio ice cream for dessert for an additional 350 yen, bringing his total to 2,080 yen.

▼ Set 4 is pictured in the lower right.

His iced coffee and salad were the first things to arrive.

A plate for bread arrived next. It also came with a card requesting seconds. Staff will periodically walk around with a bread basket and offer seconds to diners who display this card. When they don’t need any more bread, they can hand the card back over to the staff.

Sure enough, a worker soon came over with a hefty basket. Inside were five to six delicious-looking mini pieces of bread to choose from. Mr. Sato picked the croissant, corn focaccia, and a garlic ball for his first round.

Come to think of it, Kamakura Pasta is operated by Saint Marc Holdings, a cafe and bakery company. Mr. Sato realized that it’s no wonder the bread here is delicious and has a perfect texture–that’s what they’re known for.

After a short time his carbonara arrived as well. It was decently sized for a standard lunch portion, with thick chunks of bacon decorating the dish.

An intact egg yolk also lay glistening in the center.

Just as he picked up his fork and readied to take a bite, the bread basket arrived again. He hadn’t planned on eating more bread again so soon, but seeing as he had paid extra for it, he was determined to get his money’s worth. This time he selected a mini melon bread and a French toast.

OK, now it was finally time to try the spaghetti. His first reaction was that the noodles were super springy, having been freshly made and never dried. They also paired excellently with the creamy sauce.

Suddenly, the bread basket appeared yet again! When the staff announced that the sugar balls were freshly made, he knew that he had to have one of those as well. At this rate the bread would be spilling off of his plate in no time.

And so Mr. Sato began to alternate between eating the pasta and the bread, which kept him quite busy. He had never thought that he would be offered bread on such a frequent basis. If he were to eat here a second time, he might as well just make the bread the main centerpiece of his meal.

After stuffing himself with all of the carbs, he turned to his final challenge–the dessert. Both the catalana and the ice cream were richly flavored. With a nod of approval, he noted that everything he had sampled was incredibly delicious.

Kamakura Pasta definitely proved to be a worthy rival for Goemon, pictured below.

With that, Mr. Sato’s latest venture to try a new eatery came to a close. While he has already ascended to Carb Heaven on other occasions, it was good to know that Kamakura Pasta offers plenty of carbs whenever he needs a little boost.

Restaurant information
Kamakura Pasta (Ichigaya branch) / 鎌倉パスタ（市ヶ谷店）
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Kudanminami 3-9-11
東京都千代田区九段南 3-9-11
Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Closed New Year’s Day
Website

Reference: Kamakura Pasta
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