Saint Marc is a restaurant sitting the border between Omihachiman and Moriyama in Shiga prefecture and is easiest reached by car. Weighing up the merits of car ownership, If helping to destroy the planet goes under cons, Saint Marc definitely gets listed under under pros.

Unlike in Kyoto where fantastic restaurants and cafes are a dime a dozen and almost everything can be reached using a combination of subways, buses and feet, having a car in Shiga can really unearth some hidden gems.

Although part of a chain, Saint Marc doesn’t give this away with it’s quaint exterior or it’s beautifully designed interior. It’s large, lofty and almost feels like the dining hall of an English hotel . Flaming-torch style electric lights and tapestries adorn the walls, veiled skylights and a grand piano give the dining space an air of class that caused one Japanese guest remark that they hadn’t dined “high society” for a while.

Entering the restaurant one passes through a small bakery, generously stacked with fragrant, freshly baked bread for which the chain is famous. The lunch set costs ¥2000 and includes a never-ending selection of bread rolls, corn soup, salad, ham and cream-cheese shmoosh, a main dish (either grilled chicken or hamburger), an ice-cream dessert and beverage. The quality of the cooking on display makes that pricetag akin to extremely tasty daylight robbery.

Saint Marc is reknowned for it’s bread. There’s a very good reason; the range is seemingly never-ending and if your stomach’s up to the task you can try it all. Upon being seated the customer is given a plastic sign to stand up should one wish to call “mercy” to the wheat-based fashion show. You may find that you are loathe to use the “quitter-board”, even when Dr Atkins is urging you to do otherwise. Most bread sold in stores today is made from a pre-mix dough that bears little in common with traditional bread. Did you know the grain used in modern bread making processes is specially milled to break apart the carbohydrates and allow the flour to absorb more water and be processed faster by yeast and enzymes? It cuts down on the preparation time of making real bread and as most of these chemicals and enzymes are classified as “baking aids” and not ingredients, they don’t have to be declared on food labels.

Sometimes known as industrial bread, the demands of big business have pushed large chains to try to create in one or two hours what traditional bakers used to achieve in five or six. The pay off is that the loaves are boosted with more water, air and fat crystals, rather than material derived from natural grain. Because it lacks the taste of traditional bread it is often infused with salt to compensate. Instead of lengthy kneading and fermentation, most modern bakers rely on high energy processing and chemicals produced from genetically modified enzymes to plug the gap. It is a far cry from the traditional loaf. Whether Saint Marc bread falls into the real or industrial category is not entirely clear, but the sheer heat of the small, steaming bread rolls as they are tonged onto your plate is enough to convince you of their freshness, if nothing else.

The imagination that has gone into their preparation ensures a virtuoso display of bakery. Sunflower bread, green coloured mugwort bread (you thought that only existed in Harry Potter? No longer…), onion bread (with a strip of onion baked into it), black sesame bread, basil bread and many more besides. One is loathe to apply even the merest hint of butter to these sometimes soft, sometimes crunchy, one round moist, the next fluffy rolls. The most delicate hints of turmeric or garlic can be detected if one resists condiments and the flavour is more than enough to stand up and sing for itself without accompaniment.

If you have, thus far, avoided the temptation to fill up on a veritable rainbow coalition of wholemeal treats before the first course arrives… you deserve a high five. Now reward yourself with another bread-roll. The first dish to arrive, today’s soup of the day, is a deliciously subtle corn soup. This is the only part of the meal that feels distinctively Japanese. Next is the worryingly healthy-looking mame (soya bean) caesar salad. The rich sauce combines nicely with the crunchy salad and fresh soya beans to give a light and fresh air to what may otherwise threaten to be a rather gluten heavy meal. By the time the next course arrives you may find you are on your fourth selection of novelties from the baker’s all-star line-up. At this point it would be wise to bear in mind that the best is yet to come. Like surviving a beer festival, the key here is to pace yourself.

The menu describes the next dish as “A sewn mosaic of raw ham, cream cheese and walnut”. Although the dish appears to be small cylindrical block of potato salad, topped with a thin slice of raw ham, the pretentious name is very much justified here. The construction seems to be bound together with a mortar of cream cheese and is packed with an endless series of surprises. From the outside in one first notices the tender, cubed potato. Then one stumbles across soya and kidney beans. A sprig cheeky mouthful of broccoli. Suddenly you find the titular chunks of walnut. A taunted drizzle of salad cream. Fried mushrooms. The tower of surprises is kind of dish that although small, continues to evolve and surprise the diner the closer he creeps to its centre. The flavour manages to be creamy, light and refreshing at the same time.

In the event that this insprired creation was not worth the entrance fee alone, grab yourself another bun, marvel at the stowaway ingredient with which it is infused and prepare yourself for a sharp change of direction. Most dishes so far have erred on the fresh and light appetiser side of the meal/snack boundary. The build up to the main course is gentle and perhaps lulls your taste-buds into a false sense of security. The preceding dishes were a hustle to cleanse the palette to allow you to appreciate the complexities of the rolls, which are the true main star.

The hamburger is the comeback sucker punch. Your mouth is tuned for subtlety and you’re hit with a soft, succulent, satisfying mouthful of beef with a powerful side helping of dijon mustard. The hamburger steak is hot and finely ground. It seems to have more in common with a German frikadelle than a post-McDonald’s conception of the hamburger. The rich, dark sauce is flecked with a fragrant pinch of dill and hits your taste buds with surprising force. The fried strips of eggplant and courgette are not too oily and are perfectly accompanied by cloud-like croquettes. The potato is wispy, the buttery aftertaste is not overpowering and a welcome alternative to the potato chip, which is ubiquitous in Japan but conspicuous in its absence here.

The alternative to the hamburger steak on the menu is the grilled chicken and vetetable dish. While perhaps sounding light, this dish too is doused in bagna cauda, an olive oil and anchovy based sauce, that gives it a fatty, heavy feel. This sauce too is delicious and carries with it complex after tastes. It is tender, masterfully prepared and certainly worth coming back a second time to try.

For a very modestly priced lunch you may well be blown away by the variety and craftsmanship on display at Saint Marc. You’d certainly be hard-pushed to leave the restaurant anything other that full to bursting point. If you’d like a break from the fantastic Japanese cuisine available across Kyoto and Shiga in order to remind yourself what a good western-style restaurant serves, a drive to San Marco could be just the trip down memory lane your mouth is salivating for.

滋賀県守山市播磨田町390
☎ 077-581-1309
11:00～23:00
http://www.saint-marc-hd.com