A few months ago the club I was active in put together a group trip to Tokyo, and among the places they went there was a pizzeria that looked good, so I went this time. Apparently it’s run by an owner-pizzaiolo who won first place at some world pizza championship. Judging from the blog posts, it looked like excellent value for money, so I went with some friends.
Nakameguro, where the pizzeria is, is a neighborhood full of stylish shops clustered along the river. The area already had a few famous pizzerias, which is probably why he opened here. I’d heard it was so popular there’s always a long line, so I got nervous and showed up about 30 minutes early, only to find not a single person ahead of us.. I wondered whether the hype had finally died down. But by opening time a line had started to form, and by the time we left it stretched a long way. I guess it being the weekend, even Tokyo people couldn’t be bothered to queue.
Water jug
Yep.. true to its prices, it’s really casual. A place like this is better with good friends than on a date, right?
500ml carafe of wine
It was lunch, but we came for good pizza, so we couldn’t not have a drink. It was light-bodied, but perfectly drinkable. Thanks to that I was tipsy from midday, though..
Gamberoni
Shrimp fried in semolina, and they were fantastic with drinks. The shrimp were fresh, the portion was generous, and the coating was crisp. The texture is really different from shrimp fried in plain flour. They seemed good at side dishes as well as pizza, so we decided to order a bit of everything except the pasta, which had a poor reputation.
Arancino
They were selling these out front, and the name sounded so cool that I ordered one, but it’s just an ordinary rice ball. Cream sauce inside.. do they even have rice balls in Italy..
Homemade sausage
An ordinary dish if you like, but maybe because it was grilled in the pizza oven it had a great smoky char. Again, fantastic with drinks!
Neapolitan-style pizza
A pizza where only the dough is baked and fresh toppings are piled on. We were ordering two pizzas anyway, so I tried something unusual for one of them, but it was a bit too unusual.. It wasn’t as tasty as I’d hoped..
Capricciosa pizza
A true wood-fired pizza, full of that smoky char. The toppings were excellent too. Maybe because the crust is thin, it goes soggy a bit quickly, but it’s sooo good. At this price, even Salvatore Cuomo would have to bow down..
We had some wine left, so we ordered an octopus salad.
One of our group couldn’t drink, so the wine was going slowly. We had it with red wine and it paired reasonably well. Having seafood this fresh on hand, it’s a true trattoria.
On the way out..
Every seat was taken, and the line stretched out long. Just what you’d expect from a popular place. My worries at the start were completely unfounded. After pizza, strolling around Nakameguro looking at the stylish shops, the weekend felt really enjoyable. I thought, this is what leisure in the middle of the city is all about.