It was a friend’s birthday and he wanted to go somewhere good, so on another friend’s recommendation we headed to Sciuè Sciuè, a pizza place in Aoyama. I’m honestly not sure a guy in his thirties’ birthday is worth celebrating, but, well… who cares. It’s just an excuse to drink…
It’s roughly halfway between Gaienmae and Omotesando stations. The avex offices are right next door.
The entrance
It’s in the basement. The interior is cosy and nicely done. Maybe because of the time, the place was packed.
Drinks first… You can’t come for Italian and not order wine.
This is Jorio, cheap but full-bodied. It even got a brief mention in The Drops of God.
Good for the price, but the taste is very old-school. Dark and heavy… it doesn’t seem to suit young people’s lighter, trendier palates these days. (Everyone said they didn’t like it much -_-)
Bread, as a sort of amuse-bouche
I forgot what it’s called, but it was nicely salty and pretty good.
The house’s must-order: the assorted appetizer platter
It’s more izakaya than Italian, but it’s quantity over quality. A heaped plate came out for under 2,000 yen, I think. We emptied a whole bottle of wine on this plate alone.
The second wine
I asked the sommelier and he recommended this one. Light-bodied. Everyone said it was better than the Jorio. Well… that’s how it goes…
Margherita pizza
Pretty ordinary. It reminded me of Mad for Garlic. It’s not bad, but there was no need to come all the way to Aoyama for this. -_-
The special Sciuè Sciuè pizza
Lots of different toppings, but the taste was just so-so…
Chili oil
Koreans love spicy food so much… this should always be on the table.
Peperoncino
They say it’s hotter than Korean chili peppers… I sprinkled on just a tiny bit and it was definitely hot. The others were piling it on.
They even put on a little surprise for the birthday.
We ate this well and it came to about 4,000 yen per person… considering it’s Aoyama, that’s incredibly cheap. The food’s decent and the atmosphere is nice, too. But if I ask myself whether there was any reason to pay this and come all this way to eat here… honestly, not really. Some of the places locals recommend to me are like that. Cheap, the food’s reasonably good, so the regulars who live nearby are very happy with it, but it’s not worth travelling for. To be fair, getting a restaurant recommendation from someone who isn’t a foodie is always risky. From their point of view, they’re recommending it because it’s plenty good… so it’s up to you to be careful… no one else to blame… Besides, the popular places on weekends are impossible to get into without a booking, so a place like this can actually be easier to go to.