Dinner at a newly opened Italian restaurant next to Yoyogi Park. Prefix dinner course is available but we wanted to try this place’s specialty Piemonte cuisines so 3 of us shared the dishes from the a la carte menu. We had to split the food by ourselves.
Amuse: Egg and shirasu(whitebait). Very good bread.
短角牛のタルタル バルミジャーノがけ、￥１７００。 ２色のトマトテリーヌ、￥１５００。
Shorthorn beef Tartare with Parmesan cheese and summer truffle. After reading a number of reviews praising this dish, I was really looking forward to try it; we ordered two portions to share so we didn’t have to fight over it. Didn’t disappoint at all. Absolutely delicious!
Terrine of tomato in two colours. Sweet and refreshing. Very good too.
からすみの冷製カッペリーニ、￥１７００。つぶ貝と辛味大根のスパゲッティーニ、￥１７００。
Cappellini of karasumi. Himm a bit tasteless.
Spaghetti with Tsubugai Shellfish and radish. Not much impression except the radish makes it taste a bit Japanese.
仔羊のロニョーネと万願寺とうがらし入り トマトソース和えのカバテッリ、￥１７００。
小さいラビオリ”プリン”を３種類の肉を使った詰め物で、￥１９００。
Cavatelli with lamb rognone(kidney), chilli and tomato sauce. The pasta was nice but the kidney stank too much that we all couldn’t quite stomach it. Normally I am okay with innards but the smell in this one was too strong.
Traditional Piemontese “Agnolotti del Plin”. This is the best pasta of the night. The filling is made from three kinds of meat. Amazingly the texture of the filling is soft and fluffy. A must try!
ビゴール豚肩ロース肉のグリル ドライトマトとケッパーのオイルソース、￥３８００。
Grilled Bigorre pork loin with dried tomato and caper in oil sauce. Simple dish but the pork is juicy and layered with right amount of fat which I like.
ヘーゼルナッツ入りの暖かいトルタ、￥９００。自家製ヨーグルトのプリン マンゴーソース、￥８００。
Warm Tortino of Hazelnut. Very good!
Homemade yogurt pudding in mango sauce. Also Lemon Granita not in picture.
Overall the food is good, though the pasta menu is a bit hit or miss. I wish the female staff had smiled a little as the restaurant was far from busy that night, but she gave us what we needed. We had 1 glass of spumante, 2 glasses of white wine, 2 bottles of mineral water, also coffee at the end, total was about 8000yen per person.
OSTU (オストゥ 代々木公園)
Add: 5-67-6, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku
Tel: 03-5454-8700
On the same week I had dinner at another Italian restaurant called “Incanto”. Taking photos of the food used to be okay(saw in other blogs) but is no longer allowed - it is written in the menu saying that it is an effort to keep a nice ambience. Though the table next to us was having a birthday celebration and they kept using flash taking photos of themselves. ^^;;; The menu is extensive with cuisines from all regions of Italy. We were all a little overwelmed by the sheer number of choices, so we decided to try the 8500yen omakase(chef’s course) but with a special request to have the horse meat option as our main dish. The course includes an amuse, two appetizers, two pasta, main dish, dessert and coffee. The amuse is quite a big one with three items: a small cup of really spicy Gazpacho, sweet corn on a chou, gorgonzola and walnut paste. First appetizer is ma-aji (very fatty fish) carpaccio with a light orange sauce, and second appetizer is perfectly baked anago pie in a delicious (slightly sour) sauce. First pasta course is “Agnolotti del Plin” - I just had this dish in “Ostu”!! Such luck that they included this dish in the course. Incanto’s version is also very nice, with summer truffle sprinkled on top which gives a really nice aroma(much better than the summer truffle I had in “Ostu”), but the sauce is a bit sour for me and the texture is not as unique as the one in “Ostu”. Second pasta is short pasta in a spicy ragu of maguro, olive and tomato. The taste is great but my friends and I all wished that they hadn’t made it so spicy! It really would have been perfect without the chilli. Later I read in some other blogs that also mentioned about the food being spicy…so we were not just unlucky but it is the chef’s style. The main dish was horse belly meat, horse heart, and horse meat sausage. There is no sauce but the soft tender meat is seasoned with honey and herb and is really good. Dessert is a nice cassata in mango sauce. The sommelier chose a bottle of amazing red wine(no memory of the name…my friend only remembered “Bio, 2002, 8200yen”) which smells wonderful and goes well with the horse meat. I had a glass of spumante, 4 of us shared a bottle of wine, the total was about 13,000yen per person - very reasonable considering the high quality of food, the great choice of wine, and the warm service. Just need to remember to ask for “no chilli”.
Front of the restaurant: 1, 2.
Incanto (インカント)
Add: 2F, 4-12-2, Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku
Tel: 03-3473-0567
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