>Japan has long had an interest in Italian cuisine, dating back to the Meiji period when Italian “inspired” dishes like Napolitan spaghetti first became popular. In recent decades the focus has shifted from these reinterpretations of Italian dishes to more authentic Italian flavors and techniques. Beyond just flavor, the appeal of Italian food to Japanese chefs and diners may also be attributed to Italian cuisine’s emphasis on the heritage of food, the flavor of a mother’s cooking, and the use of locally grown and seasonal ingredients, which are also foundations of Japanese cuisine.
Discover Creative Italian Food in Tokyo at These Restaurants
il Cardinale Ginza Corridor Branch
il Cardinale is a restaurant where guests can enjoy authentic Italian cuisine in a stylish, Trattoria style space. For their cuisine, they mainly serve local foods from all over Italy, such as items from Tuscany. Here, customers can enjoy filling T bone steaks and beloved traditional cuisine in addition to the standard pasta and pizza options, letting them encounter certain kinds of Italian cuisine for the first time. The restaurant also has a selection of over 40 different kinds of recommended wine. They import this wine themselves, and being able to encounter rare bottles in Japan is incredibly appealing.
XEX Nihonbashi Salvatore Cuomo Bros.
XEX Nihonbashi is a 1 minute walk from Mitsukoshimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line and Hanzomon Line. The spacious restaurant takes up an entire floor, and provides an excellent fusion of high quality food, live music, and amusement. The Italian restaurant Salvatore Cuomo Bros. is located here. It is a ristorante where Mr. Salvatore Cuomo, who works in both Japan and overseas, serves as Grand Chef. In the restaurant interior with its lively open kitchen, guests can freely enjoy Italian cuisine while being themselves.
Mondo
Mondo in Jiyugaoka, a neighborhood in southern Tokyo, specializes in authentic Italian cuisine served up in a relaxing ambiance. The restaurant focuses on the flavor of “mamma’s cooking”, or the authentic taste of traditional Italian food, and aims to serve food that tastes as close as possible to that served in Italy, even when made with Japanese ingredients. Enjoy dishes like Saimaki Ebi (shrimp) and Artichoke Tagliolini, made with thick hand-pulled pasta, artichoke puree, and Japanese shrimp. - Dinner: 13,000 JPY / Lunch: 6,000 JPY
La Coccola
Discover chic Japanese-style Italian cuisine at La Coccola in the fashionable neighborhood of Aoyama. Dishes like their Sushi-Style Kampachi Risotto bring together lightly seared yellowtail Amberjack with Western-style risotto, while the Hokkaido Sea Urchin Spaghetti offers an extravagant taste of roasted garlic, tomatoes, cream, and fresh Hokkaido sea urchin, which are blended together creating an intensely flavorful dish and then topped with more sea urchin. The restaurant is naturally lit during the day and softly lit at night, making it the perfect setting for an elegant meal any time of day. - Dinner: 4,500 JPY / Lunch: 1,000 JPY
YAMAGATA San-Dan-Delo
YAMAGATA San-Dan-Delo in the upscale Ginza district specializes in Italian cuisine made with delicious Yamagata-produced ingredients. Their policy is to “let the ingredients be the centerpiece” of their dishes, taking care not to interfere with but to support the intrinsic taste and appeal of the food. Dishes like Mr. Maruyama’s Roasted Lamb and Asparagus are made with lamb raised by Mr. Maruyama, a farmer in Shonai, Yamagata, and feature a particularly delicate taste. The restaurant is perfect for both special occasions and more casual lunch visits.- Dinner/ Lunch: 3,000 JPY
Ristorante Il Bambinaccio
For a stylish Italian restaurant in Tokyo, visit Ristorante Il Bambinaccio in Nishi-Azabu. The restaurant’s specialty is premium Japanese Miyazaki-raised beef cooked using traditional Italian techniques and flavors to draw out the most savory flavor possible. They take extra care in selecting their ingredients, incorporating seasonal flavors and traveling all the way to farms in Hokkaido to hand-pick the produce used in their kitchen for a strikingly fresh flavor. - Dinner: 7,000 JPY / Lunch: 2,000 JPY
Antica Osteria Del Ponte
Savor Milanese cuisine at Antica Osteria Del Pont in Marunouchi. Their main course features beef chuck and black truffles, and used only salt and fish sauce, keeping extra flavors to the bare minimum so that the taste of the main ingredients come out fully. The restaurant is a satellite of their original location in Milan, Italy which has received culinary accolades. - Dinner: 23,000 JPY / Lunch: 10,000 JPY
Principio
Nishi-Azabu’s Principio is a cosy Tokyo Italian restaurant with a calm, relaxing atmosphere that offers delicious charcoal-grilled meats of the finest quality. They use only the rarest and best seasonal meats such as domestic wagyu beef from Miyazaki, Ozaki, and Hokkaido which is sourced from the famous butcher shop Nakasei. The beef is cooked slowly over a charcoal fire, which condenses the flavor of the red meat and makes the inside tender. Enjoy it in a quietly calm and relaxed space featuring only six tables.- Dinner/ Lunch: 5,000 JPY
Ristorante Kurodino
A leader of the next generation of Italian cuisine in Ginza, Ristorante Kurodino was founded by chef Keisuke Kuroda, who worked for 20 years at the Tokyo satellite of Ristorante Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Italy, one of the best restaurants in the world, before opening his own restaurant. Ristorante Kurodino carries on many of the traditions of the renowned Florence location, while offering a smaller, more casual, and much more reasonably priced menu. However, their modern Italian dishes are still of the highest quality and use carefully selected ingredients. - Dinner: 11,000 JPY / Lunch: 4,000 JPY
Ristorante Alporto
For Italian food in Tokyo in a relaxed surrounding, visit Roppongi’s Ristorante Alporto. Their star dish is the Squid Ink Pasta with Fresh Sea Urchin, a wonderful seafood pasta dish dressed with squid meat and tomato simmered in squid ink and topped with fresh, richly flavored sea urchin. The dish is made with extremely thin pasta called Fedelini that has a wonderful al dente texture.- Dinner: 15,000 JPY / Lunch: 6,000 JPY
Try Tokyo Italian Restaurants For a Unique Japan Food Experience
While it may sound unusual to come to Japan to eat Italian cuisine, the passion and skill of Japanese chefs, and the exquisite range of authentic and creative interpretations of Italian food in Japan is worth sampling, especially in Tokyo. Visit Savor Japan for the best guide to Italian restaurants and more all throughout Japan.Discover more Italian restaurants by area
Tokyo Area Near Tokyo Kyoto and Osaka Area Hokkaido Area Northern Honshu (Tohoku) Central Honshu (Chubu) Western Honshu (Chugoku) Shikoku Kyushu Okinawa and Southeast Islands