Drammatico - Italian ***
Ogikubo

Address - Tokyo-to, Ogikubo-ku, Minami Ogikubo 4-43-9 Opening hours - 11:30 to 14:00 and 17:30 to 21:00 Map - Yes (only in Japanese) Telephone - 3333-1377 Menu - Only in Japanese CC - Yes

Drammatico has a site (only in Japanese)

My better half the other day found on the net a Japanese site containing a list of the best Italian restaurants in town, and I was surprised to find one at my doorstep.
At the first chance, we booked a table and went.

A tiny place, Drammatico is pleasant to look at, but we were struck right away by how awkward we felt. Perhaps it was the silence (we were the only guests), perhaps it was the relentless opera music in the background or just the waiters, a little too attentive, but the fact is that we just were not comfortable. This has nothing to do with it, but they obviously never see foreigners, and the menu is only in Japanese.

The menu didn't improve our mood: the sets aren't cheap (they start from 3000 yen) and give you no choice whatsoever in what you get, wine is very expensive, 700 yen for a glass, bread costs 200 yen extra and you get just two slices heated up in a toaster, no side dishes list, just two desserts, and so on. Stuff like that.

If you decide to go a-la-carte, the story changes, but not much. Nothing on the menu was quite what we wanted, in itself a bad sign, but I ordered a pasta all'amatriciana (a roman tomato sauce with bacon) and my beloved one pasta with crabs with the 200 yen hand-made pasta option. Excellent.

The rest of the meal was also good, but the choice of dishes sort of strange and holey.

So why is it that I don't feel like going back? Having the choice, I'd rather go to nearby French restaurant Brin de Muguet any time of the year.

It's partly the atmosphere, too lugubrious for my tastes, partly the waiters, one with bad breath and the other always looking at you, but also because of the lack of attention to small details, including but not limited to for example the bread, that spoils the effect of the undoubtedly good cooking. I understand I am being fussy, but Drammatico is not a cheapie: a restaurant that costs at least 5000 yen per person has standards to keep.


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