Address - Horibe Bldg. B1F, 4-25-12 Minami Aoyama Minato-ku, Tokyo Opening hours - 11:30 am to 14:30pm and 18:00 pm to 22:30 pm Map - See directions Telephone - 3407-7043 Menu - In Italian and Japanese CC - OK

The people at La Cantinella are very proud of the award they got from the Italian President of the Republic last year, and in fact that is what made me decide to visit them.

La Cantinella is a pleasant, crescent-shaped restaurant and pizzeria where almost the entire staff is Italian. The atmosphere is consequently what you can expect: elegant but comparatively informal and pleasant, it certainly doesn't require a necktie. Much was made of the fact I am Italian, and I felt sort of like a prodigal son for not having shown up before.

Everybody here is from the south of the country, and one can tell from the menu, especially the pastas: pages and pages and pages of unusual, interesting dishes that I found difficult to resist: one cannot eat everything. There are sets, one at 4800 yen, another at 7500, both exclusive of table charge and taxes, but they limit your choice to just one of two dishes per item, so we decided to go à la carte. We first had assorted appetizers and a green salad between the four of us, then shared Taormina-style spaghetti, Calabrian tagliatelle, risotto with crab and rucola, and spaghetti with shellfish. Portions were abundant and everything tasted great.

Our main dishes were pollo al mattone, mixed grilled fish, sole in basil sauce and scaloppine with mushrooms and melted cheese. Two Brunello di Montalcino grappas and a panna cotta later, having finished the meal, the waiter gave each of us a complimentary and much appreciated Limoncello di Capri (a famous lemon liquor).

And the wine? The wine list is also long and offers white and red wines from all over the country. We settled on two bottles of Sardinian Cannonau, which I am told was good.

In conclusion, an excellent meal in great company. Alas, this high quality comes at a high price: 10 thousand yen with wine and drinks a head are unavoidable, unless you order a set. We all felt La Cantinella was worth the money, though, and the next time, which as you can understand won't be so soon, we will try the pizzas: they have twenty different kinds, and the guy who makes them comes from Naples, so they should be as good as the rest.

Directions: from Omotensando crossing crossing go straight on Miyukidori until you see on your right the Nezu Museum (about 300 meters), then turn left. La Cantinella is about 100 meters after the intersection on the right side of the street.