Address - Suginali-ku, Kamiogi 1-7-1 Lumine Ogikubo 5 Fth Floor Opening hours - 11:00 to 22:00 Map - The restaurant is at the fifth floor of the Ogikubo Station Building Telephone - 3393-1801 Menu - In Japanese and Italian CC - OK

Il Bacaro and Superbacco are among the very best Italian restaurants I have ever found in this country, so, when I discovered that right in Ogikubo where I live there is a restaurant belonging to the same chain, it was only natural to assume it would have the same eye for detail, the same superb quality standards and, above all, that certain something that is normally found in a restaurant in Italy and yet so rare abroad.
Alas, it was not to be, because Pizzeria La Voglia Matta ("Mad Desire") is closer kin to Capricciosa rather than to Superbacco.
There's an easy way to tell even at a distance if an Italian style pizza is well made: the center must be thin, and the edges thick.
Passing by, I couldn't avoid noticing how dry and flat their pizzas looked. No raised edges to speak of.
That kept me away for many months but, in the end, in a moment of weakness and hunger when I didn't feel like cooking (my old lady hates pots and pans: the kitchen is part of my territory), I gave in and we went for a pizza.
The mixed appetizers we ordered looked good enough, but (with some exceptions) they were amateurishly prepared and disappointing.
The pizza was gigantic and very much like Shakey's, incompetently made and dry.
The carbonara (how do you screw up an elementary recipe like carbonara?) was exactly like Capricciosa's, an industrial-strength slop. Carbonara at least doesn't pretend to be anything buth a cheap chain of restaurants. Superbacco and Il Bacaro, on one side, and La Voglia Matta are different as day and night, and obviously appeal to a different market, although I'll be damned if I know who could possibly prefer the second to the first. And, mind you, they cost about the same.

Booking highly recommended.