Where to eat in Tokyo. The best Italian restaurants in town

Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is a pulsating metropolis of energy and modernity, rooted in a history dating back thousands of years. This extraordinary city is a perfect blend of tradition and innovation, with its towering skyscrapers silhouetted alongside centuries-old temples and Zen gardens. Tokyo is the economic, cultural, and technological heart of the country, with a bustling urban life, an efficient transportation network, and a wide range of entertainment and dining options from fine dining restaurants to street food stalls.

Where to eat in Tokyo: the best Italian restaurants

Faro

A colorful, creative, and tasty menu. You can't never get bored with talented chef Kotaro Noda and his team. We experienced a stimulating and innovative meal, thanks to a well articulated fusion between italian and japanese cuisine. Flavors are clean and sharp, always extremely well balanced, and beautifully curated. A big plus is the wine list that features an impressive collection of Italian wines, ranging from cult labels to less known Docg and Doc wines. It fully deserves our Villa Sandi Best Contemporary Wine List Award.

Chuo City, Ginza, 8 – Chome-8-3- +81 335723911 – faro.shiseido.co

Ristorante da Nino

Sicily in Tokyo. Nino is one of chefs that Italians who live in Tokyo or come here to work love best. Nino Lentini, chef and proprietor, presents a classic repertory from the Mediterranean’s largest island, including pasta with sardines, pasta alla Norma (eggplant, tomato and salted ricotta), sweet and sour swordfish, swordfish Palermo style, red shrimp sauce linguine and grilled lamb cutlet. The wine list is full of surprises, representing all of Sicily, but with space for many vintages of Italian cult wines along with well-chosen chateaux and sparkling wines from both Italy and France.

1-5-19 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku – Tokyo - +81 334019466 – Instagram @ristorantedanino_tokyo

Armani / Ristorante

Carmine Amarante, our Chef of the Year in our Top Italian Restaurants 2022 edition, has brought the Armani Ristorante in Ginza into a new dimension. Carmine is confirmed to be one of the most talented Italian chefs abroad on a technical level. At Armani he's showcasing his sensitivity and creating mixing fine Italian ingredients and local excellent raw materials. The menu shows a clear change of pace in terms of character, identity, and the complexity of flavours. In particular, the Linguine pasta with saffron and shrimp is simply perfect, tasty, and well-balanced, just like the lamb, caponata, herbs sauce. We strongly suggest you leave some space for the desserts. Lastly, the lunch deal (5 courses at 7,500 yen) offers a great value-for-money experience.

5-5-4 Ginza – Chuo-ku – Tokyo - +81 362747005 – armani.com

Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura Tokyo

Antonio Iacoviello leads the restaurant of Gucci and Massimo Bottura opened in 2021 in Tokyo. A talented chef who’s italian roots are blendend with the exceptional local products of the city. As for the location, bright and elegant, the attention for details is extrordinary. We recommend the Tortellini with Parmigiano Reggiano Cream, a must and a classic of Bottura, and the A Parmigiana that wants to become a Ramen is more than just a signature dish and demonstrates how Southern Italy encounters the traditions of Japan in a moving tribute to the country he now calls home. The wine list has a very accurated selection that ranges from well known labels to small Italian vignerons.

6-6-12, Ginza Chou-ku – Tokyo - +03 62646606 – gucciosteria.com

Trattoria dai Paesani

One should not be surprised to read "sfugliatelle nghe la crema" on the menu of Giuseppe Sabatino's restaurant, which he started when he was very young to take his Italian flavours abroad. Since 2014 the owner has been based in Shinjuku, the most lively district of Tokyo, with his Japanese wife. Defining his Dai Paesani an Italian restaurant is too limiting. His is rather an Abruzzo restaurant, as evident by the bilingual Abruzzo/Japanese menu. Everything here speaks of Giuseppe's native region, which is present in the furniture, knick-knacks, books and above all in the flavours. The vegetables grown in his private garden are not generic. The garlic is from the variety of Sulmona, the asparagus comes from Castelguidone, the sweet peppers from Altino, not to mention the cured meats, which a lot is owed to, since the meeting with Davide Fabiano, chef and partner, took place thanks to the ventricina made in Japan. Do not forgo the liver sausage, the Callara style lamb, the pasta and, of course, the cured meats. The service is warm and the wine list speaks of the owner's passion for quality and research.

Shinjuku – Tokyo - +81 364573616

Etruschi

Tokyo can easily surprises you. There's always a small city into a city. That's what we were thinking when we reached this elegant restaurant in the relaxed atmosphere of Omotesando district. In our last visit we had a very good risotto with white truffle, then tagliolini with sakura shrimp and canola flower and beef cheek meat slowly baked for 36 hours at low temperature with red wine sauce. The service is extremely professional and friendly, while the super extensive wine list has also a Tuscan soul. The attention to to the finest details guarantee a very high quality experience.

3-15-13 Minami Aoyama – Tokyo - +81 0334707473 – etruschi.jp

Cuore Azzurro

Chef Koichi Onuki has opened his restaurant/wine shop to reflect and accurately offer all the roots of his Italian culinary training. Three years spent in Piedmont, precisely in Alba (in a refined country restaurant) and in Sardinia (at the court of chef Roberto Petza) with an interlude in the Marche at Symposium in Fano. The restaurant is small (just 20 seats between counter and 3 tables locted at a stone's throw from Nakameguro station). With obsessive attention to the authenticity of ingredients, the menu offers Sardinian-Piedmontese dishes with Japanese aesthetics. The ambiance is familiar, but very well-prestented. The wine list is rich and well balanced between the regions of reference. Fresh pasta and bread are always homemade. Do not miss the roasted onions stuffed with chicken livers and the fresh tagliolini with cuttlefish ink and sea urchins and spaghetti with mussels.

2-42-12 Kameguro - Meguro-ku Shibuya Building 1F – Tokyo - +81 57085101 – cuoreazzurro51.com

Il Ristorante Luca Fantin

One of the best Italian creative cuisine restaurants in Ginza headquarters. The keys to the success of Luca Fantin are his training in the finest restaurants in Italy, Spain, and Japan and the use of exceptional, seasonal, ingredients. Sensitivity and flavours are intertwined to perfection, masterful hand on the smoking technique and meat cuts. Details that make the difference include service temperatures, cooking methods, fragrances, and the management of savory and spicy elements. Presentations are orderly and essential. The single grain Felicetti spaghetti with sea urchin is a thrill, as well as the risotto with chestnuts and Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse: very difficult to find a risotto like this in the great restaurants of Italy. The desserts are creative, tasty, and fun, and confirm the quality of what has been constructed over time. Perfectly managed service, and brilliant wine combinations. For us, this is the Restaurant of the Year and the highest experience of Italian authorial cuisine outside national borders.

Ginza Tower 2-7-12, Chuo-ku – Tokyo - +81 363620555 – bulgarihotels.com

Antica Osteria del Ponte

A classic Italian fare in Tokyo. Antica Osteria del Ponte offers a delightful setting, an astonishing view, and a place to enjoy Italy’s fine-dining food together with an extensive wine list ranging from cuvée Annamaria Clementi to Monfortino and Ornellaia. Executive Chef Sefano Dal Moro follows the seasonality of ingredients. Among his classic dishes we noticed the lasagnetta with leeks and black truffles, and spaghettini with kibimaru pork ragu sauce, spaghettini with bottarga, bresaola served with a salad of porcini mushroom, chestnut and Swiss chard. A professional service completes the package.

2-4-1 Marunouchi, Marunouchi Building 36F – Chyoda – Tokyo - +81 352204686 – anticaosteriadelponte.jp

Elio Locanda italiana

From Calabria to Japan on the taste road: in 1996 Elio Orsara took to Tokyo the hospitality, flavours and traditions of Italian dining, especially the cuisine of southern Italy. This convivial style is a cornerstone of his success, confirmed by newspaper articles and TV appearances. Meat, fish and an inspiration that looks back to the past and the dishes that Elio's grandmother cooked in her Calabrian inn. Pasta made on the premises, perfumes and flavours that conjure up images of Mediterranean countries. We recommend fusilli alla calabrese, baked scampi au gratin andgrilled swordfish.

Hanzomon House, 1F – Tokyo - +81 332396771 – elio.co.jp