The Oliveto's of Japan

Name: Ristorante la Bisboccia
Neighborhood: Hiro-o/Ebisu 広尾／恵比寿
Style: Italian
Phone: 03-3449-1470
Website: http://www.labisboccia.com/

This is a very overdue review of a very deserving restaurant!

Last November I was leaving work on a rainy Thursday and happened to mention to Yoichi that it was my birthday. He immediately rounded me and Matt up and got us a table at La Bisboccia, which is actually just around the corner from Polygon's offices. It's just south of the Tengenjibashi 天元寺橋　intersection near Hiro-o.

It's decorated in the very conventional bistro style adopted by a lot of Japanese restaurants serving European food. However, unlike the typical overcooked pasta places found around Tokyo, La Bisboccia is a superb grill-oriented Italian restaurant. The specialties are various grilled meats -- between the three of us we tried the steak and the lamb and both were delicious, grilled darkly on the outside but still medium-rare to rare on the inside.

Even the pasta side dishes were excellent, it being almost the only time in Japan that I've actually had al dente pasta (I find restaurant pasta here typically overcooked). If that's not good enough, there was a great wine list as well, which typically for Japan focused on European wines.

Of course, this being Tokyo, that excellence didn't come cheap. We had a good quantity of wine and I believe the bill was around 12,000yen per person, and accordingly, Wiktionary translates "la bisboccia" as "the spree". Nevertheless, for a great meal on a special occasion La Bisboccia is definitely on the list!