Caffè Ponte — Restaurant in Hiroshima

Had their gelato earlier this afternoon while waiting for the speedboat to Miyajima Island and it was such a delicious treat to combat the heat.

Decided to stop by the restaurant for dinner on my way back to my hotel and arrived just slightly before 8pm (they close at 10pm and last order is at 9pm).

It seemed like they weren’t taking anymore customers or it seemed like I was the last one but I asked one of the young waitress who referred me to her more senior colleague (middle-aged lady). I was asked whether I wanted to sit outside or inside, but when I told her “outside”, I was led to the interior instead. It was quite cold inside so I asked the young waitress to place me on the deck for a table of one and she found me a table on the outside patio.

I ordered the cold roast beef, soup of the day (pumpkin), seafood spaghetti, a glass of red wine and tiramisu. Everything was scrumptious except for the seafood spaghetti, which was quite salty.

The reason why I deducted some stars off was due to not only the salty spaghetti, but the strange, rude and standoffish attitude from the middle-aged lady. She treated every other table (including another table consisting of an older foreign couple) with a warm and friendly manner except for me - who knows, maybe she has a phobia of serving single diners having dinner on their own - but her younger female colleagues were much nicer, although the cutlery was just handed to me in a basket while the soup spoon was given to me by hand and placed on the table. Perhaps they were resigned that I chose to sit outside instead of inside where the cutlery was already placed on the table?

They seemed a bit frazzled during the end of the dinner service so perhaps they had other tasks to complete by the end of the night, but it was a bit disappointing.

Anyways, if I ever make it back to Hiroshima, will definitely come back...

Indoor and outdoor seating available. Orange juice is perfectly pulpy. We were attracted to the stands of oranges on the outside. Literally you can see the bright oranges from across the river banks.

Delightful staff who are professional and clearly enjoy working here.

We sat inside because it had AC on this hot summer day. The restaurant was half filled at 5PM.

They serve authentic Hiroshima clams in many different and classic ways - escargot style, fried and placed back in shell, buttered, steamed in white wine, etc. They have an abundance of seafood in their menu.

I got the seafood salad and the bruschetta with Hiroshima clams, comes topped with anchovies sauce. The salad was very simply dressed so you can enjoy the full flavors of the shrimp, squid, clams and octopus. Also added to the salad were red, white and garbanzo beans.

Matt ordered the 4-cheese pizza, regular size which is a nice size to subdue a mans hunger but not fill him up all the way to the point of bursting. You can order mini pizzas, too! Thin crusted and bursting with flavor.

The pizza was served with honey to drizzle on the side. Definitely a first for me! And it was amazing. Just give it a go, try a little drizzle and you may find yourself drizzling more on all the slices.

We had to get dessert. The regular sized tiramisu and their special Hiroshima lemon sherbet, made with Setouchi lemon, from a local farm. Both were heavenly!! The sherbet had a tinge of bitterness from the rind of the lemon, very impressive. The tiramisu made Matt sing while he ate it.

Beautiful music in the background accompanied our meal. Waters were brought without asking and filled frequently.

Major credit cards accepted. Try this place out if you want a wonderful Italian meal...

We arrived at the restaurant to see multiple empty tables - we were told they are all booked which is of course is ok. We had to write our name on a list to reserve the next table that comes up. We weren’t told an exact time but to return in around an hour which seem a poor system to start.

So around 55mins later we arrived to be ignored by the staff walking straight past us until we managed to get a member of staffs attention. Who told us the wait would be a further 10/20 mins. Looking at the list around 10/15 tables had been written down below our booking in which around half had been seated. With a proper booking system this could have been avoid seems it’s more luck if you get a table.

After around 30/40mins we were seated at a table which wasn’t clean, but were served quickly which was a pleasant surprise. We order 2 pasta dishes and a small (but expensive) pizza to share.

When the food arrived my main dish was ok it wasn’t anything special but certainly was enjoyable enough if it wasn’t for everything else. My friends meal was horrible and just incorrectly prepared and cooked. The pizza was undercooked and very greasy! Certainly not good Italian food and not the proper method of cooking or ingredients.

The Bill was one of the most expensive bills in my 3 weeks in Japan for what I would class as the worst meal I’ve had here.

I wouldn’t recommend to anyone and the rating google truly...