Pizzeria Bel gioco — Restaurant in Hofu

Wonderful experience from the atmosphere to the service to the food. As soon as you walk in you feel the lively energy and warmth of the staff. We went for lunch and ordered the lunch set special. It came with salad appetizers, pizza and drink and dessert. The appetizer was a plate with a few different vegetable dishes. Salad. Pickled fresh vegetables like shaved carrots and cabbages. And The most delicious broccoli I’ve ever had. We had 2 different pizzas. Both had locally sourced seasonal ingredients. One was mozzarella with white bait. It was so delicious. I had never had white bait pizza and was skeptical about it but the flavors were amazing. The other pizza was Iwakuni lotus root with spinach and other delicious flavors. The pizza crust was light and thin and crispy. Perfect Napoli crust! The chef was so kind and speaks decent English. We had a nice chat after lunch and he told me he trained in Italy and imported his wood fired pizza oven from Italy. I can’t say enough good things about this restaurant. Definitely...

Had dinner here last night with some friends and it was fantastic!!the food was good, but the staff.... they were wonderful! So friendly and so nice. It was raining when we arrived, and they came to my car with umbrellas to keep us dry as we got out of the car. They then walked us to the restaurant, holding an umbrella over each of us. The 4-cheese pizza was really good and they serve it up with honey on the side. We also tried the mushroom appetizer. I believe it’s sautéed in olive oil and then they squeeze some lemon over the mushrooms. So good! The tuna cheek was also good. We didn’t plan on getting dessert, but then our server told us that the tiramisu was homemade. Um.. who can say no to homemade tiramisu?! We also ordered their yuzu gelato. Oh my gosh! Both desserts were soooo good. I was so glad we decided to get dessert! Parking is available...

Stopped by briefly at Hofu during my journey westwards across Japan, and decided on a whim to try out this pizza place.

Their Pizza Bianca (cheese base) was fantastic. With a proper pizza oven, they were able to serve up some seriously authentic-tasting pizza. There is a great variety of flavours and toppings available, and apparently the staff has received proper instruction in Italian cuisine when living in Italy.

Speaking of the staff, they were super friendly and warm, and when one of them heard that I was undertaking a long journey, even gifted me a bottle of iced coffee to go. Super touching gesture.

A highly recommended restaurant hidden away in the Yamaguchi...