Vecchio Albero — Restaurant in Kanazawa

A must-go if you are an Italian-style pizza lover in Japan!!

Excellent wood-fired pizza with an extensive menu. The dough is what dreams are made of! We had spicy ‘nduja pizza and a smoked cheese/mushroom/bacon pizza -both incredible (didn’t even have a chance to properly photograph the first as we’d already eaten half)

Fast service with a smile, too. The waiter was very friendly and the owner/chef was an absolute legend! They were also happy to make off menu cocktails even though they were busy (we wanted Negronis to go with our pizza). Owner made the pizza oven himself- you can see the heart that went into it and the menu.

Cozy space with cute decor (the front doesn’t sell it for what it’s actually worth)

Side note: We usually look for good pizza places as we have our own pizzaya, we came across this one completely by chance walking by and didn’t expect...

Ridiculously overpriced low-quality food. The service includes some random bottles of oil and chili and oregano, as well as the same fake Parmesan cheese that you can find in supermarkets. The grilled vegetables and sausages were nothing special. Pizzas are tiny, but at least the dough is okay and the oven is a proper one. According to the menu, my pizza diavola was supposed to contain spicy salami and 'Nduja peppers, but it was false advertising: it was not spicy at all, not even one bit. I can safely say 'Nduja was just on the menu sheet, not on my pizza. And I had the worst tiramisù of my life: warm, melting, and with some random biscuits, definitely not Savoiardi. Whip that cream, dudes. And for crying out loud, use Savoiardi if you want to call it a tiramisù, and put it in the freezer a couple of hours...

It is a cozy pizzeria with a wood fired oven. Reservations are a must. We were there on Saturday right at opening at 1800hrs, and the restaurant was fully booked. We made a reservation for Sunday. We ordered the Margherita Extra Pizza and the Romano Pizza. Both pizzas were excellent. The crusts were crispy and chewy, and the ingredients tasty with fresh tomato sauce and quality cheese toppings. The Green Salad was some of the best we have eaten in Japan. The crispy lotus root toppings give flavor to the salad. A shout-out to Ryou-san, who was very helpful and friendly. Will definitely be back for another meal before we leave Kanazawa. We had dinner again on May 9, and the pizzas were excellent. The Japanese draft beer was refreshing and flavorful. Thank you once again, Ryou-san, for the...