PIZZERIA MAMA — Restaurant in Kyoto

Cozy and nice place away from the busy tourist area of arashiyama.

Recommended to make a reservation if you are visiting Pizzeria MAMA.

Went there during lunch, and most of the guest profiles were locals and very few tourists like me.

We were given the 2nd floor seating, the room was cozy, and you are able to see the 1st floor dining area thru a glass panel.

The food was amazing, we ordered the burrata cheese with Muscat Grapes and also yellowtail Carpaccio for starters,

Cheese was creamy, and Muscat Grapes were sweet.

Yellowtail Carpaccio was torched abit and taste very fresh.

We order 4 pizzas, 3 half & half 1 full pizza.

1st Half & Half Pizza - spring onions and Silverfish / Maitake with pork. ( Spring onions were a refreshing touch with the silver fish) (Maitake was cooked just nice and it's still retains the flavour and topped it off with pork cubes)

2nd Half & Half Pizza - Lotus / Mackrel (Lotus Root with mustard were an interesting twist for pizza.) (Mackrel Pizza was amazing, the fish was not tough and it has the texture of Cod)

3rd Half & Half Pizza - Four cheese with fig / Maitake (Four Cheese with figs were amazing as the sweetness of the figs matches with the four cheese)

4th Pizza - Bismark - Japanese style sukiyaki pizza (Classic Sukiyaki ingredients could never go wrong)

Service staff were also very nice and attentive...

We wanted something different and we found this place. Japanese pizza!! In fact it's probably the best Japanese pizza Ive ever tasted

We were very fortunate because we walked in and got seats. On their online booking system, the place was fully booked out. We are a party of 8 so we really lucked out.

We ordered 2 pizza, pasta and 2 meats. Let's start with the pizzas.

I got a half and half of the spring onion pizza and the mushroom bacon pizza. I have never tasted so japanese tasting pizza before. The ingredients were so fresh, the dough is springy and chewy yet easy to bite and the flavours were deep. The peppers were sparingly sprinkled to give the mushroom pizza a nice little burst of spice.

The sukiyaki pizza however was the real deal. It tasted EXACTLY like sukiyaki. You can never imagine sukiyaki there on a pizza but they've done it. They should get some kind of an award for the pizza. I recommend eating as large a mouth as possible because the different parts of the pizza have different flavors.

We ordered crab pasta. Real tasty crab. The spaghetti was done al dente.

The deer main was especially yummy. Not gamey and very fragrant. The meat tastes especially good when the rude deer in Nara snatched the biscuit from my hand.

The beef was very tender and tasty to the bite. Escargot butter is such a genius idea.

Mama is a gem...

Found the restaurant on somebody’s Instagram and decided to go. The place was a combination of Japanese exterior with western interior and Italian food which I loved. The restaurant was very spacious and the decor was modern but welcoming. The food was made very delicately and with a lot of care. My favorite was the Lotus Root pizza which had anchovi sauce with pine nuts and with the crunchy texture from the lotus root! A definite good combination with white wine. The Margherita pizza was good but wasn’t eye-opening as expected (hence the four stars). We also had the seasonal pasta: Sakura shrimp with white asparagus in cream sauce, which had a hint of bisque flavor and and absolutely heavenly! The staff seemed extremely busy but they were all friendly, communicative and helpful. We were so full and they let us take some pizza home with a doggy bag (which not all restaurants in Japan allow). Apparently they do take outs too. Price is reasonable considering the great location. Would love to come back and try the other interesting...