Cucina Masanoli — Restaurant in Matsumoto

It takes a confident chef to have an open plan kitchen with a counter, especially in such a small restaurant. Everything must be spotless, and all of the food preparation is laid bare to critics, and with all that said it was a delight to sit at the counter and watch the chef in action.

My girlfriend and I originally chose the lunch course with a single starter, but after sampling the delicious cold starter, we asked if it would be possible to upgrade to the full lunch course so that we could have a hot starter in addition to the original pasta dish, main and dessert.

In all due honesty, the food was uniformly excellent from the home-made foccacia down to the desserts. If I had to choose highlights of the course, I would lean towards the cold starter, both of the pasta dishes and the sea bream.

Besides the great food, I should also make a note of the great service provided by Nori-san. She explained each of the dishes to us in detail as she served them, helping me out in English when my Japanese wasn't up to the task, and happily chatted with us and the other customers in the restaurant. The love that Chef Masa and Nori-san have for their restaurant, their customers and the superb food that they serve is plain to see, and that welcoming atmosphere is the icing on the cake of a wonderful dining experience.

Despite visiting Matsumoto to see its beautiful castle, the highlight of my trip was eating lunch at Cucina Masanoli, and I certainly plan a return trip to eat there once again. If you're visiting Matsumoto and fancy eating high quality food (that you would have a hard time finding even in Tokyo), then I strongly recommend eating here.

What we ate: Home-made foccacia

Cold starter Sweet potato gratin Caponata (Sicilian ratatouille) Marinated Hiratake mushroom Roasted tuna, served on an ice plant leaf dressed with balsamic vinegar Coppa (dry cured pork coldcut)

Hot starter Aranchini Fried mozzarella

Pasta Scallops and mizuna with cream Home-made Italian sausage arrabiata

Main Crispy chicken, roast potatos and satoimo Sea bream with winter vegetables

Dessert Chocolate pudding Mikan jelly

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Had a delicious meal here. The tomato salad was simple and fantastic, the pork with Sicilian cheese stuffed inside was fantastic, as was the roasted veg along with it. And the poached pear at the end was a nice recommendation from them, sweet and spiced with clove and more.

I look forward to coming back again with friends so I can order a course (at dinner, courses are offered for two or more and I was dining by myself that night).

Come here for a tasty meal in a nice atmosphere. But be prepared to spend some time, as the food takes some time to cook and prepare.

My only small criticism is that I don't much care for the homemade bread they serve. It was very soft, without much gluten development, so there was very little 'chew' to it. But overall...

We had dinner at Cucina Masanoli on our last night in Japan and could not have asked for a better meal! The owners are very charming and hardworking and wow can they cook! We had a focaccia starter and each had an eggplant, tomato sauce and ricotta pasta dish (we are both vegetarian). We also had a semifreddo with pistachio sauce for dessert and it was one of the best desserts I have ever had.

We sat at a counter space facing the kitchen and were so impressed with the chef’s skills and clear love of cooking! He put so much care into our dinner and you could really taste it! The kitchen was also exceptionally clean (even...