Pizza Verde Matsumoto — Restaurant in Matsumoto

So it's kind of difficult to figure out a correct star rating for smaller places like this, with few reviews.

In this case, does five stars mean everything is perfect? No, of course not. Does it mean I would go back again/have no real hesitations recommending it to friends, yes most certainly. I'm baffled by the numerous one star, no word reviews. While I can see this place not being everyone's cup of tea, would I ever be able to say one star? No way.

The quick tl:dr is if you want some of the best pizza in Matsumoto and aren't really a stickler for beautiful shops or wide open spaces, this is the place for you.

The good points are the food and the service. Lunch looks like it would be a great time to go, as there are various reasonable lunch sets, with the same type of pizza you can expect as at dinner. The server was friendly and the owner as well (although a little tip, it's a bit strange to be talking about all the foreigners that come and visit Matsumoto for such a long time with a Japanese family while there are at least 3 such foreigners sitting in ear shot. A good number of us speak Japanese!). Pizza was delicious, definitely the best I've had in Matsumoto so far. Creme Brule was also good if a bit on the petite side. Good selection of imported beer and some local stuff as well.

The down sides are it's a small shop, with just about 14 seats downstairs. So you're not going there for brilliant decor. It's homey and fine but you're coming here for the pizza, first...

One of the best neapolitan pizza. This seems a family owned business. The chef Yasuo Gomi uses a wood fired oven. The place is very small, we counted I believe 12 seats, but it is very cozy. You can order from an iPad which is very handy. We were craving for pizzas and we know Japanese chefs are often very good at preparing Italian food and elaborating it, but Pizza Verde Matsumoto way exceeded the expectations. The chef has also done a lot of Italian pizza courses and pizza competitions which you can see on the walls. There are various types of pizza but we tried the margherita with buffalo mozzarella and the prosciutto (don't remember the exact name) and they were both excellent. The dough was both crispy and soft and perfectly prepared. We went on a week evening and lucky we found a place. Having tried the best pizza in Rome and Naples, I would say Pizza Verde Matsumoto is probably in the top three/four on my list. You should try. A humble suggestion to Yasuo is to maybe experiment with a white pizza/focaccia with stracciatella, and mortadella, it would be fantastic. All...

Nice, friendly, tasty little restaurant in Matsumoto. Highly recommended.

Reservations are needed as we arrived at 18:05 (it opens at 18:00) and got the last free seats at the bar for our family of four. 5 minutes later another family with kids was turned away. Ordering is simple via an iPad which clearly shows advertised price and then price including tax (as is standard in Japan so I'm not sure about the review below complaining about unclear pricing....in this restaurant with the system they use you know what you are going to pay before ordering and you can keep track of the final bill as the evening proceeds).

The pizzas we had were very tasty and made with care and attention with a generous topping.

The service was friendly and they spoke enough English to serve everyone but it was also clear that our limited attempts at Japanese were very well received.

I would love to go back again but I'm not sure when I will nexy be...