Salute — Restaurant in Takayama

I don't normally post reviews but my wife insisted i did this one for the food & the chef.

We came in as a group of 10 for dinner at around 5.30pm, being one of the first diners in the restaurant. Table was set up for us fairly quickly

I think the owner/chef is often misunderstood by some of the guests that are rejected cause we saw a few being rejected while inside. Both foreigners and locals.

Its mainly because he is the only pizza maker and pasta maker and thats why the waiting time gets very long.

We were warned in the beginning to order all the food at the start because additional orders of food will take a long time.

We ordered 8 pastas, 3 pizzas, 2 Hida Pork Ribs, 1 Salad, 2 antipasti

Food came out in a timely manner (because we were the first table).

Caesar Salad : very fresh and crunchy. Dressing was just perfect. Not too heavy.

Pizza : you know its a great crust when there are little bits of burnt edges. We finished the pizza pretty fast.

Pastas : You gotta try the Crab Pasta and Bolognese. These 2 i felt were the stars of the show.

The Crab Pasta sauce was sweet and creamy and you could really taste the sweetness of the crab from the sauce. They used tagliatelle for the bolognese and that was superb meat sauce.

Hida Pork Ribs : Falls of the bone. Great marinara sauce.

Overall it was one of the most memorable dinner we had in Takayama. And will definitely come again if we are back in town.

Would highly recommend but please...

a lot of old reviews seem quite negative, i’ve found my experience to be a lot better.

overall the food and service was good. pizza had good flavour and the wait time was fast, especially for the drinks.

the staff were helpful and friendly, i don’t know if this could vary from day to day though (i was there on a wednesday night)

a lot of the good reviews call this place authentic, i’m going to assume those reviews are coming from americans who have never been to italy, as someone who has been there and is italian themself, i can say the pizza isn’t great, definitely not super authentic but it’s still yummy!!

HOWEVER in the pic please note that there was some sort of liquid on the pizza in small puddles, on mine and my mothers. i don’t know if this is juices from the meat but whatever it was made the base quite soggy and floppy. if this would bother you then don’t order the meat pizzas. i didn’t mind though.

also, the appetiser menu said “prosciutto” but all it was just some sort of cold deli ham, not as thin or as salty as genuine prosciutto so be prepared for that. bit disappointing :(

overall, a good place to check out if you’re craving pizza during your japanese trip!! i would visit...

Initially, we faced some challenges when the proprietor, who also served as the chef, required us to place our drink orders promptly and make all menu decisions at once. However, we soon understood that this was due to the owner managing everything single-handedly. To our amazement, the flavors were exceptional. My son ordered the four-cheese pizza, which included blue cheese, and I had reservations about it. To our delight, he added honey to harmonize the intense blue cheese flavor, and my 12-year-old devoured the entire pizza himself. The pasta, Caesar salad, and antipasto were all of exceptional quality as well.

what we ordered for 2adults 1kid Caesar Prawn | Mushroom Pasta Prawn | Mushroom Antipasto w piping hot baguette 4cheese Pizza Ricotta cheese spread on baguette w honey

So...