Emilia — Restaurant in Tokyo

I live in the neighborhood and used to go for lunch on the weekends. I still go once in awhile alone because the quality of the food is excellent, and I especially love the truffle pasta. Weekend lunch is often full. There could be a bit of wait for a table and for the food to arrive at peak time. Service could be brash but it’s worth it. Lots of family and couples. Kid friendly. Terrace seats outside.

However I had a very negative experience when I took my friends there for a birthday dinner three years ago. That’s why I never take other people there anymore. The server misunderstood our order, thinking that we were ordering one less main dish than there were the number of us when really she missed noting down an order. She seemed new and was not a native Japanese speaker. We were a group of six; no problem it happens. But then the owner came over and told us in an aggressive way that we cannot order like this so we were very confused, so we asked him to explain what’s wrong when we had ordered an appetizer and a main each. Instead of telling us he thinks we need to order an additional main dish and clarify the situation, he said in an angry way that it is their restaurant’s rule and we need to follow their restaurant’s rule, and if we came to dine in his restaurant, we had to follow his rules. And that he could not split the food, and that if we were in a noodle (ramen?) shop we would not ask to share two ramen among three people. His exact analogy. We were very confused why he said that and used this particular analogy and I thought that the way he said it was condescending. So we repeated our orders, it took some explaining one by one like an interrogation, and that’s when he realized the waitress got our order wrong. He said fine, didn’t apologize, and just walked away. It was very unpleasant, and I suspect it had to do with the fact that we were not Japanese, even though all of us speak Japanese decently if not fluently so language barrier was not the issue with the owner. I personally believe that it made the owner suspect that it was us lacking common sense because we were speaking Chinese and I felt some prejudice played a part in the misunderstanding.

We also had a friend who was running late. We ordered for her and told the restaurant we could start without her and even her dishes could come first, but every 5 minute we were pestered by the owner about her expected arrival time when it’s a casual restaurant on a non-busy weekday night.

I think it could have been handled better, like if he had offered to confirm our orders again in a calm way immediately, instead of making ethnicity-related insinuations. No one refilled our water throughout the night unless we asked even though they were not busy. We paid about 7000 yen each for the meal. I was so embarrassed to have taken my friends there when they came all the way to Kitasando after a tired work day, paid a good amount, only to be treated rudely. We never spoke of this dinner again.

There are many positive reviews here, and I agree with most of them. i took the time to write the review because I want to speak about my experience which really troubled me that three years later I still remember, and want to share in case there are others who had similar uncomfortable encounters with the owner, so they know they were not alone or imagining insults when there were...

Used to go there often for lunch so this was my first time at dinner ...was put in a small table next to kitchen and bathroom service was super slow and have to get the attention of the serving stuff several times before they came to serve or to bring what was requested . Wine prices are through the roof even for Tokyo and it's funny that all the cheaper wines 5000-6500 ¥ rate are sold out . Wine by the glass is around 50-60ml unacceptable for the prices they are charging ...keep away from Emilia at dinner and just keep...

I was born in Emilia-Romagna (Italy) , I was so happy to see my regional food served in Japanese restaurants. The quality of food is good (I had tortelloni) as well as the portion. The price for lunch is a bit pricey compared to other restaurants but honestly you eat authentic ethnic food , so it's ok. The chef is friendly and he is always willing to speak Italian to communicate. The atmosphere is down earth, the restaurant reminds me of an Italian...