LA BEFANA — Restaurant in Tokyo

Lots of problems with this place, so here comes a story. I noticed a sign on the street that said the place had some Kumamoto pork for 1600¥. When I sat down inside, the menu had it listed for 1700¥. This kind of thing always peeves me, but at a 100¥ difference, I bit my tongue for the moment. I ordered the pork with some wine and my wife ordered the lasagna. My wine came with a bit of cork in it, but not quite enough to bother mentioning to the staff. From my seat I could see the young staff really struggling to open another bottle...maybe it was her first day.

I went to the restroom to wash up and there was a sign that requested men to sit down to pee. I wouldn’t mind a sign requesting guys to not pee on the floor, but this sign rubs the wrong way knowing that some wives in Japan actually make their husbands do this every day. Needless to say I stood and did my business without making a mess.

My wife later got her lasagna which she said was over cooked. Even though when we ordered we clearly were ordering for ourselves, the staff brought out two plates to share the lasagna. My pork was yet to come.

After about 20 minutes of waiting for my pork, the staff came by to tell us that it was last food order time. Now, to be fair, we arrived at 5:15pm and were told that we could only stay until 6:30. But to tell me it was last food order at 5:45 when I’ve yet to get any food, is not cool.

But wait, there’s more. As we were sitting close to the kitchen, it was possible to hear the head chef berating his staff. One young chef was getting bullied and looked to be on the verge of tears!

So anyways, my pork finally came and it was honestly pretty good. But to charge an extra 600¥ for the vegetables that came with it (so a 2300¥ plate) was not great cost-performance, worse if you remember that the price was falsely advertised outside for 100¥ less.

Finally we paid our bill and I mentioned (kindly) on the way out that the price on the sign and the menu were different. The staff apologized, but didn’t offer to pay the difference or make an effort to...

Overall a good restaurant but a bit difficult to evaluate since this shop have no a stable standardized service or food taste. One day is excellent, the day after might be disappointing according to the skills, experience and sensibility of the day's staff. A good potential shop a bit spoiled by the unstable quality.

Special mention for shop manager mr. Inoue, a friendly, talkative, welcoming young guy which will make you feel comfortable. If you wanna go to "la befana Kichijoji", call and check if mr. Inoue is there or you will be...

An actual wood fire oven, that shows that it’s gonna be a good Italian place.

Pizza is really good, they insisted on one drink per person but we had bad throat so we didn’t order any drink, after some discussion they agreed to it.

They were nice about it and suggested some home remedies to fix the throat as well.

Quality of the pizza and the ingredients were authentic Italian. Cost wise it was just 1400 for a margarita which is decent and affordable for a pizza like that, they had really good chili oil with the pie...