Mia Bocca Hokkaido Italian, Shinjuku Takashimaya Times Square — Restaurant in Tokyo

On the 13th floor of Takashimaya Shinjuku shopping, there is this Italian gem of a restaurant. It is perfect for family gatherings, dates or solo dinners. The restaurant is very clean with appropriate plating. They have an English menu and utensils if needed. We ordered a carafe of their house white wine but if you are a sommelier, there's other very nice bottles to choose from. We had the couple special for 4980 yen, where you get a salad, a pizza/risotto/meat choice, a pasta choice, 2 dessert choices, plus a specified drink like coffee, espresso, tea or cola. The salad we ordered was 300-500 yen extra as was the pasta but I wanted the shrimp salad and the cod pasta. The meal was served inn the correct order. The server, Saito? Was awesome. She even asked us when we wanted our espresso and tea served. She came with alacrity when we rang for service. She made our dinner enjoyable and took good care of us even though we are not locals. We got our carafe of wine, our requested bottle of water first. Then we had the salad, with the creamy delicious pasta coming right after we finished the salad. Once we finished the pasta, the pizza showed up. The pizza is thin crust and the toppings are heavy, so it won't stand the crust test- in fact, it will fall down every time from the weight of the ingredients. Just fold it over and shove into my mouth (so my mouth means "Mia bocca" in Italian). When the pizza has been inhaled (I know, we are pigs- oink!) the desserts will arrive with your espresso and hot tea. The Catalan, which we looked up is supposed to be similar to the creme brulee but what we got didn't look like creme brulee. It was cut up into 4 rectangles and it did have the taste and texture of creme brulee, however it was cold and thick, which made it pair well with my espresso and daughter's tea. The tiramisu was light, fluffy with a hint of rum, which in my book, makes it authentic. In fact, the more rum the better the tiramisu. The Catalan paired so well with the espresso we had another one. We were sad to leave. As we left, we noticed that the shopping mall was locked down with steel gates- we enjoyed our meal so much we lost track of time & had to take the long way to find the train, not to mention, there was a security card ushering you out their correct exit....

Had the opportunity to sample this Italian chain restaurant located inside Takashimaya Level 13. Their signature dish is the Blue Crab Spaghetti on a Tomato Cream Sauce which is excellent, fresh and delicious.

Their pasta dishes are good, highly recommend sampling. But stay away from their Pizzas that are mediocre at best, dough is too soft and there is no differentiation.

Restaurant accepts cash, cards and electronic payment methods. Non-smoking while dinner on weekends might be...

This restaurant offers decent Italian food — not the best Italian you’ll find, but good enough to enjoy and finish your plate. The pizza was slightly oily, and the cheese and toppings tended to slide off easily, but it was still satisfying overall.

Service was not bad; the staff made a genuine effort to speak English, which we really appreciated and made the experience smoother.

Overall, the restaurant reminds me of a Saizeriya-style dining experience but it’s slightly nicer and a bit...