Osteria Barababao — Restaurant in Tokyo

My wife and I had an unforgettable experience at this restaurant after stumbling across their food board during some shopping. We zipped up and waited at the door like VIPs at an exclusive club. A bartender asked if we had reservations—alas, we didn’t—and after a thrilling two-minute wait, he waved us in. Wow, only 5% of the seats taken; this place must be the town’s hidden treasure. A waiter swooped in after a leisurely three minutes, and I ordered two drinks with naive optimism. He asked if we were ready to order; my wife said she needed more time, and he responded with a 15-second stare that could win an Oscar for intensity. I broke the silence with, “We need to look at the menu first,” since we were sharing one like it was a rare artifact. He pivoted, stared at me, and after I pleaded for more time, he wandered off—clearly a master of social graces. We finally decoded the menu and chose the seafood linguini, billed as a perfect portion for two—ideal for us seafood-loving lovebirds. I ordered it, then added an appetizer, because why not live dangerously? Our waitress warned us we’d ordered enough to feed a small army and it’d take forever to cook, her nervous vibe practically begging us to reconsider. I canceled the appetizer to ease her panic, but she launched into a rant about foreigners whining about everything—delightful customer service, truly. The food arrived in 15–20 minutes, not the eternity she’d predicted, and we dug in with tempered expectations. The linguini was al dente plus—chef’s bold choice—and while some might like their noodles with a bit of fight, it wasn’t my thing. The seafood and sauce were fine, nothing special, but I’m not here to judge the food too harshly. After all, who am I, a mere foreigner, to question culinary genius? Had the wait staff not turned this into a masterclass in awkwardness, I wouldn’t be writing this. The bartender’s charm, the waiter’s staring contest, and the waitress’s meltdown made this a night to remember for all the wrong reasons. The food was tolerable, but the people? They deserve a Michelin star in making you...

I have never had such a strange dining experience. From the moment I sat down I felt extremely uncomfortable. The male server glared at me because I asked for a little more time to decide what to order. The female server apparently didn't like what we ordered, and told me I should order less food ( I was going to split a meal and small appetizer with my husband and it wasn't that large of portions). The female server basically lectured us about our order, which made me even more uncomfortable. To be honest if it wasn't considered poor manners I would have gotten up and left. What was strange is that the male server would just randomly glare at us while we were eating. It felt as though the two servers did not want us to eat at the restaurant, like we were some how burdening them by spending our money there.

There are so many great restaurants in Tokyo, but this isn't one of them. The food was OK, nothing special and kind of bland. So basically if you don't care about having great food and you like being treated poorly by the staff this would be the restaurant for you. I had high expectations because of the location and reviews (unfortunately i didn't see all the negative ones), so I was...

As an Italian food restaurant, I don’t understand why each person needs to order one drink, despite us already ordering food per person, including appetizers and desserts, and especially since there’s already a cover charge (coperto) per person. It’s not indicated in the menu as well, on the drinks requirement. So we ended up ordering 3 over priced Pelegrino bottle per person, which we can’t finish. The male Caucasian staff isn’t very friendly either, although one of the lady is friendly. I wonder if perhaps they are paid extra, only if we order an expensive wine, which we didn’t.

Food is ok to be fair. But with so many other good Italian options in Tokyo and the Ginza area, there’s no reason for me to...