PIZZERIA CAPOLI — Restaurant in Tokyo

So, I wandered into Pizzeria Capoli, right in the heart of Shinjuku. They hype themselves as “true Neapolitan” because they’ve got the classic wood-fired oven. And yes, the dough? Absolute holy grail material — chewy, airy, with that perfect char. But sometimes that char crosses into “oops, now it’s bitter,” and suddenly I’m tasting ash instead of Naples.

Then we hit the real problem: the toppings. Japanese cheese? A crime scene. Completely tasteless. The tomato sauce? Totally forgettable. And the prosciutto? More fat than meat, with a random olive oil drizzle that did nothing but scream “I gave up.”

The ambience is… intense. You walk in and it’s loud, chaotic — maybe they’re trying to mimic Napoli, right down to the “fresh off the boat” energy from all the immigration there. But here? It’s just noise plus a crowd of confused tourists. Honestly, you’re in Japan — go get some ramen and post that on your feed instead of lining up for this.

Desserts? Disaster. My panna cotta looked like spoiled cream, tasted fine-ish but came with zero presentation effort. The chocolate cake? Felt like it had been sitting around for two days, waiting for someone desperate enough to order it. Pure loveless cooking.

Would I go back? Maybe… just to try the fried pizza, because right now, the dough is the only thing carrying this place on its...

foreigners beware: this place is not for you. I waited 45 minutes to get a seat, while looking at 3 tables that seated 12 total were empty. When I came to wait, they were empty, and I ended up being seated at one of these empty tables while waiting those 45 minutes. I thought that maybe it was because I was from abroad, but it turns out they do this to everyone. I sat down and was handed an english menu, noticed that only pizza, desserts, and drinks were on the menu. I didn’t think anything of it until I saw the other tables eating pasta, salads, and appetizers that were clearly not on the menu. I asked for the menu in japanese and the waiter confused, asked if I meant the english menu. I reiterated I wanted the japanese menu to her surprise. she gave me the menu after exchanging a look to her coworker and what I assumed was correct. They give two different menus for people who can and can’t speak japanese with additional items to eat. Luckily at least they didn’t charge more in the english menu for the items I chose. unfortunate, since the pizza margarita was actually good, but for the unnecessary wait and obvious “special” treatment given to foreigners I would advise anyone who is not from japan to find another place or waste an hour looking at...

Italian restaurant right by the new south exit of Shinjuku. I was excited to see they had a wood oven. The crust on the Margherita was soft and chewy - almost in a way that I wasn't sure if it was underdone or not. The crust on the Poporo was definitely a touch under. Maybe due to the moisture released from the mushroom and tomatoes? I noticed that the middle part of the crust was a darker colour than the outer edges so I only ate the portion with the toppings on it.

Blue cheese cream sauce gnocchi tasted mostly of parmesan and texture of it was very mushy and paste-like. Shiitake arugula pepperoccino was also underwhelming.

Maybe we caught them on a bad day. It was super busy right before we were able to get a table, but still it wasn't a cheap lunch (¥9000+yen for 3 people) and was hoping for a...