Seirinkan — Restaurant in Tokyo

If you know anything about Nakameguro, you've probably heard of this place. It's probably the most talked about pizza place in the area. It's also very popular. It took me three visits before they had room to seat me. But it's right in the middle of everything, surrounded by great alternatives, so don't let the possibility that you could get turned away deter you.

Let me preface this review by saying that this was my first Tokyo pizza experience, so I don't know what's normal here, but this pizza was better than most of the pizza you can get in the United States. And I'm from the East Coast, so I can speak with authority about Pizza from DC to Boston (for geography challenged readers: yes, that includes NYC and New Haven). That's not to say it's better than the oversized slices at the stand-up counters in New York City, but in my opinion that's an entirely different food group, this is not in comparison to that.

Seirinkan offers quick-cooked wood-fired individual-sized pies: a puffy, charred crust and super simple toppings. I sat at the counter and watched the owner cooking each one in the oven for just a few minutes. He shapes a high-hydration dough with his fingertips, no tossing or spinning, puts the fresh tomato sauce (with real cherry tomatoes) in the middle and adds some hand torn basil leaves and a sprinkling of cheese on top. Then he seasons it with flaky salt and drizzles some olive oil. When I watched him make it, I found it hard to believe that the little lump of sauce and cheese was going to spread out and fill the pizza, but it did.

The crust cooks up with a very thin crispy exterior, blistered and charred, and a soft and airy interior, with great chew. I tried to discuss it with chef in my very poor Japanese, and I think he was telling me that he uses Hokkaido flour, a very small amount of natural yeast, and a long cold fermentation period. Whatever he does, it's good.

A few days later, I was talking to an Italian guy who lives in Nakameguro, and he told me Seirinkan pizza is overrated. I hope he's right, because if my next Tokyo pizza is better than this one, I'll be very very happy.

The place has a cool wrought iron vibe, with a giant spiral staircase that connects all the floors together--the tables are likely full on every floor. You'll see, because you have to walk up a few flights if you want to use the bathroom.

There's Beatles memorabilia everywhere and the Fab Four is the only thing I heard playing on the sound system the entire time I was there. Great experience....

Famous restaurant living on its past glory. As former expat who lived in Japan for more than 5 years I came here couple of times. First time coming back to Japan post pandemic on a nostalgic trip visiting all the places I frequent in the past. Many of them have changed and unfortunately Seirinkan is one of them.

Food:

Margherita - 70% of the pizza was crust only 30% had toppings on it. Understandably a good portion of the Margherita is like that but not at this proportion. Pre-pandemic theirs definitely weren’t like that. Crust was overly salted and heavily burnt at the bottom. The couple sat next to us basically left all the crust and the server did not bother to ask them if there was anything wrong.

Bongole Bianco - They switched to the smaller clams and did not purge the sand out properly. Because of the change the pasta no longer has the umami used to have. Pasta was too soft I personally like more of al dente.

Toromisu - Their version of Tiramisu, didn’t have this before. Bits of lady fingers saturated with espresso and no rum or any other liqueur , the cream could not taste the mascarpone at all. Because of the over saturated lady fingers bits you will have one bite that’s is overly bitter and another has none of the coffee taste.

Service :

The most unpleasant portion of the meal. Walked in at 6pm. Asked if there were seats for two without reservation in Japanese. Luckily not like other reviews we weren’t turned down because we are foreigners. The male chef politely asked us if we were okay if dining time was only one hour, which we accept as we were heading elsewhere anyway. As soon as we got seated the female server with the shxtface came asked if we were ready to order. We literally just sat down and I still had my jacket on didn’t have time to take it off. Told her to come back in five. As their menu is all in katakana and we thought will be easier to just read the English Menu thus we asked her to brought us one. This is when everything went down hill. Her attitude changed from I could care less to I don’t want you guys here. Took our order and asked “what drink you want?” Literally this in Japanese, normal Japanese service this is not acceptable at all. We told her we only want water, she replied we must order one drink each. We ordered, but it was not written anywhere on the menu or in the restaurant. We quickly finished our meal and got...

I first sought out this restaurant because I had heard the story of the owner having travelled to Italy and faced discrimination when he was trying to learn how to make pizza. In the true defiant Japanese spirit he returned back to Japan and over the next 40 years taught himself how to make the perfect pizza. As you enter the restaurant the first thing you’re greeted with is the man himself cooking the pizza in a large oven. While the majority of the seating area is either above or below the level you’re currently on. Please if you can sit at the bar and witness the pizza making. The Beatles songs are played throughout the evening, but it’s not in such a manner to achieve a certain aesthetic or ironic vibe but rather you can sense he has a real appreciation of music, particularly a love of the Beatles. Apparently he is a musician, a drummer I heard him say in fact. The owner has way about him that exudes a coolness while he goes about his business while making the pizza. Interestingly it is not the pizzas that he makes but the pizzas that he chooses not to make. As I saw him throw away one of the pizza doughs as it was not up to the standard that he deemed servable to customers. When it comes to the pizza itself, I thought long and hard, “is this the best pizza I’ve ever had?”. This led me to think, does it really need to be the best pizza I’ve ever had. Because I can say it’s the best pizza experience I’ve ever had. The dough was chewy but not overly doughy, it was lightly salted, enough that you can taste the salt and burnt in a way that accentuated the flavours. The flavouring was simplistic, just a smear of red sauce, basil, mozzarella and a drizzle of oil. The side I had was nice but not particularly noteworthy. If you had combined this dough with a range of more flavoursome toppings then the discussion around best pizza could be had. But would you then lose the experience or the magic of the story that is this...