Yesterday, Mewby & I celebrated five years together with dinner at Bocca del Vino. We ate there once before, about four years ago now, and I am happy to say that the food and service remain excellent. If you like Italian and you are looking to celebrate a special occasion with something a little bit special, then I definitely recommend splashing out at Bocca del Vino.

Here are the appetizers from last night’s meal.

First the 寒サバのマリネ 香草風味 – marinated mackerel with fragrant herbs.

Lots of fresh bread. I love the bread here.

ホワイトアスパラガスのサラダ仕立て – A lovely white asparagus salad.

モッツァレラチーズと自家製チャバッタのグラタン – Mozzarella and freshly baked ciabatta gratin.

They have a lot of different pasta types here. We went for the fettuccine (above) with shrimp in a cream of tomato sauce – フェットチーネ車海老のトマトクリームソース.

And this was our main dish – 赤ムツと帆立のグリル雲丹と浅利のソース – grilled gnomefish and scallops in a sea urchin and clam sauce. Actually most of the main dishes here are meat, but they made this specially for us as I don’t do flesh of beast or fowl.

Oh and I almost forgot we had this side dish of grilled welsh onions too. Very oniony.

Everything tasted great. They have a fairly decent wine list too and the waiter was very friendly indeed. Twinkly eyed, he took great pleasure in showing off his Italian skills. Our only regret was that we ate so many appetizers we had no room for dolce. Next time…

Bocca del Vino is situated on the east side of Muromachi street, a few steps south of Nishiki. Here is a map.

Open most days, unless otherwise announced on the top page of their website: http://bocca-del-vino.com/
Lunch: 12:00～14:00 （last orders）
Dinner: 18:00～22:00（last orders）
Tel: 075・211・7053

On Sunday, Mewby and I had booked a lunchtime table at Cafe & Osteria Siluet after seeing some tasty looking pictures online. However, on arrival we were dismayed by both the lack of choice on the menu, and the somewhat churlish manner of the waitress. Life being short, we quickly made our excuses and left. We were still in the mood for pasta though, and I was pretty sure I had seen a few nice looking Italian spots on Pontocho, so that’s where we headed and found  Bistro Ranman. What a contrast! The freshest pasta you have ever tasted, a nice quiet comfortable atmosphere and lots of choice on the menu. They had a range of pasta types on offer, but on this occasion we both went for the fettuccine, Mewby with chicken and myself with the salmon. Here’s mine:

The salmon was complimented nicely by the soft taro potatoes (小芋) and the mangetout peas. And that fresh pasta really was superb! I washed it down with a nice Kyoto micro-brewed Kölsch beer.

The chicken fettuccine was very similar but came with shimeji mushrooms rather than taro potatoes. As you can see from the picture below Mewby was very happy with her meal.

Bistro Ranman seems to be very popular with young couples – at least at lunchtime. We both agreed we would like to come back and have dinner there sometime and try out some of the other pasta varieties. With great food, nice service and a lovely quiet atmosphere this restaurant definitely gets the DK seal of approval.

Open everyday for lunch (11：30～14：30) and dinner (17：00～23：00), Bistro Ranman is a short walk north of Shijo on the west side of Pontocho. Here is a map.

Tel: 075-211-8606

Chris Rowthorn introduced me to this little Italian restaurant a few months ago. As he said at the time, to look at the place you would think it was a kissaten (old style Japanese coffee shop), and expect them to serve you カレーライス. Nevertheless here at Tramonto you can get some of the best pizza in town. The last time I went with Mewby, we ordered this one:

Super succulent mushrooms on a soft, springy dough base! We also had the mixed seafood linguine:

It was tasty! And you can’t go wrong with a Caprese salad:

Or how about finishing with some home-made tiramisu?

That was REALLY good tiramisu actually. In fact the food in general was excellent, but also that kissaten type atmosphere and lack of pretension means that people feel comfortable coming here even on their own. I noticed a constant turnover of customers while I was there and looking around it seemed clear that a lot of those customers were regulars.

You can find Tramonto on the south side of Nijo just east of Teramachi. The restaurant is tucked away on the ground floor of a red brick building down a long entryway lined with bicycles. Watch out for the Italian flag and signboard. Here is a map.

Telephone： 075-256-1917
Open： 10：00～21：00 (Last orders: 20：30)
Closed on Sundays.

Many thanks to Chris Rowthorn for introducing me to this fine location!

UPDATE April 2013: Sadly, Pizza Ya has now closed.

Foreigners coming to Japan for the first time go through various rites of passage, one of which is the intense rush of self-satisfaction you get when you finally manage to order a pizza over the telephone in Japanese. Well, alright. Well done, you. However, I do have one small point to make. That over-priced-mush delivered to your lazy-ass-door is not pizza! But I know where you can get some and at a reasonable price too. Pizza Ya, is undoubtedly the finest pizza restaurant in Kyoto. Everything here is prepared by hand by the master using the finest natural ingredients and is (of course) totally free of nasty additives. I’ll let these pictures speak for themselves.
Here’s the olive and anchovy with tomato sauce…

and without tomato sauce…

And here’s a good old fashioned tomato and mushroom topped taste-tastic delight:

I cannot stress enough how good those home-made crispy bases are. And all washed down with ice-cold Sicilian beers – yum. (In Sicilia fa sempre caldo!) As the master makes each pizza from scratch, you’ll have to wait a while, but don’t bolt your pizza when you get it. For one thing, you’ll burn your mouth off, and for another this is pizza for grown-ups and is meant to be savoured.

To find it; head west on Shijo till you are roughly halfway between Kawaramachi and Karasuma (where Starbucks is). Then turn left and go south on Yanaginobanba. Keep your eyes peeled to the left as it’s tucked away in a corner and quite easy to miss. It’s a tiny wee snug of a place so if you are in a large group you might need to book it in advance, but as it’s one of Kyoto’s best kept secrets it doesn’t usually get too busy.

Pizza Ya is open everyday from 12:00 – 23:00 (12:00 – 22:00 on Sundays).
UPDATE (January 2013): Apparently now closed on Mondays.
Tel: 075-344-3374
Here’s a map:

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