Fugu Diaries

This is a restaurant that we tried to go to twice before and couldn’t because they’re always fully booked. We finally had a chance to go this past Wednesday, and when we entered the restaurant, we understood why we could never get in. The place was tiny — two four-top tables and a counter seat for six. We were four, so we had one of the tables.

We were looking forward to this meal for a long time because we’d heard it was really good. The food did not disappoint. Rather than order the four-course set, we decided to get different dishes and share. For appetizers, we ordered grilled vegetables with anchovy-garlic sauce, a salad of squid and white beans, and white asparagus salad. The white asparagus was cooked a little too well for me — or perhaps it was canned, but everything else was great. The sauce on the grilled vegetables were to die for, and delicious with their home-made bread. The squid was very tender.

For pasta, we ordered whitebait aglio-olio-style pasta, homemade squid-ink linguine with a seafood sauce, and cheese risotto. The pastas were perfectly cooked, and the sauces delicious. I especially liked the squid-ink linguine with a lot of crab in the sauce. There was a bit of disagreement on the risotto. They used arborio rice, which was great, but Patrick thought the cheese tasted funny. I thought it was great. Finally, we finished the meal with sauteed fish and simply grilled pork — two of their recommended main dishes. We were pretty full by this time, but these were both solid as well. For dessert, Patrick had a version of affogato - frozen mascarpone with espresso on it. I had an earl grey creme brulee with earl grey ice cream. It was a little too much after a big meal, but very very good.

The restaurant is tucked in a corner of a building 5 minutes from the Roppongi crossing, and it is run by a husband-wife couple. The husband cooks, while the wife serves. At first, we thought the service was terrible because the wife seemed unfriendly and never cracked a smile. On the way out, we realized that she must just be shy because she asked us how we liked the meal, and seemed very appreciative when we raved about it. Book early if you want to go.

Osteria Nakamura
4-6-3 Roppongi Umesawa Bldg. 1F
Minato-ku
Tel: 03-3403-8777
Open:6pm - 11pm (closed Sundays, 2nd Mondays of the month)

— Yukari