This tiny restaurant opened last year along Tanjong Pagar Road without much fanfare, but it has been perpetually packed. Some of that popularity can be attributed to its very reasonable prices – hearty pastas from $20, pizzas from $18 – but part of the allure is also chef-owner Takashi Okuno’s convincing take on Japanese-Italian flavours.
The wood-fired pizzas – crusty, chewy, yielding – largely stick to the conventional Italian playbook. For a taste of Japanese influences, look towards the pasta and cichetti (snacks) sections. Among the intriguing options: Tuna tartare reinterpreted with negitoro and ikura; smoked eggs topped with uni and draped with aburi wagyu; creamy mentaiko and ikura spaghetti; and shirasu aglio e olio tossed with shiso leaves, white bait and capers. Meats are excellent too. You can order as little as 100g of the wagyu cuts (from $23/100g), and that will still be served with the day’s sides.