“Yes, we have seats available but are you okay with dog?”
The hotel reception relayed me that question from the owner when I asked her to make a reservation at Il Pizzaiolo.
Il Pizzaiolo is currently the highest Tabelog-rated ‘active’ pizzeria in Japan, with higher score than other esteemed names such as Pizza Bar on the 38th, PST etc. I added the word ‘active’ because the incumbent, 400c Pizza Main Store in Okayama has been closed for some time as the team is busy running its sister branches in Tokyo & Okayama (visited last year).
“Theos”, a cheerful golden retriever greeted us and gave everyone a lick when we arrived at the restaurant. The pizzeria, located in the sleepy outskirt of Sendai, is small and cramp with only 12 seats. The dog was on a long leash and roamed freely around the front section where we were seated at. A few tabelog reviewers commented about the chef regularly throwing dog biscuits to Theos while making the pizza without cleaning his hands, but we had no issues with that.
Il Pizzaiolo serves a mix of the minimalists (margherita & marinara) and the more ‘busy’ pizza with seasonal toppings. The pizzas are typical of Tokyo’s Naples-style. Dough is light & chewy, sporting thin centre and puffy crust with just the right amount of blisters to give a modicum of bitter counterpoint.
We ordered:
- Sanma (pacific saury), Shirasu (whitebait), onions, cherry tomatoes, marinara base (2420 yen)
- Satsumaimo (sweet potato), pancetta, ricotta, mozzarella (2420 yen)
- Margherita (1870 yen)
- Grilled Sausage with Maitake mushrooms (1280 yen)
- Salad from Miyagi vegetables and leaves (880 yen)
Overall, I’d say the pizza is on-par with Tokyo ones (only been to PST, Savoy, Seirinkan), with perhaps slightly cheaper price point, especially for the seasonal pizza range. My son and I would love to order more pizzas given but wife was tired after we trekked the Yamadera temple earlier, so we stopped after 3 pizzas and a couple of starters.
Paid under 10,000 yen including 3 drinks, so an average cost of 3000 yen per person. English is limited but sufficient to order food/drinks. Only the chef owner and a waiter are running the restaurant, hence service is slightly on the slow side interspersed by occasional dog barking and sniffing to entertain us.
Reservation is by phone only. We asked the hotel to call 2 days prior and managed to get bar seats opposite the oven.
by BocaTaberu