Kasai

Kasai (笠井)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇮🇹 Italian / 📍 Yakumo

📓 Visits: 3 (2020 x2, 2023 x1)

Kasai was one of my favourite Italian restaurants in Tokyo and I'd been twice in 2020.  I tried booking a few times since but they'd always been full, have stopped lunch service and the location is a bit awkward.  After a more than two-year absence I finally lucked out in February 2023 with a same-day booking.

A few things have changed since my last visit.  Dinner is now a staggered simultaneous start.  Owner/chef Atsushi Kasai (ex-Tacubo) has taken on an assistant, though he still does all the cooking himself.  Inevitably prices have gone up.  Dinner was previously JPY 9,000.  It's now JPY 13,000.  The short course of 4-5 items at JPY 6,000 at dinner (or JPY 4,000 at lunch) has stopped.  No English is spoken but there are no choices to make other than drinks.  Kasai-san seems more fulfilled compared with my previous visits.  He's dyed his hair blond and is more gregarious.  Amazingly, he remembered me from my previous visits.  Notes are from my most recent meal.

First up "French prosciutto", brioche and butter.  Eating inexpensive butter cut like cheese is not pleasant and the prosciutto wasn't the best.  6/10.  'Zupetta' followed.  This was just boiled cauliflower, which hadn't been roasted, topped with fried panko and served with a high quality olive oil.  Another very rich dish to start.  7/10.  The next three dishes I rated 8/10.  The pancake would have scored higher if it had been served with some sour cream to cut through.  Second pasta was black truffle fresh tagliolini with butter sauce.  Marked down because the truffles had a woody and chemical taste.  7.5/10.  The main dish was Ezo shika with roasted red daikon.  A large portion but I've had better venison.  8/10.  Dessert was a simple milk ice-cream.  Half way through chef poured on some cacao liqueur but it didn't improve it.  8/10.  Herb tea was served at the end of the meal but I wanted it with the ice-cream rather than after.  The freshly-baked 'focaccia' was as good as I remembered it.  It doesn't have the open hole structure or moisture of a proper focaccia but is nonetheless some of the best bread I've had in a restaurant in Tokyo, beautifully flavoured with salt, olive oil and caraway, better left to cool slightly.  Another half mini-loaf was replenished without asking.

The majority of Tabelog ratings are 4.0+ but there's a very harsh review (2.5) in 2020 where the reviewer complains about Kasai-san being disingenuous and the fact that everything has been re-used from the premises prior incarnation as Wasa though, other than the dessert, the reviewer doesn't have much complaint about the food.  I could see how this could be off-putting if you had been to Wasa but that's not a problem I have.  This review has really brought down the restaurant's overall score: without that review I think the score would be in the 4s.  That said, I've slightly lowered my score for Kasai based on my most recent visit and it would be my last.  This was a rich, high-calorie meal with eight out of ten dishes fried or high in carbs.  The bread was the highest-scoring item at 8.5/10.  On a different day the course might have been more balanced (it was in the past) but you're only as good as your last meal and there's better cooking and better value elsewhere and at over two hours this more time than I want to spend on a meal of this quality.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131702/13242439/ 

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.9

📱 Booking: 🟧  A few weeks in advance for a specific date and time.  Same week or following week is possible depending on day and same-day bookings are occasionally available.  For parties of two or more you can book online via Tabelog or Omakase but if you're on your own you'll need to phone.

📍 Location:

3-6-22 Yakumo.  Dedicated street-facing entrance.  13 mins walk from Toritsu-daigaku station.

Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit February 2023 (dinner)

French prosciutto, brioche, butter
Cauliflower zupetta
Maguro katsu, checca sauce
Jerusalem artichoke, Italian cheese pancake
Anago frit, karasumi, negi sauce
Cold cappellini of aori ika, nanohana
Black truffle tagliolini, butter sauce
Ezo shika
Milk ice-cream
Herb tea

💴 Damage: 15,530 (13000 + 2 drinks @900 each + 550 coperto)
⏱️ Time taken: 2h10m

📅 Visit Nov 2020 (dinner)

Fried bread, nama ham
Sawara carpaccio, negi sauce
Hotate frit, pesto, green beans
Porcini, bagna cauda sauce
Focaccia
Homemade boccoli pasta, tomato sauce, mozzarella
Jerusalem artichoke risotto
Lamb
Frozen yoghurt
Coffee or tea

💴 Damage: 11500 inc. 2 drinks @ 1000
⏱️ Time taken: 1h25m (but see note)

📅 Visit May 2020 (lunch)

Sliced veg, Parma ham
Horse meat tartar
Courgette flower leaf deep fried
Focaccia
Pasta
Milk ice

💴 Damage: 5200 inc. 2 drinks @ 1000
⏱️ Time taken: 1h