Lunetta

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇮🇹 Italian / 📍 Asakusa

📓 Visits: 2 (2021-2022)

Lunetta is a casual restaurant.  You can either go a-la-carte or choose a course menu.   The course menu increased in price by 700 yen to JPY 6,500 in April 2022.  Prices include tax and no service charge is taken.  On both my visits I had the course menu which consists of antipasto, two starter, two pasta, main and dolce.

The restaurant has a long drinks list for a small place, including plenty of non-alcoholic choices and a daily list of about 8 kinds of wine by the glass.  On both my visits I had two glasses of spumante which was better than cheap Champagne I've had elsewhere and incredible value at 800/900 yen for a small glass.

A counter seats about four and there are three tables for two.  On both visits I was first to arrive but two more parties arrived later in the evening.  One chef does all the cooking while a proprietress waits tables.  On my first visit the proprietress was chatting with regulars at the counter but there was no conversation with me or other diners on either of my visits and no conversation with the chef.  So especially on visit two, where I was sat at the counter, there was very little atmosphere.  The meal took a little longer and you could see other guests getting bored waiting between courses and playing with their phones.  Cutlery is not replaced between courses.

You have a choice from around four dishes for your main course.  I chose Ozaki beef (+700 yen) on my first visit and fish on my second.  The beef was oily but gamey.  Fish was kasugo and turned out to be acqua pazza.  Acqua pazza is an easy dish to make at home (though perhaps not as perfectly as this) so I wouldn't order it again.  At least one of the pasta dishes is made from fresh pasta.  I wanted to ensure I was completely full on my second visit so I asked for a large size of both pasta dishes.  A normal size serving is 30g so I asked for 50g.  Given that the course is so cheap I expected to be charged a little extra for this but, remarkably, there was no extra charge.  If you want a refill of the decent homemade bread it's better to ask than wait to be asked but with two pasta dishes I haven't needed one.  Ingredients are fresh, perfectly seasoned, quality olive oil is used and every dish has a real depth of flavour.   Compared with Il Lato (review here) the cooking is not quite as precise but it's a little cheaper compared with lunch and certainly cheaper at dinner.  Compared with Tacubo (review here) the food has a lot more flavour and it's a third or a quarter of the cost.

Staff don't speak conversational English and there's no English menu but if you understand zero Japanese they should still be able to help you choose a drink and your main course.

Given the lack of warmth and the relatively humble ingredients used I don't expect Lunetta to ever get a particularly high Tabelog rating.  The course does not include after-meal drink but drinks are cheap and at 6,500 for 7 courses and bread without the usual 'corperto' charge at Italian restaurants and no service charge this is one of the best value dinners I've found anywhere in Tokyo and it's easy to book.  I'll definitely be back.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1311/A131102/13218645/ 

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.35 (value: 5.0, atmosphere: 2.9)

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy.  Same-day bookings by phone or Tabelog or advance bookings via TableCheck.  Walk-ins possible.

📍 Location: 

1-16-2 Kaminarimon.  1 min from Tawaramachi station Exit 3. Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2022 Google

📅 Visit May 2022

Italian ham, (cold) fried bread
Kinmedai carpaccio
Homemade bread
Pan-fried Loire white asparagus, poached egg, parmesan
Homemade pasta, smoked tuna, karasumi
Spaghetti, pork ragu
Kasugo acqua pazza
Yoghurt gelato, salt, olive oil

💴 Damage: 8,300 (6500 + 2 drinks @900 each)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h40m

📅 Visit December 2021

Iwashi, ankimo terrine
Ishidai carpaccio
Homemade bread
Hot Italian sausage, cold lentils
Homemade pasta, shiitake, karasumi
Homemade tagliatelle, pork ragu
Ozaki beef
Tiramisu

💴 Damage: 8,100 (6500 + 2 drinks @800 each)
⏱️ Time taken: 1h20m