There are 5,733 properties in Tokyo alone. ――What number do you think this is? The correct answer is the number of Italian restaurants in Tokyo listed in Tabelog (at the time of writing the article)! In other words, even with a simple calculation, there are more than 90 stores in one municipality. Italian is scary.

Among such many Italian restaurants, "Pepe Rosso" is located in Sangenjaya, Setagaya-ku, which I think is one of the three restaurants in my life history. It is a place where you can experience the taste of authentic Italian cuisine, which is rarely seen anywhere else. I also love serious and foolish attitudes.

◆ Sangenjaya "Pepe Rosso" Chef becomes independent from a famous Italian restaurant

Peperosso is a long-established Italian restaurant founded in 1986. It is about a 3-minute walk from Sangenjaya Station. It was reopened in July of last year (2015), and the staff, menu, and interior have been completely redesigned.


By the way, the chef is currently the chef who is independent from the popular restaurant "Incanto" (Hiroo, Tokyo), which has been ranked first in the Italian category in the tabelog "Tokyo Best Restaurant" ranking.

While Incanto has the image of a luxury restaurant, Peperosso is a casual restaurant that you can enjoy without straining your shoulders. But the taste is top notch. In addition to domestic ingredients (some of which are made in Italy) and high-quality dishes that are handmade, we have a lineup of carefully selected Italian wines.

There are more than 500 types of wine, including those stored in the warehouse, so if you have wine you want to drink, tell us by phone when you make a reservation and it will be ready by the day you come to the store.


◆ I can't read the menu

When you open the menu book, your brain may freeze for a moment. Because when it comes to Italian, the familiar characters such as "Carbonara" and "Peperoncino" are not there, and the names of the dishes are all Italian. First of all, you can't read it.


but it's okay! If you ask the friendly staff, they will teach you carefully. At that time, it's a good idea to ask about the sake that goes well with the food. After all, Peperosso's dishes can only be completed with a perfect score of 100 when tasted with wine or other alcoholic beverages (Cook's chief talk). It will be fun to find your favorite combination!

◆ “Cinnamon butter pasta” that you should definitely eat

The signboard menu is "handmade pasta". More than 15 types are always available. Some pasta is rarely seen in Japan, and all are handmade.

Among them, the menu that you should definitely eat is "Charsons" (1,380 yen), which is pasta that is eaten in northern Italy. I ate it for the first time here and was captivated by its deliciousness.


Pasta made from pasta potatoes with a hint of cinnamon and cacao and wrapped in flour dough. Finished with a cinnamon-scented, charred butter sauce. Topped with crushed walnuts, dried apples, smoked ricotta cheese and mint leaves.



When you put the plump pasta in your mouth, the aroma of spices and butter is fluffy. When you chew the chewy dough, sweet, sticky and thick potatoes get entangled in your tongue. The surface of the pasta is sprinkled with sugar, giving it an elegant crispness. Overall, the finish with an "amajoppai" taste is authentic Italian. It tastes a lot, but it's well organized, and it's novel but nostalgic ... Anyway, it's delicious.


◆ Italians also like sea urchins

Did you know that Italians eat "sea urchin" as often as Japanese? That's why we also recommend the cream pasta "Orecchiette" (1,480 yen) with a rich sea urchin sauce. It is a local dish that represents southern Italy.


Orecchiette is a pasta made from rare "burnt wheat". As the name suggests, it is made by grinding charred wheat , so it is blackish and has an earlobe-like shape. Since the wheat is coarsely ground, the texture is slightly harder than ordinary pasta.


The sauce is made by crushing smoked sea urchin so that it has a slightly textured texture and adding olive oil. High-purity uni sauce that does not use fresh cream! This is entwined with pasta and topped with red, yellow and green petit tomatoes, basil and finely crushed roasted almonds.


When you bring the pasta with the uni sauce of Trottro to your mouth, the rich umami and the scent of the rocky shore rush like waves! The whip whip pasta is fragrant enough to chew, with a slight burnt bitterness. Not only pasta, but smoked sea urchin and roasted almonds resonate with each other's "fragrance". Refreshing basil and juicy tomatoes give a refreshing aftertaste.

As an aside, if you fill the dented part of the pasta with uni sauce and eat it, it will be so delicious that you will faint, so please try it.

◆ Antipasto and authentic Dolce to taste the season

Antipasto (appetizer) and authentic dolce that value "season" are also the specialty of the store. How about with wine?

For example, "seasonal vegetable salad" (1,580 yen) is now available in Italian horse prosciutto with two types of cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano and sheep milk and white mold cheese), mushrooms (Tokachi mash), and so on. A combination of strawberries, blueberries and pomegranates.


I don't think there are many opportunities to eat horse prosciutto in Japan, but it is a very easy-to-eat prosciutto that has no odor and is light and has a light taste. In addition, sheep cheese is characterized by its mellow richness and mushroom-like aroma.


Also, my favorite Dolce is the sweet and slightly spicy "Peperosso-style panna cotta" (600 yen). A caramel sauce scented with spices such as cinnamon and cloves is combined with the fluffy panna cotta.


A fluffy and fluffy panna cotta that stays in shape on a spoon. When you put it in your mouth, it melts instantly and the sweet and beautiful scent of vanilla spreads. Caramel sauce is entwined with this, adding a complex flavor of aroma and spices.


Also, yeah, I shouldn't forget the natural yeast bread. It is a rare homemade bread that uses the yeast of "semolina powder" used to make pasta.


White bread is made from ordinary wheat flour, and dark bread is made from the charred wheat that was introduced earlier. The former has a moist and sticky texture, while the latter has a soft and elastic texture. The latter is more chewy, and the more you chew it, the more umami it tastes. Both are fruity as if they were biting the fruit, and they are delicious as they are without adding butter or oil!

It's not freshly baked, it's served after letting it rest for a day. The reason is that by letting it lie down, the aroma and taste will improve. However, if you wish, it will be served even if it is baked (only at dinner time).

◆ "Eat history" restaurant

Peperosso's concept is "eat history". Instead of having no pictures of the dishes in the menu book, the origins and origins of each dish are written (this is in Japanese).

For example, charred wheat pasta is a dish that spread from the "mottainai culture" in which farmers who grew wheat by shifting cultivation used to pick up and eat the wheat left unburned in the fields. Here, in this way, the "experience" itself of tasting local cuisine while touching the history and culture of Italy is offered.

By the way, it seems that the restaurant has acquired the "Italian restaurant quality certification mark", that is, it is a restaurant that is recognized as "keeping the traditional Italian recipes and making efforts to convey Italian culture and hospitality". Or something.


I wrote about history, culture, and other things that seemed a little big, but at first I myself went there just with the motivation of "I just want to eat delicious food!". Of course there is no problem even if you are not familiar with Italy. Please feel free to drop by.

The store is located on the 1st floor of Daiichi Gold Building, 1-12-23 Taishido, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. Business hours are from 11:30 to 15:00 for lunch and from 17:30 to 24:00 for dinner. Closed on Sundays.