• 5
• Dear Lord Almighty the pizzas.

I've lived in New York, sampling the greasiest slices, the finest cashew cheese imitations, and the best Vera Pizza Napolitana-certified pies money can buy. I've spent a week in Italy on a roadtrip essentially dedicated to stuffing my face with truffles and pizza. And after visiting Kyoto, I am convinced, absolutely certain -- ain't nobody got NOTHING on the pies this place puts out. If we hadn't discovered it on our last day in Kyoto, we would have eaten here daily. The amazing shojin ryori meal at Eko-in in Koya San is tied with this place for the best meal during three weeks in Japan. This place didn't cost several hundred dollars. tl;dr Japan took our denim and perfected it. Now pizzas. Full disclosure: This review may have been biased by the kind-hearted loan of an umbrella by the restaurant's proprietors. I knew Japan had a murky umbrella swapping underworld but was not expecting the owners to run to their house to get one when they saw we were leaving in the rain. We cancelled plans coming down off Koya San to return the umbrella and feast here again before catching the shinkansen to Tokyo. But don't let that possible source of bias make you second guess this review. The pizza is that good. The umbrella was just icing on the cake. Speaking of which, the desserts are great, but they don't hold a candle to the pizza. Goddamn. Two years later we still talk about it.