da IVO

* Cuisine: Italian
* Where: Hiroo
* Tel: 03 5793 3121
* Website:
* Menu: I/J
* Cost: around 7,000 per head
* Ohishi: pizza
* Rating: ----

An Italian chef from Naples means it's pizza that's the attraction here. Food is great and menu interesting. With it's open-fronted facade, da Ivo make a great summer evening venue. Waiters are friendly and helpful but the fact that they're all dressed in traditional Naples clown costumes replete with face-mask perched on top of their heads makes the ambience more fake-Vegas/Disney than real Italian.

SATOU

* Cuisine: Japanese
* Where: Tsukiji
* Tel:
* Website:
* Menu:
* Cost: around 20,000 per head
* Ohishi: kobe beef
* Rating: ----


Fancy upmarket teppanyaki. Rather than the usual olde wood surroundings, and standard presentation, here the cuisine and decor is with a little more modern and has an international twist. Wor

TORIYUU

* Cuisine: Japanese
* Where: Tsukiji
* Tel:
* Website:
* Menu: Japanese
* Cost: around 6,000 per head (inc drinks)
* Ohishi: tsukune, tofu
* Rating: ---

No surprises that this is a place for chicken lovers. Everything from sashimi to kare age is on the menu here. The dishes are light and artistically presented and slightly at odds with decor - basic wooden tables and chairs in a barely-converted former home (although tatami private rooms are also available), and the clientele - jacket-off, beer-chasing, loud salarymen. It's popular and tasty but the strange clash of cuisine and ambience made it a rather odd experience that's unlikely to be repeated any time soon.

BOCHI BOCHI

* Cuisine: Okonomiyaki

* Where: Hiroo

* Tel: 03 5798 4909

* Website: click the pic

* Menu: Japanese

* Cost: around 4,500 per head (inc beer)

* Ohishi: okonomiyaki

* Rating: ----

Three okonomiyaki places in a row but all were full this Friday night in Golden Week. The 30 minute wait was well worth it though. Our counter seats afforded us the spectacle of the team of chefs preparing a non-stop barrage of sizzling pancakes. The menu includes a decent selection of interesting appetisers and original variations but it's the classic okonomiyaki that's the attraction here. It's expertly prepared and absolutely delicious - if a little small. The young staff and attentive, personable manager made it feel like we were at visiting a friend's establishment. Despite the lack of an English menu, there was a good sprinkling of gaijin diners who looked like return visitors and/or like they had so much experience with good food that they barely fit on the seat. The choice now is whether to go back or check out their neighbours.