Don Bravo — ranked No. 4 in Japan and No. 2 in Tokyo for Tabelog’s pizza category, and also a 🥉 Bronze Award restaurant — with a full omakase course under ¥16,500 (under 1,000 RMB).

And reservations are basically available one or two days out — almost absurdly convenient for tourists or anyone craving a spontaneous good meal.

The only downside is the distance — from Shibuya, Ginza, Shinjuku, or Meguro, it’s a 40-plus-minute ride no matter which way you go. But for a dedicated eater, there’s never a shortage of reasons to make the trip. 😈

Chef Masaichi Taira trained at the Italian restaurant Acca in Hiroo, then went on to work at Michelin-starred restaurants in Milan and Sicily, among other places in Italy. In 2012, he returned to Tokyo and opened Don Bravo on his own.

The menu threads together Japanese-Italian cooking and the wood-fired pizza oven. Beyond nearly ten dazzling seasonal, wood-fired pizzas, you can taste that oven’s flavor and warmth running through much of the rest of the menu too.

The late-summer, early-autumn menu opens with 🍆 eggplant — paired in an unexpected way.

The crisp eggplant was topped, surprisingly, with pancetta — the bacon’s fat melting into the eggplant and asparagus, savory with a hint of spice. On first thought it tasted almost like a more refined version of eggplant with minced meat — a familiar flavor combination, but with far more layers.

Fig, truffle, and underneath, unexpectedly, a freshly smoked, properly fragrant beef tartare.

The beef kept its raw texture, its surface carrying a clear wood-fire note, layered with truffle, breadcrumbs, and nuts. A faint spiciness on entry, the smoky aroma standing out, the sweetness of the fig tying together the raw beef’s savoriness and the truffle’s earthiness.

The impact lands hard.

A sorry-looking little thing, visually.

Zucchini roasted in the pizza oven, dressed — invisibly, untraceably — with Spanish herring, burrata, a sour sauce, and bottarga.

The soft zucchini acts as the vehicle on entry, carrying the fish’s savory salinity, followed by burrata’s creaminess.

A genuinely delicious combination.

A beautiful, bold pairing — 🐟 horse mackerel and 🍑 peach.

Miso-cured horse mackerel, paired with a high-acid koji-tomato sauce, peach, and even hard cheese. The peach’s creaminess, the fish’s savoriness, the tomato’s acidity — each distinct on its own, yet together they come together surprisingly, unexpectedly, completely!

High in acidity, but the other flavors still stay three-dimensional, keeping the whole dish refreshing throughout.

Cacio e pepe — not something I expected to find at a creative-cuisine restaurant like this. But on the first bite, it found its own style.

Turns out to be a delicate, umami-forward, distinctly Japanese expression of the dish.

The noodles had bite, the sauce carried umami. Toward the back, green pepper’s freshness slowly comes through, working with black pepper to rein in the richness.

A dish that’s usually on the heavier side, here rendered fragrant and clean.

The fried oyster and tomato risotto carried a sourness reminiscent of pickled long beans — pretty distinctive.

Sardine paired with pork sausage and garlic sauce — the pork’s presence actually outweighs the fish, giving it a tapas-like feel…

The lamb was cooked to a good doneness, the thick meat crisp on the bite, with yogurt, cream cheese, herbs, and smoked chili keeping it from feeling heavy. The meat was tender, though the lamb’s own aroma was a touch faint; the potatoes, though, were fried well.

Midway through an otherwise delicious menu came an indescribable, sustained dip.

Not bad, but genuinely hard to call delicious 🫠

The pizzas are made to order, mix-and-match.

Five classics, three seasonal. In the end I went with Margherita and squid ink.

I’ll admit — this was genuinely the most successful pizza choice, the best pizza I’ve had, this year. How did every single bite manage to be stunning, distinctive, highlighting the advantages of making pizza in Japan, without ever straying from what you expect from the dish?

First, the crust’s char and dough aroma were both beautiful.

The jet-black 🦩 squid-ink version, an extension of the Marinara, had gorgeous umami, with oregano and garlic laid on boldly and generously.

The traditional Margherita, surprisingly, won on tomato aroma alone — a full, well-balanced tomato flavor without being overbearing, a light touch of garlic — distinctive enough, likeable enough, memorable enough.

Both the classic and the original creations left a strong impression.

Dessert closes things out with a rich Jersey milk ice cream, paired with Noto jasmine, plum, yuzu, and stewed eggplant.

Surprised by how well passion fruit and jasmine ice cream went together, and that there was still one more bite of eggplant at the very end. A full circle.

A satisfying, comfortable meal.

Worth noting specifically — the pairing program here really adds value. Each dish matched with a drink, every pairing a case of 1+1 adding up to more than 2.

The wines themselves aren’t necessarily expensive, but you get to drink some bottles with a bit more age, ones you don’t often come across. And the pairing is done beautifully, layering onto the food’s acidity, umami, smokiness, even its creaminess.

Objectively, not every dish in the meal left an equally strong impression, but the pizza’s execution and ideas both really deliver. Whether tomato, squid ink, or the bolder combinations, it’s never just the final flatbread tacked onto the set menu — it’s a genuinely persuasive expression of personality.

The only real issue is that Kokuryo really is far, and the Keio Line really does… wear you down.

But I’ll probably — can’t help it — go back again (a few times) just for this pizza.

Don Bravo

Tuesday – Sunday

17:30 / 20:00 seating only

Chef’s Menu ¥16,500~