We finally made it to this Italian restaurant on our second visit to Akita — 🇮🇹Pasticci, described locally as legendary yet unassuming, and repeatedly recommended by well-known local food lovers.

🧑‍🍳Chef Takeda is an Akita native who entered the culinary trade at fifteen and once trained at an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Shirokanedai. After a few turns in life, he came back to Akita City to open this restaurant, handling all the prep and cooking himself alone — the seven counter seats don’t always fill up, and he runs it in a relaxed, unhurried way.

We didn’t expect that at a restaurant this seemingly casual, one where the chef is constantly wiping down the bottom of his own wine glass, we’d taste a main course so stunning it comfortably ranks first among every Japanese-Italian restaurant we’ve visited so far.

🐂It’s Miyagi beef akami with strawberry sauce.
The meatiness is full, yet the grain is remarkably fine. The surface carries enough char, with a touch of olive oil resting lightly on top that draws out its vegetal fragrance. The clean, delicate meatiness and umami unfold layer by layer as you chew. The strawberry sauce breaks convention, yet it feels entirely reasonable here — its precisely-judged freshness matches the character of this cut perfectly.
The whole dish beautifully conceals wagyu’s usual excess of fat; what stays in your mind afterward is nothing but the fine, clean aroma of Miyagi beef akami.

Of course, the rest of the food is full of ideas too.
🍈Melon with aged cream cheese — a straightforward pairing, with satisfaction that lands directly; rich, full, and just as fresh.
🥓”Youtiao”-style fritters of varying shapes with French ham, deliberately using the leanest cut to land just the right salty-savory texture.
🐟The carpaccio somehow offers four pairings in one go. Sweet shrimp uses only males, shima-aji comes with bell pepper, red sea bream with karasumi, and grouper with yellow mustard. Every bite has its own personality.
🐑Lamb sausage with goat cheese balls — surprisingly, bamboo shoots were tucked inside, instantly adding a distinct Japanese sense of season.
🦐There’s also pasta with Toyama white shrimp, and fried conger eel with squid-ink rice. The freshness of Japanese ingredients placed alongside traditional Italian staples both makes a statement and is simply, directly delicious.

By the time we were swaying with satisfaction over the pudding at the end, Takeda had already pulled out a chair and his own glass, and sat down to rest at the counter.
“With skills this good, why didn’t you stay in Tokyo back then?”
“Back then I put my savings on horse racing — if I won, I’d stay in Tokyo and open a restaurant. So here I am, back.”

⭐️
It really is a place where both the family running it and the food look effortlessly casual, yet the dishes are genuinely delicious.
Takeda cooks without ever hiding the fact that he’s constantly tasting and adjusting — a bit more lemon, a different cut, whatever vegetable he just bought that day thrown in. It looks almost incidental, even carrying a bit of “whatever’s on hand” randomness, but what comes out at the end always hits exactly the right note of satisfaction on the tongue.

I hear the menu changes dramatically every month — already looking forward to the next visit.

💰 ¥15,000
🇮🇹 Pasticci パスティッチ