Pellegrino (Tabelog 4.57, Gold)

by stvnenator

5 Comments

  1. stvnenator

    Got lucky and was able to snag a reservation to Pellegrino via Omakase after about 5 minutes of aggressive thumb exercises. It is quite a long meal at 4 hours, and the price tag is quite high at ¥110,000/person including alcohol/non-alcohol pairing. Chef Takahashi Hayato is a one-man show at his 6 seat restaurant in Hiroo where he does everything from serving to cooking.

    Overall, the food was delicious with favorites being:

    Hotaru
    *ika* (firefly squid) – the pea
    puree having a nice balance with the briny hotaru ika and finishing with a nice
    spearmint kick.

    *Kinmedai* (golden eye snapper) – the skin was the most
    crisp I ever had while not over cooking fish, and the salsa verde worked well
    with the fattiness of the kinmedai.

    *Tagliattelle* – I don’t know what it is about Japanese and
    Italian tomatoes, but I am usually a sucker for it when it is on a dish, and
    this one was no exception. The pasta was great, but man, those tomatoes with
    the basil and olive oil. Amazing.

    Pellegrino is famous for it’s prosciutto show and it was great as advertised. We had two
    kinds of prosciutto, the first which I forgot the type, but the second from
    black pigs in Italy. The chef served them very thinly sliced on our hands as
    various ways including wrapped around rice, wrapped around mozzarella and over
    torta fritta.

    Final
    verdict: a great and delicious meal, but between how hard it is to book and the
    price tag, I will probably visit other Italian restaurants in Japan before
    watching my bank account drop precipitously

  2. DanielfromHK

    Thank You for sharing. Have always been curious about this place but not curious enough to spend ¥110k

  3. yeezypeasy

    I’m sure it tasted good, but the plating on a lot of those dishes is awful for that price point (and for even any nice restaurant, like alone Michelin star)

  4. PoJenkins

    That price is absolutely insane.

    I would want to have my mind absolutely blown out of the water for that much haha.

  5. evian_water

    Interesting; it’s difficult to evaluate because, if it was in Europe, it would look disappointing. But this is Japan, so you can’t expect the same level, the same way as European sushi are not as good as Japan’s.

    Regarding prosciutto: fight me on this but jamon iberico is that much better to the point I don’t see the appeal of prosciutto. It is not easy to find top quality jamon though, all offerings in plastic blisters in high-end grocery stores are not interesting, gotta find freshly cut pieces that have been properly warmed up.

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