Rusticanella, Akasaka (ルスティカネラ)

Many times I’ve scoured Tabelog for dinner places in Akasaka and come away disappointed. One that was always on the cusp but never got picked was Rusticanella; here it is. (Incidentally, if I was looking now and had the money, I’d try this Uoshin place. It’s almost across the street from Rusticanella, which is why the latter was on my mind after lunch with Chewy at the former several weeks before).
Someone looks excited. It’s a nice-looking place.

And pretty empty on a Saturday night. Hmmmmm. When it’s empty and the patrons are all old, you can’t be too doki doki about the food either. Maybe that’s what made this picture crooked.

We had the course – I can’t remember if there were many options, and to tell you the truth I can’t remember what many of the courses were. Considering the crazy stuff I remember months later in memorable meals, I guess that’s all the review you really need on this place. But I’ll show you the pictures anyway, because there’s nothing really wrong with going here, at the price.

Plain gnocchi with cheese sauce. It cracks me up, as an American, when Japanese-Italian restaurants do this. I mean, it could be normal in Italia for all I know. In America, it looks like they took three out of the pot to see if they were done, and the other 27 will be following shortly.

Looks a lot like a canned tuna risotto, but I’m sure it’s not.

This is pretty cool for a fish course – two pieces of grilled white fish and half a scampi.

Wagyu with a slice of foie? I mean, I’d never say no to that. The yellow puddle pooling at the left of the plate is just fat running off the foie, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

And ahhhhh, there it is, the crappy mixed dessert plate. It wouldn’t be an Italian dinner without one.

Another thing this place has going for it is that it’s on the Eatpia site, which has a limited selection of quite good places (Merveille used to be there). Not sure what happened in this case.
03-5549-1572