Seirinkan

The owner of Seirinkan was the pioneer of authentic Naples style pizza in Tokyo. Susumu Kakinuma, who spent eating his way around Naples before to deciding to open up his own shop, established a place in Tokyo called Savoy in 1995, before eventually closing it and opening here.

Seirinkan means "house of sacred wood", though my spell checker prefers: "house of scared wood", which certainly conjures up an image or two. It is tucked away in a tiny side street in Nakameguro, barely wide enough for a car to pass. The premises are unassuming, a narrow shop with a table and battered metal chairs outside, the pizza oven on display behind a counter, and further tables over two upstairs levels accessed via a spiral staircase. The pizza oven is hot enough to cook a pizza in just under a minute.

The menu is minimalist, stripped back to just two pizzas: margherita (tomato sauce and cheese) and marinara (tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil). We tried both, which were nicely made with a pliable, thin crust. The tomatoes were good, though not by any means as good as those I tried at Pizza Studio Tamaki a few days earlier. For both pizzas I liked the crust, but the toppings did not seem quite what they could have been.

Service was basic but friendly, and our bill came to ¥3,594 for two pizzas and a soft drink, which works out at £13 a head. Certainly this was good pizza, though Tsubasa Tamaki, who actually trained here for years before setting up Pizza Studio Tamaki, has in my view somewhat surpassed the skills of person that trained him. However, if you are in the area then it is an inexpensive and pleasant experience.