[JustaJ]

I've only eaten at 3 Italian restaurants in Japan. One was a "La Pausa", which was pretty much like a family restaurant for Italian food, it was in the building adjoining my hotel. They had margherita, pepperoni, seafood, etc. They did have some mayonnaise topped pizzas and, I believe, teriyaki chicken. But, nothing extremely unusual.

Another was the "Canal Cafe" in Iidabashi, I don't recall seeing anything on the menu that wasn't something that I haven't eaten before. They did have rotating specials. probably based on which ingredients were in season, though they were standard fare. I remember that place being packed to the brim with housewives who were eating on the deck to view the sakura off the canal. I don't remember anything having strawberries or sakura flavoring on the menu.

The last place was the same restaurant in 2 different locations. "Pico" in Enoshima and Jiyugaoka. Probably my favorite of the 3 restaurants. They had a pizza with a topping that I have never tried before. It was something that I can only describe as baitfish, I can't remember the name of it. Just these incredibly tiny, white fish fry. I'm not sure if it is seasonal, but it was on the menu both times that I went, autumn and spring, and it was at both locations so maybe it is their trademark pizza. Not as salty as I was expecting it to be, but quite a fishy taste. A little like anchovy, it could very well be extremely small anchovy. I've never had a pizza with that topping before. Aside from that, they had an appetizer set that included ham, sausage, salad, and garlic butter sazae, which is a giant mollusk. I've never had sazae prepared like that before. I think the best part of the experience was that the restaurant had a web coupon for a free margherita pizza for orders over 3000 yen. Gotta love those web coupons. The restaurants did have a specials menu with dishes not on their standard menu, but, again, I don't believe it was filled with anything crazy.

I never did try any of the large chain pizzas, which I would imagine have a thick crust more along the lines of a North American chain style pizza. The places I went to were all very thin stone baked crusts.