Tope: hits and misses in one meal

Area:  Shinsakae station, Exit 1  新栄駅
Restaurant:  Trattoria Tope   トラットリア　トぺ
Website and Map:  http://www.trattoria-tope.com/product/access/access.html

Hours:  Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm,  Dinner 5:30-9:30pm


On my day off, I decided to visit Mazak Yamazaki art museum for the first time.  On the B1 level, there was an Italian restaurant that caught my eye.  I decided to give it a try before steping into the gallery.   I chose the Tope lunch (\2000), which included two appetizers, pasta, bread, dessert and coffee or tea.  

In the first appetizer, an onion crustless quiche was soft and silky, with the natural sweetness of slow cooked onions.   Kampachi (sashimi) was buttery and refreshing with lemony sprouts.

The chilled juicy chicken breast was served with a cocktail sauce (ketchup and horseradish flavor).  The broccoli was seasoned well.    

Two types of bread were served;  one was a thick crust baguette, and the other was soft and more like Japanese bread  The dipping olive oil seemed of high quality.

The second appetizer was a squid, tomato and olive salad.  Here, the olive flavor was the most prominent.  The chicory was bitter, and the parsley somehow brought out this bitterness.  The squid only added texture and did not add much flavor.  Due to the simplicity of  this dish, it seemed like a salad adults would enjoy.   

For the pasta, I was recommended the rosemary and pecorino cheese spaghetti since I was looking for something a bit different than the usual.  There was a certain creaminess to this pepperoncino because of the french butter used.  Although it seems that I'm a huge fan of pasta since I eat it a lot, this is not the case.  I find a lot of restaurants in Japan serve pasta for lunch.  I eat pasta lunches just because I hope I will be blown away by a pasta dish someday.  Even though the pasta here was not fresh pasta, it was cooked al dente.  I was actually impressed with the sauce; it was light but big on flavors of rosemary, cheese and butter, which was a nice combination.  The beans didn't add much since they were slightly dry in texture, but provided volume.  

The coffee was a nice roast.  The desert was a sesame panna cotta with caramel sauce.  The almond cookie had a slightly burnt flavor.  The chocolate cake looked dense but was actually light and went well with the raspberry sauce, however was not outstanding.

This restaurant had an upscale fell with white table clothes, and waiters wearing suits.  All of the patrons were women.