Agora

Meal: Lunch Day Visited: Friday Budget: ¥2,500 Closest Station: Tanuki Koji Reservation Needed?: Yes Payment: Cash; Credit Kid Friendly?: No English Menu?: No What a lovely Italian restaurant! Many of the restaurants on/near Tanuki Koji are expensive with marginal quality. Agora is an exception. Th...ough a bit expensive - lunch set options were ¥1,800 or ¥2,500 on the day of our visit - the quality of the pasta was top notch. Our ¥2,500 lunch sets were the more expensive of the two options because they included grilled “meat,” which turned out to be grilled pork. This was the only part of the meal that we didn’t love. Otherwise, the pasta dishes were superb and the atmosphere was very friendly. Unlike others’ experience, we did not find the service to be slow at all. Highly recommended.

Visited March 2023

Excellent pre-fixe French-Italian-Japanese cuisine during lunch at a reasonable price. This place utilizes mainly local organic produce and meats. I definitely recommend this place for lunch and will make an effort soon to taste their dinner.

Visited July 2018

This place was fully booked on a Wednesday night, and it was easy to understand why. Comfortable atmosphere, nice wine, imaginative yet sensible food and good service. Everyone in the open kitchen worked very efficiently together, in spite of being fairly busy. I loved the fine wooden chopsticks tha...t were provided for guests. The three of us shared a bottle of sparkling wine and a range of dishes and I reckon that for 4,000 yen a head it was good value. I'm looking forward to returning sometime soon!

Visited September 2017

We found this place while we were out foraging for dinner one night and went in based on its lovely ambiance from the street, having no idea what sort of food it did. It turned out to be a Restaurant / Wine Bar which did a great take on Italian food. There were some language difficulties ordering bu...t as is always the case in this great country the wait staff were patient and gracious in assisting us to choose. We settled on a charcuterie platter followed by a main of grilled beef steak and vegetables and wine to wash it down. The food was just perfect, the charcuterie had obviously been house made and every element tasty, the sliced smoked duck breast the best I have ever tasted. The steak was cooked to perfection and served with beautiful roast potato. The huge strength of Japanese chefs is to know that simple is better and that the best food comes from the best ingredients without unnecessary embellishment and this was a perfect example. Had we known that it was Italian cuisine we may not have gone in to try it but we would have missed out on a very lovely meal and a great experience. We sat at the bar in front of the chefs so watched them plying their craft. The pizzas they were preparing were the same as the other food they prepared, a few beautiful ingredients artfully prepared and served. This was a lovely restaurant and well worth trying should you want a night off from more traditional Japanese fare.

Visited October 2016