that same old feeling

One of Malc & my all time favourite restaurant in Sydney was Ristorante Certo, we even celebrated Malc's citizenship ceremony there. We were so sad when the people behind Certo decided to close the Sydney restaurant and move back to Tokyo.

Reminiscing on old times, Malc & I decided to check out the new Certo Wine & Dining (1-26, Suga-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0018 ph +81 3-5369-3455) and looked forward to the heavenly Italian dishes we have missed terribly.

The restaurant is located in one of the smaller streets in Shinjuku, a few blocks away from Shinjuku Station (better access via Yotsuya-sanchome Station). It had a small bar with 3 dining tables, a far cry from the 100-people venue in Sydney. The welcome though was just as warm by the same lady that has welcomed us numerous times in Sydney.

And onto the food . . . we were first given a complimentary entree of prosciutto and Italian olives. Malc commented on the how exceptionally tasty the proscuitto was and he even ate the olives!

We then shared an antipasti of boconcini, tomato, basil and olive oil. The taste was so simple but the quality of the ingredients made it such a luxurious dish.



For my main dish, my favourite pasta vongole was unfortunately not on the menu so I settled for fresh squid ink tagliolini pasta (made in-house) with squid, semi-dried tomatoes and bottarga. And while I did not get my first choice, the taste of the pasta brought back happy memories and reminded me why I enjoyed going to this restaurant. The taste was as crisp and clean and thoroughly delicious.

Malc ordered pumpkin gnocchi (made in-house) in a gorgonzola cheese sauce. Malc really likes gorgonzola and rated this dish as the ultimate comfort food.





And of course we could not leave without dessert. To close our meal, we had our usual warm chocolate cake and orange mascarpone gelata.

Although we walked out to a much smaller Shinjuku backstreet than Kent Street in Sydney, we went back to our hotel with a familiar happy feeling.

Next: La Table by Joel Robuchon.