Restaurant in Nagasaki, Japan
Five Tabelog Bronzes. Ten seats. Book early.
Villa del nido in Kunimi Town, Unzen has held Tabelog Bronze status every year from 2022 through 2026 and scored 4.37 from a 10-seat house-restaurant kitchen serving local Italian cuisine. At JPY 20,000–29,999 per head, it is the most credible single-destination meal in rural Nagasaki. Book via Pocket Concierge and arrive on time — the kitchen starts all covers simultaneously.
A 4.37 Tabelog score earned across five consecutive Bronze Awards (2022–2026) — plus three appearances on the Tabelog Italian WEST "100" list — tells you most of what you need to know about Villa del nido. This 10-seat house restaurant in Kunimi Town, Unzen, serves Italian-influenced cuisine grounded in local Nagasaki ingredients, and it earns its JPY 20,000–29,999 price point honestly. If you are driving into rural Nagasaki for a single meal, this is the one to plan around. The format rewards people who arrive with intent: punctuality is required, cancellations within three days incur a fee, and seats are limited enough that a missed booking genuinely costs someone else their evening.
Villa del nido operates as a house restaurant , a private-home-scale setting with 10 seats and no private rooms. Chef Takafumi Yoshida's approach is described as local Italian: Italian technique applied to ingredients from the Kunimi area of Nagasaki Prefecture. That framing matters for how you read the menu. This is not a classical Italian restaurant transplanted to Kyushu; the sourcing logic runs the other direction, with Nagasaki's coastal and agricultural produce informing what appears on the plate. Both lunch and dinner run at the same price band (JPY 20,000–29,999 before the 10% service charge), so the choice between them is about timing and convenience rather than value.
Given the seasonal-rotation angle that defines the kitchen's philosophy, return visits have clear logic. The Kunimi area sits on the Shimabara Peninsula facing the Ariake Sea, and what's available from local farms and the sea shifts across the year. A summer visit and a winter visit will produce materially different menus. If you have been once and want to know what to try next, the honest answer is: come back in a different season. The core framework of local Italian cuisine stays consistent; the ingredients underneath it rotate. That is the reason this restaurant holds a consistent 4.37 across hundreds of reviews rather than spiking and fading.
Practically: get there on time. The kitchen starts all covers simultaneously, which means a late arrival disrupts the entire service. From Shimabara Railway Taira Station, a taxi takes about three minutes. From Taira Port, allow five minutes by taxi. Parking is available if you are driving. The nearest accommodations are Kanzakuso (about a 15-minute walk, or three minutes by taxi) and Tokitoki, a renovated traditional building available for exclusive rental, roughly 10 minutes by taxi. If you are travelling specifically for this meal, staying locally overnight makes the logistics considerably easier than treating it as a day trip from Nagasaki city.
Reservations are required , there are no walk-ins. You can book by phone (+81-957-73-9713) or online via Pocket Concierge, which handles reservations 24 hours a day. Phone calls during service hours are difficult to connect, so online booking is the more reliable route. Booking difficulty is rated easy by Pearl, meaning availability is more accessible than the awards record might suggest , though with only 10 seats open Thursday through Monday, any popular weekend dates will fill. Book at least one to two weeks ahead for a weekend slot; midweek lunches are more forgiving. The restaurant is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Credit cards are accepted. Electronic money and QR code payments are not. A 10% service charge applies to all covers. There is no children's menu, making this a poor fit for families with young children. The entire venue can be taken over for private use, which is worth knowing if you are planning a group occasion , though with 10 seats total, the numbers work leading for intimate dinners rather than large parties. Smoking is not permitted inside; an outdoor smoking area is available.
For broader context on dining in Nagasaki and across Kyushu, see our full Nagasaki restaurants guide. Notable regional peers include Pesceco, which takes an innovative approach to Nagasaki seafood, and Doyama for a different register of Nagasaki dining. Further afield, Italian-rooted tasting-menu restaurants in western Japan worth comparing include akordu in Nara and Goh in Fukuoka. If your trip extends beyond Nagasaki, our Nagasaki guide covers the full picture alongside hotels, bars, and experiences.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villa del nido | Easy | — | |
| HAJIME | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown | — |
| Harutaka | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown | — |
| L'Effervescence | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown | — |
| RyuGin | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown | — |
| HOMMAGE | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
No. Villa del nido is a 10-seat house restaurant with no bar seating and no walk-in option. Every seat requires a reservation made in advance via phone (+81-957-73-9713) or through Pocket Concierge. The format is a single shared start time for all guests, so seating is structured, not casual.
No dress code is listed in the venue data. That said, the combination of a 4.37 Tabelog score, five consecutive Bronze Awards, and a JPY 20,000–29,999 per-head price point signals a setting where guests typically dress neatly. Avoid beachwear or overly casual attire, but there is no documented requirement for formal dress.
Book as early as possible — this is a 10-seat reservation-only restaurant with no walk-in option. Given its five consecutive Tabelog Bronze Awards and inclusion in the Tabelog Italian WEST 100 list, seats fill well ahead. Online reservations via Pocket Concierge are available 24 hours a day, which is the most reliable booking method since phone calls during service can be hard to connect.
Yes, with caveats. The 10-seat format, JPY 20,000–29,999 price point, and five-year Tabelog Bronze run make it a serious option for a celebratory meal. There are no private rooms, so the experience is communal. The venue can be reserved for exclusive private use, which makes it better suited to a small group occasion than a standard dinner for two alongside strangers.
Pesceco is the most directly comparable regional peer, also recognised in Tabelog's rankings for Kyushu. For Italian dining at a similar price in Western Japan more broadly, the Tabelog Italian WEST 100 list is the most useful reference. If proximity to Nagasaki City matters more than cuisine type, see Pearl's full Nagasaki dining guide for options across formats and budgets.
Both lunch and dinner are priced identically at JPY 20,000–29,999, which is unusual and suggests the kitchen delivers a comparable experience at both services. Lunch starts at 12:00 and dinner at 19:00. If you are travelling from Nagasaki City or arriving via Taira Port, a lunch booking may be easier to time logistically, given the roughly 5-minute taxi journey from the port.
All guests start at the same time — the restaurant requests you arrive punctually, and cancellations within three days incur a fee, so this is a firm commitment. It is a house restaurant with 10 seats, no children's menu, and a 10% service charge added to the bill. Credit cards are accepted; electronic money and QR code payments are not. Budget JPY 22,000–33,000 per person all-in after service charge.
■Business hoursLunch starts at 12:00Dinner starts at 19:00■Closed onTuesdays and Wednesdays
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
