La Brianza

Should You Book La Brianza?

At the ¥¥ price point, La Brianza delivers one of Roppongi's more considered Italian dining propositions: a kitchen that maps Japanese seasonal ingredients onto Italian structure, with a set-menu focus that gives the food a clear arc from start to finish. If you are looking for Italian in Tokyo and want something more thoughtful than pasta-and-wine-bar territory without committing to the ¥¥¥¥ spend of somewhere like Aroma Fresca or Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura Tokyo, La Brianza is worth serious consideration. A Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025, plus a climb from Opinionated About Dining's Highly Recommended tier in 2023 to a ranked position of #303 in 2024 and #384 in 2025, confirms this is a venue with a track record rather than a one-season flash.

What La Brianza Actually Is

La Brianza sits on the third floor of Hills Residence in Roppongi, Minato City, a residential-feeling address that filters out the tourist foot traffic the neighbourhood is known for. The room's atmosphere tends toward the quieter, more composed end of the Roppongi dining spectrum. Do not come here expecting the high-energy buzz of an izakaya or a buzzy wine bar: the mood is deliberate and controlled, which suits the set-menu format well. For a first-timer, this means you can actually hear conversation across the table, the pace is set by the kitchen rather than by how quickly you want to turn the table over.

Chef Yoshiyuki Okuno's kitchen operates on a premise that takes the Italian tradition of cooking with whatever the season offers and applies it with Japanese rigour. Both culinary traditions share a deep commitment to seasonal rhythm, La Brianza uses this overlap as its structural logic. The fish carpaccio is finished with kelp, the focaccia arrives with a yuzu pepper sauce, the risotto is built on Japanese rice rather than arborio. These are not novelty twists applied for the sake of differentiation: they reflect the reality that Japanese produce, handled with Italian technique, produces results that neither cuisine would arrive at alone. For a first-timer, this framing matters because the menu will read as Italian in structure but will taste distinctly of Japan. Go in expecting fusion and you will misread it. Go in expecting a chef working two seasonal traditions simultaneously, the progression will make sense.

The set menu is the primary format at lunch and dinner, but evenings open up à la carte options, giving you more control over pacing and spend if you prefer not to commit to a fixed progression. For a first visit, the set menu is the more coherent experience: it lets the kitchen build a narrative across courses in a way that individual à la carte orders cannot replicate. The move from kelp-touched carpaccio through to a Japanese-rice risotto is more legible as a complete thought when experienced in sequence.

Hours run Monday through Sunday, 11:30 am to 3:30 pm for lunch and 5:30 pm to 11:00 pm for dinner. The consistent seven-day operation makes this easier to slot into a Tokyo itinerary than many comparable venues that close mid-week. Booking is rated Easy, which is worth noting: at this price tier and recognition level, La Brianza is not a venue you need to secure weeks in advance, which makes it a practical fallback if higher-tier options are already full.

If you are building a Tokyo dining itinerary that covers Italian alongside other cuisines, La Brianza pairs logically with exploration of the broader Japanese food culture that informs it. For Italian elsewhere in Japan, cenci in Kyoto takes a similar Japan-meets-Italian approach worth comparing. Farther afield, 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong represents the three-star ceiling for Italian in Asia if you want a benchmark for how far the format can go.

Within Tokyo's Italian category, La Brianza sits between the neighbourhood trattoria tier and the full fine-dining commitment of venues like PRISMA or Principio. For a comparison that stays closer to La Brianza's price band, AlCeppo is worth checking availability alongside it. The sustained OAD recognition across three consecutive years, combined with a Michelin Plate holding, puts La Brianza in a reliable middle tier: not the most technically ambitious Italian in the city, but one of the more consistent and intelligently conceived options at its price point. For more on eating in the city, see our full Tokyo restaurants guide. If you are planning a broader trip, our Tokyo hotels guide, bars guide, and experiences guide cover the rest of the city. For Japanese dining in other cities, HAJIME in Osaka, Gion Sasaki in Kyoto, akordu in Nara, Goh in Fukuoka, 1000 in Yokohama, and 6 in Okinawa are all worth a look alongside a Tokyo wineries guide visit if wine is part of the plan.

Know Before You Go