Restaurant in Tokyo, Japan
Restrained Japanese-Italian tasting menu, Michelin-recognised.
Regalo is a Michelin Plate Italian restaurant in Yoyogi, Tokyo, where Chef Tomomi Ogura applies strict minimalism to a seasonal menu built on Japanese ingredients — bamboo shoots, sweetfish, Pacific saury — within an Italian structure. At ¥¥¥, it sits a tier below the splurge-level competition and delivers consistent, considered cooking. Book if you want precision over spectacle.
Yes — book Regalo if you want a Japanese-Italian tasting menu experience that earns its Michelin Plate recognition through restraint rather than spectacle. Chef Tomomi Ogura's cucina minimalism, built around native Japanese seasonal ingredients within an Italian framework, is a clear proposition: fewer components, more precision. At ¥¥¥, it sits a price tier below the heavy-hitters like Harutaka or RyuGin, which makes it one of the more accessible entries into serious seasonal cooking in Tokyo right now.
Descend to the basement level of a Yoyogi building in Shibuya and you enter a room defined by deliberate quiet. The visual register here is low-key: no theatrical open kitchen, no sweeping design statement. What you see on the plate is where the eye goes, and that is very much by design. Ogura's approach — referred to in the venue's own framing as cucina Ogura, or simply Ogura's Kitchen , rests on two principles: keep ingredient combinations minimal, and use set menus to deliver variety across a meal rather than complexity within a single dish.
The ingredient list reads like a seasonal calendar of Japan. Bamboo shoots, sweetfish (ayu), Pacific saury (sanma): these are not imported Italian pantry items dressed up in Tokyo. They are Japanese seasonal staples, handed an Italian structural framework. If you have eaten at Aroma Fresca or Principio and found the European-import model too faithful to its source, Regalo pushes further into genuinely local territory. It is closer in spirit to the direction cenci in Kyoto takes with Italian cooking than to anything you would find in Milan.
The Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025 is a meaningful signal here. A Plate designation , distinct from a Star , marks cooking Michelin's inspectors consider good, technically proficient, and worth knowing about, without reaching the full Star threshold. For a restaurant operating at this price point, in this format, that is a fair read: Regalo is a serious kitchen producing considered food, not a casual experiment. If you are returning after a first visit and wondering whether to order more deliberately this time, trust the set menu to do the work , the sequencing and variety are built into the format.
For context on comparable Italian cooking in the region, Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura Tokyo and AlCeppo represent different positions in the Tokyo Italian spectrum , the former leaning into global brand prestige, the latter rooted in more traditional regional Italian. Regalo sits apart from both: quieter, more focused on the Japan-Italy dialogue, less about atmosphere or name recognition. Abroad in Japan, 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong shows what Italian cooking with local ingredient integration looks like at the three-star level , useful as a reference point if you want to understand where Regalo sits on the ambition spectrum.
Regalo is listed in Yoyogi, which puts it in a quieter residential-commercial zone of Shibuya, away from the tourist density of Shinjuku or the fashion-week energy of Omotesando. The B1F address means you are walking into a basement space , expect intimacy over scale. This is not a venue for large-group celebrations or late-night noise. The room is suited to two people, or a small group who want to eat carefully and talk quietly. If you are planning a wider Tokyo dining itinerary, cross-reference with our full Tokyo restaurants guide and check our full Tokyo bars guide for after-dinner options in the area.
For those building a broader Japan trip around serious food, Regalo sits usefully alongside destinations like Gion Sasaki in Kyoto, HAJIME in Osaka, or akordu in Nara as part of a circuit of chefs who engage seriously with Japanese ingredients in non-Japanese formats. It is a different kind of journey than Goh in Fukuoka or 1000 in Yokohama, but the thread connecting them , chefs using Japan's seasonal produce as the primary material, not the garnish , runs clearly through all of them.
Regarding a late-night angle: Regalo's basement format and quiet room make it structurally a dinner-only destination. There is no cocktail bar energy here, no reason to arrive late and stay for atmosphere. It works leading as a focused dinner booking rather than a late-night extension of an evening out. If you want to keep the night going afterward, plan something separately , the Yoyogi neighbourhood does not have the bar density of Shinjuku or Ginza.
Google rating: 4.5 from 309 reviews , consistent and meaningful for a small basement restaurant with a specialist focus. This is not a venue chasing volume. PRISMA and AlCeppo offer points of comparison for how other Tokyo Italian rooms perform on similar metrics. For a broader picture of Tokyo accommodation while you plan, see our full Tokyo hotels guide. And if you want to extend your Japan exploration beyond restaurants, our full Tokyo experiences guide and our full Tokyo wineries guide are worth consulting alongside 6 in Okinawa for a more complete picture of what serious dining across Japan looks like.
Price: ¥¥¥ (mid-to-upper range, below Star-level pricing at comparable Tokyo destinations). Format: Set menu tasting format. Location: B1F, 4 Chome-6-2 Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo. Booking difficulty: Easy , no extreme advance planning required, but confirm reservations rather than attempting a walk-in. Group suitability: Leading for 2; intimate basement setting is not suited to large parties. Dress: Smart casual expected in line with the neighbourhood's relaxed-but-considered tone.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regalo | Italian | ¥¥¥ | Easy |
| Harutaka | Sushi | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| RyuGin | Kaiseki, Japanese | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| L'Effervescence | French | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| HOMMAGE | Innovtive French, French | ¥¥¥¥ | Unknown |
| Florilège | French | ¥¥¥ | Unknown |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
There is no à la carte at Regalo — Chef Tomomi Ogura runs a set menu format only, built around seasonal Japanese ingredients such as bamboo shoots, sweetfish, and Pacific saury interpreted through an Italian lens. The menu changes with the seasons, so what you eat depends entirely on when you visit. Trust the progression rather than trying to direct it.
Book at least three to four weeks out. Michelin Plate recognition and a basement venue in Yoyogi with limited covers means demand consistently outpaces availability. The format here is set menu only, so there is no flexibility to show up and order at the bar — you need a confirmed reservation.
The name means 'gift' in Italian, and the cooking philosophy follows that logic: minimal ingredient combinations, seasonal Japanese produce, and no theatrical distractions. This is a quiet, deliberate dining room in a Shibuya basement — expect restraint rather than spectacle. If you want loud presentation or kitchen theatre, look elsewhere.
Yes, if you value precision over abundance. Chef Ogura's principle of keeping ingredient combinations minimal produces focused, clean flavours rather than complex layering — the Michelin Plate reflects that the cooking is accomplished, not experimental. If you prefer richly constructed multi-component Italian cooking, HOMMAGE or L'Effervescence offer more elaborate builds at comparable Tokyo price points.
At ¥¥¥, Regalo sits below Tokyo's Michelin Star-level Italian pricing, which makes the value case reasonable for what it delivers: a Michelin-recognised, seasonally driven Japanese-Italian tasting menu. For that same spend, Florilège offers a more inventive French-rooted menu with higher profile recognition, but Regalo's differentiation is its singular Japanese-Italian restraint, which you won't find replicated at that price tier.
Basement venues with a set menu format in Tokyo's Yoyogi area typically run small covers, and Regalo's intimate setup is better suited to pairs or tables of up to four. Large groups should check the venue's official channels before assuming availability — the set menu format and room size make group flexibility limited compared to larger Tokyo dining rooms.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
