michael lambe's scrapbook

A fresh review up on Deep Kyoto today of the restaurant/gallery Neutron Cafe.

Yesterday, Kageyama-san, Betty and I went on a little day trip to Kobe. Kageyama-san is an excellent guide to Kobe as he often “escapes from Kyoto” to enjoy the more cosmopolitan atmosphere there and also – the good food. The first place he took us was a real Italian restaurant (with a real Italian pizza chef!) near Sannomiya Station called Ristorante R. Valentino. Here’s some pictures of the food:

前菜

Tuna & Olive Spaghetti

Pizza Margheritta

A set lunch consists of pizza or pasta, coffee or tea and desert. We ordered three set lunches; one pasta and two pizzas and shared. It was good value and damn tasty but the pizzas are pretty massive so we might have been better off ordering for two. After that we wandered round the Kitano-cho area to view some of the famous European residences there. This may have been a mistake as it was a super hot and muggy day and pretty soon we were wilting in the heat and ducking into air-conditioned shops at every opportunity. Kageyama-san also took us on a window-shopping tour of some the stores under the railway tracks and finally to bar Piccolo. Kageyama-san described it as the Tsurugi of Kobe and in that it is a “rock bar” it does bear some resemblance. The master here is also a sometime visitor to Tsurugi himself. However, Piccolo opens promptly at 7.30 p.m. and rapidly fills up with a young and varied crowd. It is also spacious and neat and organized. Cool place. Nice beers. Here are some more pictures, just hover your cursor over them for extra information or double click for a closer look:

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