It is date night and you really want to impress your special someone. You want to go for おしゃれ oshare and really impress him or her. Where can you find such a place in Tsukuba? Drive past the Uworld, and on your left hand side you will see a very おしゃれ oshare Italian style restaurant. You have just taken your date to Arzonie Italia.
Arzonie Italia
It was a date night for the wife and I when we went to Arzonie Italia. I wanted to take her to a special place and I had heard about Arzonie Italia a while back from a friend. One of the first things I was told about it was that it is super おしゃれ oshare, which means fancy. Just walking up to the restaurant from the parking lot gave off that vibe. It also gave off a strong vibe that I would be dropping a lot of yen that night and I wasn't wrong.
おしゃれ
When you walk into Arzonie Italia, you will see the waiting room, which had it's own air conditioner which surprised me, and on your right hand side you will see the sweets area. If you do not want to eat at the restaurant and just want to grab a piece of cake or something, that place has you covered. You will see a glass counter filled with different cakes and pastries. It all looked incredibly delicious. But that would have to wait for another time, the wife and I were there to enjoy some Italian food. We were ushered to our table which also gave off the oshare vibe and given menus to look over.
Course Menu
Arzonie Italia has a course menu which I considered ordering. But the wife stopped me and told me she wanted to try other dishes and not just a set course. The dinner set course is pretty pricy but the lunch course menu is way more reasonable. So if you do not want to drop too much yen, I suggest coming during lunch time. The course menu brings salad or soup, pasta, a main dish, dessert and coffee. Depending on what course menu you order, it changes. The most expensive course menu the "Menu di Stagione" brings Caesar salad, soup of the day, pasta of the day, catch of the day, meat of the day, dessert and coffee.
Recommendation Menu
We were looking at the regular menu when the waitress brought over a big black board which had the recommendation menu on it. The wife decided to order the red wine of the day and since I was driving I got a ginger ale. The wife then looked at the antipasto part of the menu and automatically said, "we are getting the Camembert Ahijo." She loves ahijo and she makes a very delicious ahijo herself. I wasn't so sure about that particular antipasto but if that is what she wants, then that is what we were getting. Everything on the recommendation menu sounded delicious. While looking over it, I saw that they had uni (sea urchin) pasta. I order that and we also ordered a quattro formaggi pizza as well. The waitress took our order and we waited.
Camembert Ahijo
The first dish to come to our table was the antipasto. This was the wife's order but after taking a glance at it, I was really glad she did order it. I was 90% sure that the camembert cheese was not going to go well with the ahijo. I was incredibly wrong. The camembert soaked up all that garlic sauce so when you put it into your mouth you got melting delicious camembert cheese with a nice flavor of garlic behind it. It wasn't a huge flavor of garlic in the cheese. The cheese seemed to have soaked up the garlic well thus creating this perfect fusion of camembert and garlic. Eating that Camembert cheese was like laying on a bed with a new mattress, bliss. The wife saw the surprise in my face and gave me the "I told you so" face. This was my favorite dish of the night. It was so surprisingly good that I am glad she ordered it.
Quattro Formaggi
I bet you were thinking, "a four cheese pizza, this guy probably ordered that first." Ha! I did not! Shocking right? It was actually the wife who wanted to give this pizza a try, and of course I was not going to go against her wishes. This pizza brought gorgonzola, mozzarella, grana padano (this is an Italian cheese which is like parmasen) and ricotta cheese. The wife grabbed the first slice and started on the pizza. She made her "おいしい いい" sound and told me that the cheese was great. After taking my first bite, I had to agree. All those cheeses mixed together was heaven. We also put some honey on our slices which is customary when eating a quattro formaggi. The sweetness of the honey with the strong flavor of all those glorious cheeses was amazing. The wife did say "the crust could be better." I had to agree with her on that too. I ordered the spinach crust because the waitress told me it would go well with the cheese and in a way it did. But there was no crunch to the crust which made it seem kind of like cheese bread. This was in no way a deal breaker though. The wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our pizza.
Sea Urchin Cream Pasta
Next came my order and one of the most expensive items on the recommendation menu, the sea urchin cream pasta. The wife and I shared this of course, but I took the first fork full of pasta. Biting into that pasta was instant bliss. It was so creamy and the uni, sea urchin, flavor was lingering in my mouth long after my first bite. The pasta was fantastic because it soaked up the cream perfectly. The wife had a try and she loved it as well. There were also some pieces of shrimp in there and some tomatoes, but they were completely coated in the cream sauce so I really couldn't tell what was what. That didn't matter though, I wanted uni and I got uni and it was delicious. If you are not a fan of uni then I don't recommend this pasta dish but if you are, you definitely have to order it.
After we finished all our pizza and pasta, we thanked the staff and headed home. The wife was very happy with our date night and enjoyed the restaurant. As for me, I liked Arzonie Italia but it isn't my favorite Italian restaurant in Tsukuba. I do want to come back for lunch and try the lunch course menu whenever I can.
Do I think this place is delicious? Yes. Do I think it is a bit over priced? Yeah, a little bit. I believe this place is great for special occasions or business dinners.
So if you have a special occasion coming up and really want to impress that special someone, why don't you take that special someone to Arzonie Italia. Who knows, you might see me there, on another date night with the wife sharing some great pasta.
Enjoy!
For more information on Arzonie Italia, check out their website:
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