[Azabujuban] The Restaurant Where Pasta Has the Last Word

B-TRE in Azabujuban. Italian. I’d heard it was a favorite of the editor-in-chief of a well-known Tokyo food magazine. Choosing a restaurant based on someone else’s tastes isn’t really my style — yet hearing that kind of thing, I still find myself pushing the door open with a certain level of expectation.

Pasta Is the Face of the Cooking

This being an Italian restaurant, the pasta is taken seriously. A wooden board arrived at the table bearing round shapes, thick shapes like udon, and finely cut strands laid out together. Some, they explained, are made for cold preparations. The pasta form comes first, and the sauce follows. You can feel that logic just by looking at the shapes arranged on the board.

What We Ordered

Horse meat with caviar. A bruschetta-style dish — generous butter on a slice of French bread-like toast, topped with caviar. Butter and caviar go together. I learned that for the first time. Then carbonara, truffle risotto, braised rabbit.

Everything was genuinely delicious. Just on the strength of the food, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a Michelin star.

The Day’s Tai, Any Way You’d Like

The day’s catch of tai could be prepared however we wished. Out of habit, I asked for carpaccio. Herbs and tiny ikura. Fish with fish roe — obvious in retrospect, but the combination turned out better than I’d imagined. Being able to choose is itself a form of luxury.

It’s a restaurant without pretension, and yet every plate shows real care. It was a genuinely good meal. A place I’d very much like to go back to.

Notes from the Day

• Restaurant: B-TRE (Azabujuban / Italian)
• Ordered: horse meat with caviar / caviar bruschetta / carbonara / truffle risotto / braised rabbit
• Day’s tai: carpaccio with herbs and tiny ikura
• Takeaway: butter and caviar — they go together
• Pasta is shaped to match the sauce. Round, thick-cut, and cold-preparation styles
• On the food alone: one Michelin star would be fair