Frey’s Famous Pizzeria

The hurriedly scrawled menus and hand-decorated takeaway boxes lend an unpretentious charm to Roppongi's newest pizzeria, which opened in April 2011 on a backstreet close to Tokyo Midtown. Chef Shogo Yamaguchi used to work at Azabu Juban's Savoy Pizzeria, and he practises a similar brand of menu austerity here: there are just three pizzas, prepared Neapolitan-style and cooked in an enormous metal oven that looks more like an industrial furnace. Weekday lunch is the best time to go, when the smallish pizzas come accompanied with salad in a ¥1,000 set (add ¥200 for an after-dinner espresso that comes with a sludge of sugar at the bottom). At dinner, when the price goes up to ¥1,500, Frey’s has slightly less of an edge over the local competition.