Tsurugashima's main road is lined with restaurants. One stands out from the rest: Zaza Pasta Mangiare looked like the building and its colorful gardens were plucked out of the idyllic Italian countryside and dropped right along busy Tsurugashima. Stepping inside, the first thing you will see is an authentic Neapolitan style stone oven that uses firewood.
Zaza Pasta Mangiare went all out Italian in their interior decor. Little details -- ceramic tiles, wine bottles and wine racks, olive branches -- give the place the rustic charm that you could expect from a cozy pizzeria.
If you love stone oven baked pizza, I highly recommend any of the "variety pizza" sets, all of which are below ¥2,000 per person. The basic set comes with a serving of salad or soup and access to the drink bar, a more ample set comes with everything in the basic set plus an an entrée of your choice (I ordered the four cheese nama pasta or fresh made pasta), and the most generous set comes with everything mentioned plus a dessert of your choice. When you order a "variety pizza" set, freshly baked pizzas of various flavors will be brought to your table at regular intervals. The staff bearing the pizza will announce the flavor and you can indicate whether you want a slice or not (I turned down some of the pizzas such as the pizzas topped with pollock roe and corn, and accepted dessert-like pizzas only toward the end of my meal). The slice will be served onto a serving plate on your table and you take the pizza and consume it on a smaller personal plate (a procedure to prevent the spread of Covid-19).
