Ristorante Al Faro, Akebonobashi

It's Yoko, and I've been making my way around the ITS health insurance restaurants.

The ITS facilities can only be used by members of the Kanto IT Software Health Insurance Society and their companions.

They're popular because there are lots of high-quality restaurants at bargain prices!

This time I went to an Italian restaurant near Ichigaya and Akebonobashi!

The building is in a relatively quiet spot.

The interior is chic!

The classic-style cutlery matches the atmosphere nicely.

At the ITS restaurants you generally get two hours.

Our reservation was for 8:00 p.m., so we were probably the last customers, but nobody else seemed to have arrived at the same time,

and only three or four other groups were already eating, so we had the roomy dining room largely to ourselves.

Here's the drink menu. Both food and drinks are cheap at the ITS restaurants!

I can't help checking how cheap the soft drinks are... (lol)

This time we chose the ¥4,000 course.

I wasn't in the mood for alcohol, so I started with a non-alcoholic cocktail.

Kuruma prawn and vegetable jelly with tarragon.

Tarragon is a herb with thin leaves from the daisy family! It smells sweet and is used to flavor eggs and fish.

The jelly really does have a tarragon aroma that brings out the sweetness of the prawn!

Fried conger eel and corn with fresh tomato sauce. It's a fritto, but the flavor is quite light and it disappeared in a flash.

Live turban shell (sazae), whelk and fresh nori seaweed spaghetti

There was a surprising amount of whelk in it!

A sorbet to cleanse the palate...

Sautéed veal fillet with Genovese pesto, served with a vegetable tian

A tian is a dish from Provence in the south of France made with thinly sliced baked vegetables.

It's meat, but both the sauce and the vegetable side were refreshing, so this one vanished in no time too.

And then, before I knew it, dessert. You can choose as much as you like!

That day's lineup was a whopping nine kinds!

Trying all of them looked like a stretch, so I picked a few favorites!

I went with the fig tart, mango sorbet, tiramisu, pear compote and panna cotta.

After a leisurely cup of tea, I was completely full.

Thank you for the meal!

They have a big wine cellar with a good selection, so I'll have to check it out next time...

Overall the seasoning was gentle and the food felt healthy.

It's relatively empty and seems easy to book, so I think it's a good place to make your ITS restaurant debut!

Ristorante Al Faro

162-0064
Kenpo Kaikan Ichigaya 1F, 4-39 Ichigaya Nakanocho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
03-3225-1133