This post is about 365 days overdue; since then, I’ve thought about my experience at Sicilia-ya, a subdued, warm, and refined Sicilian eatery opened in 2014 by Ryuichi Oshita.
18 months ago, while planning for the trip, I was scrolling Google Maps for vintage audio stores. Up popped the icon “Sicilia-ya.”
I sent their Instagram to one of my best friends, whose family emigrated from Sicily to Australia. He and his wife were visiting Japan about two months before my partner and I were.
“Where is that?” he asked.
“Tokyo.”
“Wow. They’re doing some real grandma shit.”
With that raving endorsement, I awaited eagerly his report about his experience. Italian was the language of exchange between he and Oshita-san via Instagram DM, but sadly, my friend had to cancel his reservation at the last minute.
My partner and I were glad to take up the responsibility of visiting and reporting back.
At first, we scheduled just a dinner course, but then DMed to ask if they could accommodate a chef’s choice menu. They obliged happily.
The restaurant is in a thoroughly residential part of Bunkyo City. Visitors to Tokyo will know that the summers are oppressively humid; my partner and I came into the area early, and perused its very competent supermarket. Regard:
(The portions for solo-living Tokyo-ites are enviable.)
It came time for our reservation.
We were seated at the counter. The restaurant is painted in a serene blue; Italian radio played in the background, replete with commercials from what I could only guess was a satellite station.
Here’s the menu. What follows is the order of what I could remember.
Oshita asked us how we heard about them. I told him I found him completely by accident. “Thank Google for that!”
We loved the food. We closed down the restaurant. Then he brought homemade limoncello out.
It was one of two meals of last year’s trip to Japan that I think about often, and certainly were the highlights of the journey. We cannot wait to return to Japan and visit Sicilia-ya again, and I hope you may visit too.