Lunch at Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura (*), Tokyo

Visited Gucci Osteria for a weekend lunch. Since I’m allergic to fish, I asked to have the seafood dishes replaced, which the restaurant was happy to accommodate. Here’s what we had, in the order it was served:

• Amuse Bouche: Melon topped with prosciutto cream, mascarpone sour cream tart, eggplant with handmade brioche. A playful and elegant start, easily one of the highlights of the meal.
• Daikon-Wrapped Ragout with Red Onion Sauce: A carrot and celery ragout in daikon, served over a red onion sauce. The original dish was amberjack carpaccio with pine nuts. My girlfriend got the original and said that pine nuts complemented the amberjack surprisingly well. The substitute however was a bit muted in flavor and not particularly memorable. 
• Beef Tartare and Citrus Sauce : Beef tartare with 2 types of sauce: capers, parsley, and ginger mix, and a sudachi citrus. The original was charcoal grilled octopus with the same sauces.
• Rose Pasta with Tomato and Mozzarella: Rose-shaped pasta filled with three types of tomato puree, topped with mozzarella sauce and burnt parmigiano. Unfortunately the pictures don't do it much justice as the lighting was quite poor, but this was the only real standout dish of the meal thanks to the delicate mozzarella sauce. 
• Lamb with Two Sauces and Summer Vegetables : Lamb steak served with a lamb jus rosemary white wine sauce, along with corn boiled in konbu dashi, wasabi leaves, and a caper-olive sauce. Despite its elaborate description, the flavors felt extremely ordinary. Unfortunately forgot to take a picture.
• Carbonara Supplement: A soy sauce infused, miso egg yolk topped version with no pork. While it sounded intriguing, it lacked the depth and richness of real carbonara and suffered from the absence of guanciale. Not particularly interesting and definitely not worth adding.
• Ananas Semifreddo: A pretty simple, classic desert. Nothing particularly memorable.
• Final Sweets: Mango and passionfruit tart, and a matcha-coconut candy. Better than the main desert.

Despite the beautiful presentation, most dishes tasted fairly ordinary. Outside of the amuse bouche and the rose pasta, nothing left a strong impression or stood out.

Unfortunately, the overall experience was also affected by a loud family seated nearby who argued throughout the whole meal. At one point, they called over the chef to complain that the tomato sauce pasta tasted like Japanese Napolitan spaghetti. While I understand that loud guests are outside the restaurant’s control, I felt the situation wasn’t handled particularly well. The staff clearly noticed our discomfort from the beginning, but failed to intervene or offer any alternative until the very end of the meal, when they suggested we move to the bar counter for dessert and offered complimentary dessert wine. While the gesture was appreciated, it felt a little too late.

The total for two people including one glass of wine, one Negroni, and an extra pasta supplement for ¥5000 came to around ¥60,000, which felt quite overpriced. If you're looking for contemporary Italian in Tokyo, there are better options in my opinion, like Faro, which is both more interesting and less expensive.