A Luxury Culinary Experience with a View at Ristorante & Bar E’volta, Ginza

Published on 2023-08-20

Ginza, an area known for its luxury shops and fine dining. It is here that you will find Ristorante E’volta, a restaurant where you enjoy high-quality food and an exclusive skyline view of Tokyo.

Located on the 16th floor of the Mitsui Garden Hotel Ginza Premier, the interior and menu at Ristorante E’volta are inspired by four different themes: ‘nature’, ‘texture’, ‘modern’ and ‘essentially’, making it somewhere with both a contemporary and traditional feel to it.

The Different Menus on Offer

Why not start off your day with a satisfying and filling breakfast? Ristorante E’volta runs a morning buffet from 6:30am to 10:00am for ¥3080. Although on the pricier side for breakfast, it is justified given that the menu includes freshly made whole wheat galette and crepes as well as a caramel fondue with various fruits and sweets. Unsurprisingly, priority for this buffet is given to the hotel guests so to try and secure a spot, you will need to call the restaurant in advance, there is no option to reserve online.

From midday, the lunch menu begins, one of the more affordable dining options available. For ¥3850 you get bread, soup, an appetizer, a choice of pasta dish, a main, dessert, coffee or tea as well as the scenic view of the Tokyo skyline during the day.

Ristorante E’volta also has an afternoon tea set, which starts from 2pm, and is ideal for those occasions you want to celebrate or catch up with friends in a more luxurious setting. Indulge yourself in a number of different savoury and sweet light bites including but not limited to, a bacon and Genovese bread sandwich, chocolate chip scone, and lemon tart. On top of this, you can enjoy free refills on both coffee and tea.

Reservations for both lunch and afternoon tea can be made directly on the website.

Dinner in the Sky: Enjoy Modern Italian Cuisine with a traditional Japanese Twist

On this particular visit, I tried the dinner course which is one of the most popular dining options. At ¥7770, you get to savor seven different courses. It should be noted however, that there is a separate drinks menu which is not included in this set price and a 10% service charge is added on during this time.

If seven courses is too much, there is also a normal A La Carte menu available as well, with dishes starting from ¥1000. This menu includes a solid selection of seasonal appetizers, pasta and meat dishes.

Whichever you decide to pick, I highly recommend booking to go between 6 to 7pm as at this time, you can watch the city landscape transform from day to night, right in front of your eyes.

All the dishes are inspired by both modern Italian cuisine and the Japanese concept of “iki”, which means ‘cool’ and ‘chic’. Each dish is made using high-class and seasonal Japanese ingredients which help make this a true luxury culinary experience.

Let’s have a more in-depth look at all the dishes served during my visit. Please note that certain dishes on the menu change from time to time.

First, you are served a piece of homemade bread and a beautiful bowl of soup. On this day, it was a cold soup made with eggplant topped with scapece and mint. A nice, light and refreshing dish to start with.

The appetizer given on this day was carpaccio of tuna with balsamic sauce and ayu fish sauce. The blend of Italian and Japanese flavours were very apparent in this dish and worked well together, giving an unique twist to traditional tuna sashimi. Noticeably, the tuna was of high- quality and tasted extremely fresh.

After the appetizer, a handmade pasta dish was served. The one on the menu was a tonnarelli with a sauce made with calf tongue from Italy and manganjisisitou-green peppers. One of the things that instantly stood out was the way this dish was plated. The pasta itself was perfectly cooked, having a soft texture and a slight creamy taste.

Next was a seafood dish, a sauteed grouper fillet with carpione of seasonal vegetables was given. This one was relatively small but similar to the tuna in the appetizer, the grouper fillet was of high-quality and was rich in flavour.

An assortment of marinaded seasonal colourful vegetables was next on the menu. Some of the vegetables on the plate included fresh sweetcorn, pumpkin and daikon. Each was perfectly marinded and had a soft texture to them.

The highlight of the dinner course was the meat dish, grilled Hitachi-gyu Japanese beef served with zucchini topped with passionfruit. The beef was tender and for a small piece was full of flavour. The zucchini side with passionfruit brought a nice sweetness to the overall dish.

A special plate was then given to end the savoury portion of the meal. This consisted of a home-made raviolone with marjoram flavoured connsome sauce, once again the combination of italian raviolone with a Japanese connsome sauce worked well together.

For dessert, there were only two choices, both of which were mousses. The first was a coconut mousse with pineapples and mangos marinated with lime or a yoghurt mousse with two kinds of grapefruits on top. I opted for the coconut mousse and it was wonderfully light, creamy and citrusy. It was ideal for cleansing the palate after all the savoury food.

Finally, ‘piccoli dolci’ or small desserts were offered in addition to coffee or tea. You could choose up to three piccoli dolci, with options including matcha brownie, coffee biscuits and almond bites. It was at this point that I completely just sat back, admired the night view of Ginza, and enjoyed my sweet treats and iced coffee leisurely.

Overall, the dinner course offered a strong variety of dishes as well as excellent service throughout. For all of this, plus the exclusive skyline view of Ginza, I believe that Ristorante E’volta would make a great setting for any special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary. A truly luxury culinary experience which is waiting for you right in the heart of Tokyo.