La Loggia, Roppongi

Ahhh, La Loggia. Just the name conjures up visions of centuries-old houses, quaint streets, shady corners, authentic pizza, espresso counters, naan and curry.

La Loggia used to be a very mediocre Italian restaurant behind Roppongi Hills, near Aladdin or Cafe Eight or Gato Nero, depending on your perspective. It was mildly famous in my mind because it has an outside terrace, and the first time I went there it was so windy that the roof seemed ready to blow away. I think I only went once after that, because it was so darn bad.

Evidently the owners sold it. Now it's still called La Loggia, and they've preserved the mediocrity, but they play Bollywood favorites and serve up naan and curry sets. I had a yellow dal which was decent except that the lentils were still quite crunchy. My friend happened by after a while and ordered a 2-curry-and-tandoori set. The chicken piece was huge and red, and the keema curry was pronounced to taste "Just like American chili" (in a good way, I think). The naan were medium-sized, and quite thick and doughy, which to me makes them inferior to those at just about all the other places around. I also had a shish-something-or-other - not kebab, but the one that's ground meat pressed around a skewer tsukune-style. This was tasty. Y1050 all in for my curry-naan-shish-salad set.

Sitting outside on a beautiful day, watching people go by, flat-out skipping a meeting? Priceless.

Too small for a web site; here's a map