Dandolo Dandolo, Nihonbashi

What's a dandolo? I presume it's something Italian, but I'm not going to look it up, because I find my reimaging funnier. It reminds of the word 'dandle' and a quick google of that yielded not the song I was thinking of, but some results for dolls with 'rump actuated sound generators'. That's a good one!

I strayed pretty far from home today, and found this place on a tiny street that had a high number of restaurants. They had all lined up their sandwich boards cutely in a row near the entrance off of Chuo Dori (near Shin Nihonbashi station, another perlexing twist in the extent of geography that goes by the name Nihonbashi). Dandolo^2 turned out to be a tiny doorway surrounded by flowers leading down some steep steps, and that plus the overall comforting nature of Italian food was enough for me.

This place is distinctly cheap Italian. If I could read the Concept section of the web site, I bet that in addition to 'regional Venetian cooking', it would say 'damn cheap'. The 'E' lunch set I had (Y1250) featured a starter plate with a small salad, a slice of raw fish, and a piece of toast with tuna-heavy potato salad, then a mixed plate with a heaping portion of spaghetti (you can choose from the 3 pastas offered at various price points in sets A through D) Amatriciana, heavy on the bacon and sweet with either cooked tomato or sugar (I liked it but I'm betting on sugar) AND a pan-fried breaded chicken breast topped with basil, mozz and tomato (I should remember the name of this). Did anyone follow that sentence?

The two staff were pleasant and attentive despite the fact that it was almost 2 when I got there, and the room is sorta tiled in a Tuscan way and decorated with lots of pictures of Venice. A very adequate lunch, but a looong way from the office.

When I was a little bitty baby,
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