Arriving at Falo, prepare for a few surprises of the most pleasant kind. The first is that this sleek-looking new Italian restaurant, which opened in May in Daikanyama, feels and functions like a traditional izakaya tavern.
For a start, there are no tables. Instead, you sit at the wooden counter that runs around all four sides of the open kitchen. The reason is immediately obvious: the focus of the room — and of Falo's menu — is the charcoal grill that stands like an altar at the center. No matter where you're sitting, you get a ringside view.
Despite Falo's look and lineage — it's an offshoot of Mondo, a discreet (and rather good) Italian restaurant in the swish backstreets of Jiyugaoka — it's not in any way exclusive. In fact, the decor is simple, the setting casual and the welcome as down to earth as at any izakaya. The food, though, is a class above.