Our appreciation of Isola's superb pizza is already a matter of record: "A work of art . . . As close to perfection as you will ever need to get," we said -- and we have no reason to revise our opinion. When it comes to the location, though, the Food File is far less effusive. Isola is such a long haul from the nearest station that only the already-thrice-blessed who live in leafy Shirokanedai are positioned to enjoy it to the fullest.
So let us celebrate the arrival of its first offspring -- Isola blu by name -- in Ginza, just a couple of minutes walk from the nearest subway. Not only do we get to enjoy superior pizza in a far more accessible part of town, we can do so in splendid, upmarket surroundings.
In stark contrast to the original (a funky, friendly operation with low-budget furnishings), Isola blu is sleek, modern and thoroughly Ginza. It occupies all three floors of a slim new edifice whose striking, glass-fronted facde sets it off from the grubby, anonymous buildings with which it rubs shoulders.