Italian dishes & me: ☺︎Restaurant Review 1☺︎

On December 17th, I went to a Italian restaurant 'GRIP ORGANIC' with my friend. It located in Minato-mirai, the 1st floor in Red Brick. As the outside are popular as its christmas market, the restaurant was also decorated with christmas trees. Actually we had no plan where we ate in, but this restaurant attracted us by its great location and cute sign board.

It had its shop for take-out drinks, like smoothie and waffles with cute toppings next to the eat-in restaurant. When we entered into there, a staff came and asked our name without greeting:( We went around 20 o'clock and it was on week day, so probably it was relatively less crowded. There are many tables both inside and outside, we seated outside table, with all transparent wall, after waiting about 15 minutes. There, we could enjoy both interiors of the restaurant and the christmas tree outside. Of course it was kept with comfortable temperature. The atmosphere was so good with christmas songs, but it was a little bit dark for me. Almost all of the tables were for 2 or 3 people, so it was not suit for groups to seat together.

The staff who brought us to the table recommended some drink menu, especially wines, just after we seated. He showed us those recommended drink menu (handwritten!) as well as ordinary one.

Drink menu

Recommended drink menu

But my friend chose Mango juice (¥500), and I choose espresso (¥400) for after the dished. I thought drinks were little bit expensive. After we ordered drinks, a staff brought dinner menu. Both drink and dinner menu are colorful and divided into some categories, so they were easy to see. I thought that it was better to combine drinks and dinners menu so that we could choose drinks suited for dinners.

Mango juice

There were no particular recommendation in dinner menu. I chose vongole rosso (¥1,400) as usual, and my friend chose pasta with fully ripe tomato and two kinds of cheese (¥1,500). Dishes were served in about 15 minutes, I didn't think it was too long because we enjoyed talking, so probably it could be felt too long time if I was alone. The dishes looked very delicious! My friend said that they used selected plates which suited for the dishes. For example, my vongole rosso was on the plate that shaped like a shell. The taste was good with the best temperature! But the taste of tomato was too deep, so I wanted to taste clam much more. Overall, both the quality and the quantity were good, and suited for the price.

Dinner menu

Vongole Rosso

Tomato and cheese pasta

This restaurant didn't have bathroom, so I went to that of Red Brick.Unfortunately it was not so clean, but there are many stocks of paper. I hope that was because of the time we went. After 21 o'clock, shops were closed except restaurants in Red Brick.