Cona (previously Voco) Pizza is yet another pizzeria in Tokyo targeting the 500yen price point. While the pizza is good, the thing that sets Cona apart from the others is the huge range of pizzas on the menu and the casual bar style. The week day lunch menu has 19 different varieties of pizza and 8 varieties of pasta all at that magic 500yen price point. While they have the classic varieties covered, they also have some of those unique-to-Japan flavours as well. How about a tarako and potato pizza or the mysterious Shitamachi Special? (I forgot to ask)
I went for a simple anchovy, black olive and cheese pizza. Cooked in a gas fired oven (as opposed to a wood fired one) it was missing a little of the smokey flavour you get but it was good, tasty, handcrafted neapolitan pizza nonetheless. The size was marginally smaller than you get at Napoli’s or Sempre, but it was enough to fill me up. If you want a bit extra, they have 2 lunch sets available as well. For an extra 100yen, you can get a drink, while for an extra 200yen, you get a drink, salad and soup.
The admirable objective of Cona seems to be to ply you with cheap tasty pizzas while offering an extensive drinks list. It doesn’t seem to be bait for expensive booze either – the drinks were quite reasonably priced. The pizzeria is wide open to the street with a quiet park on the other side of the street and bassy but not ear-blasting music so it’s probably ideal for an evening drink in summer. To top it off, the staff were very friendly and obliging to my requests for photos and seemed to really enjoy what they were doing.
Edit: A reader reports having to pay a seating charge, so it probably won’t be as cheap if you visit in the evening.
