We went to Sant-AnGelo (サンタアンジェロ) for our last meal in Osaka before we headed off to Takayama. The address is: 5-1-60 Nanba, Chuo Ward, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 542-0076. It can be tricky to find because it’s located in a mall called Namba City. Just walk past all the shops on the first floor to an area at the back where there’s a concentration of restaurants. And if you’re wondering if we’ve gone to other Italian places during this same trip, the answer is absolutely.
We were looking for a simple lunch as we had a long train ride ahead of us so I ordered the spaghetti carbonara. This is one of my favorite pasta dishes of all time though I am a firm believer in that it needs a lot of sauce. I don’t like it when it’s dry which is what a lot of Vancouver restaurants are guilty of doing.
At Sant-Angelo, they use lots of cheese and egg to make the creamy sauce which makes it so delicious. They also use the best pancetta I’ve ever tasted which makes the pasta nearly perfect for me. Their lunchtime portions (around 1200 yen), are cheaper than their dinner menu. Despite this, we were full and I gave some of my pasta to Howie.
Howie ordered the Neapolitan pizza which they cut into 6 pieces – it was about a 10-inch sized pizza. The pizza here was wood-fired which gave each bite a nice smoky aroma. The crust was airy but maintained a nice chewiness to it. Howie thought they put a bit too much sauce on it. The sauce was slightly too tart to be called perfect.
Howie thought the cheese they used on the pizza was of very good quality. The anchovies were too salty. Overall, this was a good pizza although we found better pizza at Pizza Strada in Tokyo.
Note that there is a smoking and non-smoking section in this restaurant. They offered us the choice of which side but it’s not like the smoking section is in a different room. We didn’t see anyone in the restaurant smoking during lunch. However, if you’re seated in the non-smoking section and there’s a few smokers in the smoking section, the smoke would still make it to your section.
The restaurant interior was very cute – like a rustic Italian restaurant. The servers were very quick and prompt. Their English was basic but it was easy enough to order. They gave us an English menu and you can see a sample of it below. When we ate there, we were the only tourists in the restaurant. Everyone there was a local eating there during their lunch break.
