The Pizza Bar on 38th

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Pizza as a Chef's Table Experience

Perched on the 38th floor of Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in the Nihonbashi district, The Pizza Bar on 38th reframes one of Italy's most beloved foods as an intimate, counter-driven dining event. Eight seats at a marble-top bar face the brick oven directly, so every guest watches the pizzaiolo at work — a format borrowed from the Japanese omakase tradition and applied, with genuine conviction, to Italian craft.

The recognition speaks for itself: Gambero Rosso has awarded the bar its top 3-Slice distinction, and the restaurant has ranked #1 in Asia and #2 in the world on the 50 Top Pizza list for 2025 — the third consecutive year it has claimed first place in the Asia-Pacific edition.

The Dough Comes First

Executive Chef Daniele Cason, a Roman native who began cooking at fourteen and trained at the acclaimed La Pergola in Rome, has built the entire experience around a single, carefully engineered foundation: the dough. Made with Italian organic flour, just one gram of yeast and 80% water, it undergoes a 48-hour fermentation that produces a crust described as exceptionally light and digestible. The classic Bufala — fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil on that organic base — is held up as the clearest expression of the philosophy: restraint, quality ingredients, nothing superfluous.

Cason joined Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in 2013 and was appointed Executive Chef in 2016. He oversaw the opening of The Pizza Bar on 38th and has shaped it into what is now one of the most discussed pizza destinations in the world.

An Omakase Format, an Italian Soul

Pizzas are served as part of an omakase menu, meaning the sequence and selection are in the chef's hands — a structure that rewards trust and creates a genuinely theatrical meal. For smaller groups, a private room accommodating seven to eight guests is available on selected days, offering a curated progression of appetisers, omakase pizzas and dessert, with the option of a personalised wine flight arranged by the hotel's sommeliers.

The dress code is smart casual; the atmosphere, while elevated, is designed around the counter and the oven rather than formal ceremony. It is, at its core, a bar — one that happens to serve some of the most carefully considered pizza in Asia.