Trattoria Tabulé

At Daniel's Wine Club we only write about places we genuinely love. Good food and an interesting wine list matter, of course, but what matters more to us is the human connection behind them, and our respect for the people doing the cooking.

Our first meeting with Trattoria Tabulé in Minato Mirai, Yokohama, also began with one chef. More on that story later. The first thing to say is simpler: an evening here feels like a short trip abroad. Bright colours on the plate, plating as precise as fine jewellery, the smell of spices rising from the table, and a first bite that catches you off guard. You travel with all five senses, and an ordinary weekday quietly turns into something else.

Middle Eastern Italian, a cuisine you have probably never tasted

Depth built out of spices and herbs

Tabulé calls its cooking Middle Eastern Italian, and the name is not a marketing flourish. Middle Eastern staples such as hummus and tabbouleh, the bulgur salad the restaurant is named after, are combined with the Italian cooking Japan knows so well. Where the two food cultures meet, you get dishes you will not find anywhere else. Spices and herbs are used generously, and the ingredient pairings surprise you in the best way, plate after plate.

How we found Trattoria Tabulé

A happy connection with Chef Ukita

It started when chef Ukita became curious about our wines. He began coming to our Wine and English evenings, held every Thursday from 20:00 to 21:30, and this time we were finally able to visit him at the restaurant. Meeting cooks who fall for Romanian wine is the part of this work we enjoy most.

The Special Course, one surprise after another

Every plate arrives with something you did not see coming

We ate the Special Course (¥6,800), which walks you through the Tabulé repertoire one dish at a time. From the first course to dessert, every plate hides the same idea: a spice meeting an ingredient you would never have paired it with.

Pita bread arrives first, still warm from the oven, alongside chickpea hummus and falafel that is crisp outside and soft in the middle. The hummus is smooth, with the natural sweetness of the beans dissolved into it; the falafel is fragrant with spice. Scoop, bite, and you are already somewhere on the eastern Mediterranean.

Next comes the signature tabbouleh with yoghurt sauce, followed by a fresh kanpachi amberjack carpaccio. Clean acidity, herbs, and an appetite quietly building for whatever comes next.

The warm starter is a whole roasted cauliflower, dressed with fresh local herbs, walnuts, and a sauce of peanut butter and spices. It looks spectacular, but it is the texture that wins you over: soft and floury inside, with layer after layer of savoury depth. It is hard not to smile at it.

The pasta course is mussels and grilled eggplant in a ginger peperoncino.
Plump mussels glossy with oil, eggplant roasted until silky, herbs, and pasta pulling it all together. Every mouthful is the Middle East and Italy agreeing with each other.

The main course was the biggest surprise of the evening: a Middle Eastern style lamb hamburg steak with a red pepper and eggplant sauce. Spices are worked right through the lamb, the sauce carries a gentle sweetness, and the aromas unfold in layers as you eat. Genuinely memorable.

Dessert is tiramisu, softly sweet, closing the meal exactly as it should.

Course after course we caught ourselves thinking that a combination like that really works, and yet nothing ever felt like a stunt. You leave with a clear sense of a cook who is both curious and playful.

There are set courses at lunch and at dinner, and the contents change roughly once a month, so there is always something new waiting on the next visit.

East European wine, in Yokohama

Pairings that lift the plate and the glass together

Drinks are a pleasure here too. The wine list is broad, and the soft drinks are taken seriously enough that anyone not drinking is properly looked after.

What we drank with this meal were East European wines. The Romanian and other East European bottles we import at Daniel's Wine Club can be drunk right here at Tabulé in Minato Mirai. Spice led Middle Eastern Italian food next to characterful East European wine is, to us, the most interesting thing on the table.

We started with white. Gramma Aligoté 2023, from Gramma in Romania, is dry and 100 percent Aligoté, with green apple and lemon on the nose and a firm mineral edge. Its clean acidity and gentle fruit quietly lifted the hummus, the tabbouleh and the spiced cauliflower.

With the lamb we poured Pentagram Pinot Noir 2020 from Bulgaria. Sour cherry and raspberry, soft tannins and red fruit acidity, sitting beautifully against the spiced lamb and the sweetness of the red pepper and eggplant sauce.

Room to breathe, and a genuinely warm welcome

Mai san's attention to detail, and a terrace facing the lawn

We were met on the day by Mai and the rest of the team. Careful explanations of every dish, an eye on every glass, wine recommendations worth remembering: the professionalism showed at every turn. Her smile alone would have been worth the trip. Food and wine raising each other up, with a team who make that happen, made for a lovely couple of hours.

Tabulé sits on the ground floor of LIVING TOWN Minato Mirai. The ceilings are high, the room is open and full of the smell of spices, and it is easy to forget which country you are in. Through the tall windows there is a lawn under an open sky. The terrace seats welcome dogs, and a glass outdoors with a little green and a soft breeze is the best possible use of the months ahead. Good food is never only about flavour. It needs warmth and comfort around it, and Tabulé has both.

Getting there and booking

Trattoria Tabulé is about a six minute walk from Shin-Takashima station on the Minatomirai Line, and within walking distance of Yokohama station, on the ground floor of the LIVING TOWN Minato Mirai complex.

• Address: LIVING TOWN Minato Mirai 1F, 4-2-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-0012
• Phone: 045-307-6333
• Hours: lunch 11:30 to 14:00 (last order), dinner 17:30 to 21:00 (last order)
• Closed: Wednesdays
• Seats: 50, including dog friendly terrace seating

The current menu and restaurant news are posted on the official Instagram account (@tabule_trattoria). The photographs alone are worth a look before you book.

Please note that opening hours and closing days can change. Check the official Instagram or call ahead before you visit.

In short

Trattoria Tabulé in Minato Mirai is a rare thing: a genuinely new kind of cooking, a drinks list that includes East European wine, and hospitality that feels personal. The herbs, the unexpected pairings, the beauty of the plates. Each course moves something. If you are heading to Minato Mirai, make time for this short trip through the senses.
And if you mention that you came from Daniel's Wine Club, we think you will be looked after especially well. Enjoy the food, and enjoy the wine.

Written by SAITO Nami, Daniel's Wine Club