Lega'

An Italian restaurant in rural Nara where the menu is built around a premise: that Piemonte and the Yamato highlands have more to say to each other than you'd expect. The chef trained in northern Italy and now hand-rolls tajarin and agnolotti alongside dishes like venison senbei, a wink at the deer that wander the park nearby. One Michelin star. The name means "bind," which does a lot of quiet work on the plate.

One honor, in evidence: