Pizza 4P’s – Japan
Based in Vietnam with Japanese roots, this chain specializes in Neapolitan-style fusion pizzas
Originally founded in Vietnam by a Japanese expat and his wife, Pizza 4P’s is a Japanese/Vietnamese/Italian fusion restaurant concept that endeavors to create a harmonious, socially and ecologically conscious business by perfecting pizza as an art form. Its unusual name is pronounced “Pizza For Peace.”
Every Pizza 4P’s table receives full-color magazine-like “dictionaries” that detail everything from the chain’s philosophies, recipes, and suppliers to mindful ways of eating, with small black and white menu inserts in the center. They collectively spotlight Neapolitan-style pizzas, fresh pastas, and risotto as filtered through a global (but decidedly Asian) lens: There are classic margarita and burrata-topped pizzas, but also a wide range of internationally inspired choices including a Japanese grilled seafood pizza, another with clams and seaweed, an Indian curry lamb pizza, and another with Moroccan lamb merguez sausage.
If this sounds somewhat familiar from Orange County’s Ini Ristorante, that’s likely because Pizza 4P’s was an inspiration to our local Vietnamese-owned Japanese/Italian fusion restaurant. While we would pick Ini’s pizzas first in flavor and texture on comparable recipes, Pizza 4P’s has sparked a genuine phenomenon on social media in Vietnam by continually introducing and testing new recipes – including Vietnamese bo kho, Japanese scallops and miso, Chinese soy garlic beef, Persian beef kebab, and spicy garlic shrimp, to name just a few.
By contrast with Vietnam, where Pizza 4P’s has nearly three dozen locations, the chain’s single Japanese outlet in Azabudai Hills, Tokyo has a comparatively limited menu, but we were able to sample some of what makes the chain so successful in an upscale dining room where reservations are required and not particularly easy to get. Unsurprisingly, prices in Japan are higher: Instead of full pizzas going for $7-12 as they do in Vietnam, they’re $14-$28 each, depending on ingredients. That said, you can opt for half-and-half pizzas to try multiple recipes in one meal without over-ordering, and pay around half the normal full-sized price without penalties.
The six half-pizzas we tried were all good, including a salmon and four mushroom pizza, a “signature” burrata and prosciutto, and the Indian, Moroccan, and Japanese pizzas referenced above. Pizza 4P’s takes pride in making its cheeses in-house, and they were delicious – more notably so than the crusts, which were textbook Neapolitan in flavor and stretchy texture, though slightly under-crisped. Each of the ingredients was reasonably portioned, though vegetable, seaweed, sauce, and cheese flavors tended to dominate over meats and seafood across all of the pizzas. We also enjoyed a small seasonal burrata and persimmon dish, and a squid ink risotto plate, though each was on the small side given their price points, as well as a bagna cauda vegetable plate with hummus and garlic-anchovy dips, which was similarly sparing but tasty.
While the fusion pizza concept has been chain-worthy since at least the days of California Pizza Kitchen, the recent uptick in Curry Pizza House locations and opening of places such as Ini gives us reason to think there will be more options like Pizza 4P’s – and perhaps even this chain, itself – opening in Orange County going forward. There’s tremendous appeal in combining Italian canvases with Asian and Middle Eastern ingredients, and to the extent Pizza 4P’s has an interesting social mission beyond its culinary ambitions, it’s worth continuing to track.
Stats
Price: $$-$$$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2011 (Vietnam), 2023 (Japan)
Addresses
Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza D 1F
5-10-7 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Instagram: @pizza4ps, @pizza4ps.japan