Butcher Republic in Ebisu, Tokyo

As we scratch and crawl deeper into our search for Tokyo’s best pizza restaurants, we cannot be sure we have found all the best spots (not yet), but we can be certain Butcher Republic in Tokyo will not make that list.

I want to be sure you don’t miss the point, so I won’t bury the lede: Butcher Republic makes a weird, miserable pizza. Almost any other place would be a better choice. With that intro, if you are the type that likes gory details, the kind that slows down to get a better look at car accidents – please, by all means, keep reading.

As you wander down into the east side of Ebisu station, you have a pretty good chance of walking right past Tokyo’s Butcher Republic pizza restaurant.  They have a great location (which is probably expensive), and that is was I know of the shop.

Pizza and beer in Tokyo?  Sounds great.  I’m always interested in Chicago pizza.  As the Official Pizza Czar of Japan, I have eaten Chicago pizza in Japan, many times.  I really enjoyed DevilCraft (Kanda), and I wanted to provide some comparison between DevilCraft and other Tokyo Chicago pizza spots. I wanted to try this place, but… I was almost reluctant to bring anyone with me.  Call it an intuition; something did feel right about this place.

I decided that if I ever tried Butcher Republic, I would wait until I was by myself. One day, I was in the neighborhood, and I had that opportunity.

I think the photographs of Butcher Republic in this review make the pizza look good.  But if you know pizza, and certainly if you’ve had a chance to try the Chicago-style pizza at Butcher Republic, you may already have some idea why that pizza is sub-standard.

Because the idea of good deep-dish pizza in Tokyo is such a powerful incentive, I went.  And if I was a little excited even, if you think that is evidence of a kind of naive, boyish idealism – guilty as charged.  But as I opened the door, I had an experience like that of a struggling actress walking into a seedy audition with a B-movie producer: I knew going further would be a mistake.

Look at how messy that place is… why?  What is up with that? Have you no pride?

It was like walking into a bachelor pad.  And not the residence of a smart, stylish, put-together bachelor.  It was the other kind; kinda half-assing everything, where you expect rotten milk in the fridge and dirty dishes everywhere.  There were piles of papers.  There some kind of plastic storage with a blanket tossed over it.  Everything spilling out into the space.  Cluttered. Sloppy.

All of that mess may be okay for a small family-owned restaurant, or maybe for a quirky, artsy eatery, but not for this kind of place – Butcher Republic feels like a poor execution of “corporate,” and in no way feels like family.

And the staff, same vibe; super awkward, under-supervised, kind of sketchy. I wanted to leave right away.

What is wrong with the Butcher Republic in Ebisu?  My guess is: management problems.  As I have had a chance to see the obvious lack of love in Butcher Republic, I am of the opinion this is a local iteration of some kind of chain store.  I don’t know, and I’m not interested enough to research it.

Whoever owns it: it’s a mess.  Maybe that is because there is some big chain, trying to squeeze out every ichi-en of profit from the opperation.  Or maybe, this is a local franchise, granted to someone that can’t actually properly do the job.  In any case, it isn’t your responsibility to know why.  It’s my responsibility to tell you to go someplace else.

Here is the Butcher Republic pizza menu.

That is taken as a screenshot from their website.  They have raised prices since I was there a few months ago.  2700 JPY would make these some of the most expensive pizzas in Tokyo.  At any price, they are a pretty bad experience, and the price makes it even more so.

Here is what I ordered:

“Homemade patty, mozzarella, tomato sauce, olives, salami, mini tomatoes, green bell pepper.”
— “Chicago Classic” pizza, from the Butcher Republic menu

When my Chicago Classic pizza showed up, I wrote down a few notes, specifically for this review:

“Crust came out a little too ‘white’ and obviously too thin, looks like a tortilla.  Too much sauce, too wet.”

Chicago pizza can have a lot of sauce, yes.  According to my friend at Izakaya Ja Nai!!! (in Okazaki), who makes his own, somewhat unusual, but very tasty Chicago pizza: to completely cover the toppings in sauce is normal.

In this case, I am of the opinion that too many raw vegetables, and certainly those cherry tomatoes, will “sweat” during the cooking process, and release a lot of water.  A typical Italian pizza has more surface area, and the veggies can bake off more of the water. All those veggies dumped on top of each other, not so much. I have see other places do that (the Devil Works pizza at DevilCraft also has too many vegetables).  A water-y pizza is not a good pizza; that seemed to be the case with my Chicago Classic (which I suspect is not particularly classic at all).

As part of my standard 503-point checklist I expertly conduct for each pizza review, I performed the traditional “pizza test” that all Pizza Czars in my family have been trained to do: I tried to pick it up.  Everything poured off the pizza, in a liquid way.  That test would probably be better if I gave the cheese more time to “set up,” but not as much as other places because of all the water and weight from the tomatoes.

How about the flavor?  It wasn’t that bad, but it was “strange.”  Something about the consistency of the cheese struck me as odd: it’s creamy, reminding me of au gratin potatoes or cheese fondue.  The taste too, bite after bite, not what you’d expect, and not an improvement either.

The flavors themselves are “Italian,” but the construction of the pizza is not successful.  The crust is not real pizza crust, at all. The pizza at Butcher Republic reminded me of “a pizza stew.”  Or of something like a “chicken pot pie,” done with some vaguely pizza flavors, except the cheese, which was like French steak sauce, or… come on, that’s not right at all.

I will pivot now, and use the space in this review to list off some other examples of Japanese Chicago pizzas:

We already mentioned DevilCraft Kanda here in Tokyo, which I liked a lot (but I they served me a cold pizza at DevilCraft Gotanda, so, buyer beware).  The Chicago pizza at BrewPub Starboard in Kobe is an exceptionally good pizza. And I also mentioned the Chicago pizza at Izakaya Ja Nai!!! in Okazaki (near Nagoya), which was unusual, but very good.  Matt at Craft Beer and Pizza Imazato (in Ikuno, Osaka) is known to make Chicago pizza sometimes, but I was only able to try his Detroit pizza in Osaka (which was absolutely excellent). There is also a Chicago pizza at Drunk Bears in Osaka that was pretty good, but, a little odd (there is a hot dog-like “sausage” on that pizza).  As for pizza in Sapporo, the Chicago pizza at The Craft is basically as bad as Butcher Republic – but I still like that place as a place to hang out.

Okay, that’s it.  I went to Butcher Republic, and did the taste test (results: not good), so you don’t have to – you’re welcome.  Not a good pizza at all, the worst I think I’ve ever had in Tokyo.

Butcher Republic reminds me of the kind of corporate “cargo cult” pizza place that you’d find in an airport.  The signs look professionally done, the have a bunch of related ingredients, the idea of beer and pizza (And steak? Okay.) is fine.  But as you sit down to some server that clearly doesn’t care about service, and end up with a pizza that reminds you of soup, and the whole thing was as expensive as a nice experience, but just isn’t – you’re reminded why you don’t really want to eat “airport food.”

Ebisu’s Butcher Republic is a place that has put more attention into the graphic design of the menu, than the pizza or the customer experience – and it shows.  This is commerce, not hospitality.

For more Tokyo Pizza see:

— Pizza Marumo in Ebisu, Tokyo
— Pizza Bar on 38th in Tokyo at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Chuo City, Tokyo
— Pizza Studio Tamaki Rippongi, in Minato City, Tokyo
— Sabasu Pizza in Akasaka, Tokyo
— Devil Craft Pizza in Kanda, in Chuo City, and more deep-dish pizza at DevilCraft Gotanda, in Shinagawa,Tokyo
— “Domi-LA” Savoy in Asabujuban, Tokyo
— Shibuya pizza at Kevelos, in Tokyo
— Frey’s Famous Pizza in Rippongi, Tokyo
— Pizzakaya Pizza in Rippongi in Minato City, Tokyo
— Seirinkan Neapolitan Pizza in Meguro, Tokyo
— Tokyo star pizza at Pizzeria da Peppe Napoli Sta’ Ca” in Setagaya City, Tokyo

Pizza Slices in Tokyo

— Rocco’s Pizza in Ojihoncho, Kita City, Tokyo
— NYC-style pizza slices at New York Pizza Tonyz Tokyo in Koto City, Tokyo
— Pizza slices at Nim’s in Azabujuban, in Minato City, Tokyo
— I do not recommend Pizza Slice in Shibuya on Cat Street