When a Tokyo chef flies his proprietary flour blend to New York, you pay attention. Pizza Studio Tamaki opened May 5th at 123 St. Marks Place—the former Moody Tongue space—and it represents something we haven't seen in this city in years: a genuine culinary import that doesn't feel like a novelty, but like an inevitable next step. Tamaki's Tokyo pizzeria has spent years building an almost religious following in Japan. Now it's here, and the pizza tastes like nothing else in the five boroughs.
Tamaki's style, often described as Tokyo-Neapolitan, is rooted in Naples but refined through an almost surgical level of control. The dough ferments for exactly 30 hours. The oven runs at 896 degrees, burning Japanese cedar shavings for a particular kind of smoke that feels like an insider's detail—the kind of decision most restaurants would dismiss as imperceptible but that actually matters on the palate. Every pie starts with a proprietary flour blend, part Japanese and part North American, that's flown in from Japan specifically for this restaurant. This isn't gatekeeping. This is precision.
The space seats 65 people across a tight, honest room with the feeling of a neighborhood place that happens to be obsessed with getting every detail right. Order the Tamaki pie—cherry tomatoes, fresh smoked mozzarella, pecorino romano, basil—and you'll taste what the hype is about. The 5 Formaggi delivers exactly what its name promises but with a balance that makes five-cheese pizza feel like a reasonable idea. The Bismarck, sausage and egg, tastes like someone finally understood what that pizza should be. Even the charred broccolini with sautéed garlic belongs on the list of things to eat here.
Tamaki is open Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m.—limited hours that reflect the kitchen's commitment to doing this right rather than doing it big. New York has spent the last decade chasing pizza trends that came from somewhere else. This time, we're getting the real thing. Show up hungry and get there early.