As a part of our list of pizza restaurants in Kobe, we bring you this review of one of the best Chicago pizza restaurants in all of Japan, BrewPub Starboard Pizza in Chuo-ku, Kobe.
BrewPub Starboard in Kobe would also be included in the category of “craft beer in Kobe,” but for this review, we’re mostly focused on the pizza – which was excellent (and surprisingly original).
BrewPub Starboard in Kobe, may have a “second name”; it is possible this place is also called Craft Kobe. The full name listed online is BrewPub Starboard Craftkobe スターボード/神戸ビール, and you’ll see Craft Kobe on some of the pint glasses deeper into this review.
I originally found BrewPub Starboard when I was looking for a convenient place for an after-dinner beer (I already had plans to eat pizza that night, at Pizzeria Allocco). When I saw they also made Chicago pizza, I knew I definitely needed to give this place a try.
Kobe’s BrewPub Starboard is located in central Kobe City, at the western end of Hankyu Sannomiya Station, one street north of the tracks. The BrewPub Starboard bar is located on the 2nd floor of a nice, upscale building.
The restaurant is divided into two rooms; the taproom (which is where I wanted to be) also contains the kitchen (I could hear the sounds of grease popping in the deep frier); there is also a second room, a dinning area, around the corner.
Let’s give you a look at the pizza, then we’ll talk about the beer for a bit, and then come back to the pizza – which is really what makes Brewpub Starboard special.
How’s that look? I’ll tell you how that looks; it looks fantastic. The cuts of bacon on that pizza are so big, it makes the pizza appear small. And even from these first pictures, you should be able to tell this is not a typical Chicago deep dish pizza.
That pizza is, however, one of the most beautiful deep dish pizzas in all of Japan, and it tastes even better than it looks. We’ll go on and on about this pizza below, but for now, their beer selection is certainly worth a few words.
20 taps. I like that.
When I sat down, they handed me the “kiddie computer” tablet to order. I personally never want a greasy tablet at my table, so I pushed it away. I said I’d like to order “in person,” and that was accepted.
However, due to my stubborn resistance to the trend of pushing screens on customers at sit-down restaurants (I have walked out of places when then won’t let me order face to face), and because they don’t have a paper menu for the beer, that meant I could read the tap levers (some of them), but I had no clue about most of the beers. A paper menu is not that hard, and it’s a better experience than forcing people to “scroll,” but…
I managed to order the red ale. She asked me “what size,” and I said “large” and she showed me a tankard, and I downgraded to a modest 12-ounce pint glass. The red ale was thick, and murky, like apple juice. It was tasty, thou, and went down easy.
On their pizza menu, I found not one, but several deep dish Chicago pizzas. I ordered the Pepperoni Bacon Chicago pizza. I saw a pizza with some meat on it, I ordered it. Done and done.
I did find the world’s most succinct description on their website:
Thick-sliced bacon and Ortolana pizza
— From the pizza menu at BrewPub Starboard
My server warned me that it would be “30 minutes” for the pizza, to which I was more than prepared. In fact, I’d planned for it.
If you’ve ever had a Chicago-style pizza, you’ll know they take a little while to bake. As I have been working on a list of the best Chicago pizza’s in Japan, it has become a ritual to get one beer in my system while I wait for the pie (it would be easy to drink two, actually, as you have 20 to 30 minutes before it’s out of the oven).
That “slow food” combination of (at least) a couple of good craft beers, with a deep dish pizza arriving after the beer has had a chance to take effect, is a magic formula for a very good night.
As for the pizza:
When a bar claims to make a pizza, it is not always a good thing. BrewPub Starboard is not even listed as a pizza restaurant in Kobe, and I didn’t expect the pizza to be particularly tasty. However, when this pizza arrived on the counter in front of me, I was excited to see it.
First impressions: It looked fantastic to me. Beautiful crust. And that is some seriously thick-cut bacon.
As I cut into it, I could not help but notice that the pizza had vegetables on it. When I read “Ortolana” in the description, I confess I didn’t know what that meant. Something… “Italian,” maybe? I would look into it later, but at that moment, what I saw as I cut into this suburb specimen of a pizza was specific: lotus root. And, wait, wait, is that… there were green beans on this pizza.
Have you have heard of pizza sauce that included green beans? Even now that sounds weird to me. What would that even taste like?
On my first bite, some flavor hit me that was not what I was expecting; it was good, but it was not a traditional pizza flavor at all. I liked it, but I couldn’t exactly say what it reminded me of… something familiar, but hard to place. As I pulled a green bean out to give it a taste, it hit me:
“Vegetable soup pizza.” Not “soupy,” but that savory, rich veggie soup flavor.
That was it. Even as I type this, I know that sounds weird. It might even sound terrible, but that was what this “bacon” pizza was all about. The flavor was original… and amazing. Surprising; but I loved it.
Check this out:
Pasta all Ortolana is an Italian vegetarian pasta dish made with a seasonal summer vegetable sauce that combines garden vegetables, aromatic herbs and tomato sauce to create a comfort sauce packed with flavor.
— From LorianaSheaCooks.com
So instead of traditional red sauce, they use this Ortolana; Italian summer vegetable sauce. And it was without a doubt, one of the most special pizzas I’ve ever eaten, one of the most unusual and delicious pizzas in Japan.
Take another look at this pizza. She is a beauty.
If you look at about “10:30” in the close-up picture of the pizza you might notice the lotus root; that “wagon wheel” looking oddity. You can also see some evidence of the green beans as well.
(The green beans on this pizza were grilled. Maybe this could be categorized as a “grilled soup pizza?”)
While I can howl with pleasure after a good experience (read my review of Azzurri Pizza in Kobe, where I go way beyond “nice”), generally, I am not afraid to speak my mind when I’ve had a bad experience. I recently jumped up and walked out of Des Sante Pizza in Osaka (so much so, he was crystal clear I nonplused about something). In my review, I roasted Pizzeria Regalo (he deserves it, he may be even nastier than me). But when I call this vegetable soup pizza, I know it sounds like a dis… but it’s not a dis. Not at all.
This is kick ass vegetable soup pizza. The best veggie soup pizza ever (although… I am not sure anyone has tried this before). I mean it. This is an iconoclastic “Veggiee Ploos Ba-con” pizza (say that with a French accent).
Crust is great, too. Bready, just crispy enough, bakery-like. Nice.
When you think of Starboard, think of our Chicago-style deep dish pizza! We’ve upgraded our crust! It’s now an original dough made by Maison Murata.
— BrewPub Starboard
(Maison Murata is a local Kobe bakery, in Hyogo ward.)
We can in fact pick up a slice, so it passes the Pizza Czar’s famous pizza test; very easy to pickup (presuming you’ve let it cool).
As the unofficial Official Pizza Czar of Japan, I have had the pleasure of sampling some of the best Chicago pizzas in Japan. From best to worst: Devil Craft Kanda in Tokyo makes a brilliant deep dish pizza (that Abe Froman is special). My second favorite is the Chicago pizza at Izakaya Ja Nai!!! in Okazaki (with the stark white crust and the sauce on top); unusual, and delicious. I hear Matt does Chicago pizza at Craft Beer and Pizza Imazato, Osaka, but I have only had his Detroit style pizza (which is epic, amazing pizza). Also in Osaka, Drunk Bears does a palatable deep dish pizza. For Chicago pizza in Sapporo, The Craft thinks they do that style, but it is a pretty miserable imitation. At the absolute bottom of the pile, worst deep dish in Japan, Butcher Republic in Ebisu does an embarrassing corporate parody of a Chicago pizza (I get mad even thinking of it).
Who else do you know that can rattle off a list of Japanese Chicago pizzas (across multiple cities) like that? Nobody. Fogettabahtit. Like I said…
Like my father before me (and his father, before him), I am the Pizza Czar of Japan. I have tried them all.
The pictures of the deep-dish pizza at Starboard in Kobe evoke such good memories, it takes real strength not to make plans to go, back, again, right, now.
I have eaten more pizza than you have. Oh, yes I have. And for me to have a “new” pizza experience is not easy to do. I felt like a school girl in Times Square; this pizza was shocking for me.
Kobe City has surprisingly good pizza. I had a chance to try many of the best pizza restaurants in Kobe, and many were good experiences (all of them, actually). But BrewPub Starboard, with it’s hard-to-find Chicago-style pizza, was one of my favorite pizza experiences in this country.
I liked this pizza so much, I was tempted to have a third red ale… but oh, no. No you don’t, you seductive siren of a veggie soup pizza. I’ll have to save that beer, and my next Starboard pizza, for another time.
Get yourself down to BrewPub Starboard in Kobe. Highly recommended.
Pizza Restaurants in Kobe
— Trattoria Elefante Pizza in Chuo-ku, Kobe
— Get a New York-style slice at 2 Bro’s Pizza slices, in this same neighborhood
— Neapolitan pizza at Pizzeria Azzurri in Chuo-ku, Kobe
— Pizza slices at Jesus Pizza in Chuo-ku, Kobe
— Kobe’s Allocco Pizza in Kunikadori in Chuo-ku, Kobe