Anyone who has visited Spain knows it offers some of the best eating in Europe. But its food has never been embraced in Japan in the same way as French and Italian cuisine. So it's always good to see a new Spanish restaurant arriving in Tokyo — especially when it's as capable as Bullicio.
Belying its name (which means "bustling" or "uproar"), Bullicio is cheerful and easygoing but never noisy or boisterous. It styles itself as a Valencia-style bar, but the focus is just as much on food as drinking. The menu includes plenty of classic dishes from across the Iberian Peninsula, while the extensive wine list is weighted firmly at the affordable (under ¥5,000) end of the spectrum.
Bullicio hits a comfortable, accessible middle ground with no high-end aspirations but is still a world away from the generic Spanish pubs with their bull-fighting posters and faux-antique dark-wood interiors. It is bright and airy, with lots of window space — too much to be intimate, but saved from feeling soulless by the gorgeous, hand-painted murals covering most of the walls.
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