× Expand Photo by Alex Boerner Fresh-pulled mozzarella with kombu garlic bread

Papa Shogun

111 Seaboard Avenue, No. 118, Raleigh

919-977-1247, www.papashogun.com

My husband and I had our first date at a tiny restaurant in New York City’s Little Italy, and Japanese food is my family’s top dining-out choice, so imagine my excitement when I heard about Papa Shogun, an Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant that opened in mid-November in the former Kimbap space in Raleigh’s Seaboard Station. But you don’t have to be a fan of either cuisine to be delighted by chef Tom Cuomo’s clever small plates and pastas.

The restaurant is Cuomo’s first solo venture, though his impressive pedigree includes stints with molecular-gastronomy chef Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 in New York and chef Matt Kelly at Mateo Bar de Tapas in Durham. At Papa Shogun, Cuomo fuses Italian and Japanese flavors and dishes with fine-dining finesse to create a menu that packs equal parts comfort and surprise. Here, the mark of a good dish isn’t simply that you can’t stop eating—it’s that you can’t stop smiling.

Vibe: Inside the intimate, L-shaped space, a quirky painting of a girl lounging in a bowl of ramen greets diners at the door. The place has an industrial but relaxed feel, with white walls, bleached-wood paneling, and red metal cafe chairs. A glass partition separates the kitchen from the dining room, where guests can glimpse the kitchen action from their table. Doo-wop music amplifies Papa Shogun’s fun factor as an attentive and well-informed wait staff explains the menu and ingredients such as mayu, a black garlic-and-sesame oil that was new to me.

Menu: Small plates show off Cuomo’s concept right from the start: chop salad includes tricolor lettuce, Kalamata olives, and Peppadew peppers in a dressing made with rice-wine vinegar rather than the red-wine version. He riffs on a salata alla Siciliana—whose hallmarks include orange segments, onions, and black olives—with Beets Siciliana, where citrus-roasted beets, olives, and onions are paired with a minty shiso salsa verde and miso almonds. Pasta features include standouts such as udon vongole and carbonara ramen (more on those in a minute). The limited large-plate selection includes a pan-fried pork chop and charred cauliflower. Desserts, such as cannoli filled with matcha cream, match the mash-up vibe.

What to order: Our server helpfully suggested a quantity of dishes for a tapas-style meal, and two small dishes and two pastas was just right for our party of two (sadly, we didn’t have room for dessert). Dishes arrived nicely spaced, starting with fresh-pulled mozzarella, a warm dome of cheese that we sliced and fashioned into crostini with kombu garlic bread. Yaki onigiri, named for the Japanese snack, are fried rice patties with a sushi-rice-like texture, but the first bite takes you straight to Sicily, reminiscent of arancini oozing mozzarella and marinated roasted red peppers. It’d make for fine finger food, but we stuck with forks and knives to maximize dipping and mopping up the thick schmear of zesty red pepper sauce.

At first glance, udon vongole appears to be a bowl of the thick Japanese wheat noodles topped with clams (a nod to the Italian classic of linguine with clams), and even though the sauce is bolstered with sake rather than white wine, each mouthful finishes Italian with a smoked, savory whiff of Calabrian chilies and a punch of garlic.

It’s excellent, but the carbonara ramen is the can’t-miss pasta. It’s served in smoked tonkotsu, a pork-marrow broth whose creaminess is enhanced by a sixty-three-degree egg. Our server instructed us to stir in the runny yolk to infuse the broth. After a few spoonfuls, I encourage you to hoist the bowl and slurp with gleeful abandon.

Price: Small plates are $10 to $14; pastas are $16 to $20; large plates top out at $28.

Perfect for: A casual date night; a catch-up with friends over small plates; fans of fusion cuisine or curious foodies.