Reviews of Hakata

Building on Tom's review, sadly we had a similar experience on the Saturday night. Such a shame as this has become a firm favourite for us as we live on Bermondsey street.
Gone was the draft Peroni and the specials board and in its place a disappointing menu and disorganised service. I appreciate it was day 2 for the new team and they were trying to get up to speed but I think they will quickly disappoint a lot of the regulars if they don't up their game.

We've been to Ticino 3 times. It WAS a great little authentic Italian restaurant, but we felt on our last visit that it must have changed hands, or at least changed its approach, and was really poor because of it.

The menu used to be a simple selection of several pizzas and a limited number of classic Italian mains, with great antipasti starters. The menu now has a large breakfast section, several pizzas with slightly odd toppings, and a strange and confused mix of main courses, such as bbq pulled pork - one of 3 dishes on the menu that included bbq sauce!

If the odd revised menu wasn't enough of a disappointment, the antipasti starter was quite poor with meat and cheese that didn't seem great quality and a chutney that was just out of place.

The pizzas used to be delicious, authentic thin Italian style pizzas with fresh tomato sauce and delicious mozzarella and an interesting selection of toppings. This time they were very very different and very average. The sauce seemed like it was from a tin, and the cheese seemed like mass produced pre-grated cheese that looked like you'd expect on a chain type takeaway. The pepperoni and prosciutto, and the tiramisu that followed could have been from the supermarket. They'd gone up in price from £9-£11 to £12-£13

In addition to this, the service wasn't good. Despite having booked, and arriving to a half empty restaurant, we felt rushed. We were asked if we'd like wine as soon as we'd sat down without having read the menu and mains were brought before the starters had been cleared. Coffee was brought without the option of sugar, and at no point did anyone ask if we'd like more drinks or if our meals were ok.

It's a real shame as the last two times we visited the restaurant had the feel of a friendly and buzzing little local Italian. A family member who visited had been really blown away by a lovely sea bass dish and delicious antipasti. It felt like we'd found a great local gem of a restaurant and we would definitely have recommended it. This time couldn't have been more different. It felt as though the restaurant had changed to prioritise profit over customer satisfaction. With all the other great restaurants in the area its a surprise that they could get it so wrong, and hopefully people will vote with their feet. We certainly won't go back.

I must say that I went twice to Ticino last week and I loved their pizza (the one with the salmon especially). I really liked the place and will be back soon. The manager was friendly.

just back from Ticino and pizza was ok, the service however was allover the place and the manager seemed more interested in his laptop than welcoming his customers!