Trattoria Il Piacere — Restaurant in Hakone

We ended up at this restaurant by chance, as the one we originally chose only accepted guests with prior reservations—and we were really in the mood for Italian cuisine. Unfortunately, the dishes served here were far from their Italian origins.

We ordered two lunch courses and a Capricciosa pizza. The appetizers included in the set lunch were decent—a tasty salad and bruschetta—although the sweet potato salad was a bit odd. The soup, served in a coffee cup with tiny potato chunks, was also rather unusual.

The biggest disappointment in my set was the pasta in a white seafood sauce. The “sauce” was more like a soup in which the spaghetti was floating. It had to be eaten with a spoon, and to make matters worse, it had a slightly sweet taste. The seafood was fresh, but also unfortunately a bit sweet. The dessert was fine but nothing memorable. The pizza was very small, with a rubbery crust and an excessive amount of melted cheese—more American-style than Italian. It was called a Capricciosa, but it lacked key ingredients: no artichokes, no capers, no olives—only cheese and trace amounts of ham...

Italian cuisine is really popular in Japan and you have so many different choices and variety. I went to this place because I was staying in a nearby ryokan with my partner. My partner and I visited this place and was seated.

The service is your typical Japanese service, nothing really to comment on about it. The atmosphere was extremely cozy and the music was soothing.

We ordered 1 pizza and spaghetti. To be very honest it was average at best, Japanese take on Italian cuisine is usually underwhelming and this is no exception. Cheese on the pizza was alright and the spaghetti itself was your typical spaghetti. Nothing that will blow your socks off.

We paid about 25 dollars altogether which is pretty cheap for Italian cuisine in Japan. They also have English menus too however the server at the time seem to not understand English which is...

Only three tables and bar seating for four. We sat at the bar because the tables were full. They provided an English menu. it was limited, but everyone got something they liked. Fast service. Pizza was not traditional American style but still very good. Also had lasagna and seafood pasta- both excellent. Pasta came with a salad which was also excellent (loved the pumpkin dressing). If you get the meat on the pizza it says ‘bacon’ but it’s ham. Overall a...