Mergellina — Restaurant in Tokyo

We recently visited this restaurant and, unfortunately, our experience fell short of expectations. Upon arrival, the restaurant was completely empty. Two staff members were present near the entrance—one gave us a brief smile while the other did not acknowledge us at all. We stood waiting to be seated, but neither of them offered assistance.

Eventually, we approached them ourselves and were told, quite bluntly, “upstairs.” No further guidance was offered. Upstairs, we found three staff members who didn’t seem busy. One of them, who spoke fluent English and was polite, took our order—this part of the experience was appreciated. However, while having English-speaking staff can be an advantage for some, in our experience, it’s not essential in places where the renowned Japanese generosity and hospitality are present. There is always a way to communicate and understand each other when there is a genuine willingness to help. So I mention the English fluency here only in case it's a specific preference for other guests.

However, we were quite surprised to wait about 30 minutes for a pizza in an otherwise empty restaurant. The pizza was quite small, especially compared to the portion sizes we’ve experienced in other restaurants across Japan.. The quality was average, and the pricing was comparable to what we typically pay in Sydney. Given that we usually find Japan to be more affordable and service-focused, this was disappointing.

Most of all, we missed the sense of warmth, attentiveness, and hospitality that Japan is so...

Received the worst service we experienced during our time in Japan at this restaurant.

Arrived at 13:50 on a Saturday to be reluctantly given a table, but only after being told we needed to be out by 15:00. We noticed this wasn’t done to the Japanese customers whom arrived after us.

Ordered the lunch special to initially be told “no salad”. Again noticed Japanese customers arriving and ordering after us were given salad.

My partner was given the wrong pizza, and when we told the waitstaff this, he essentially just shrugged his shoulders, said sorry and walked off. Initially we thought this could be a language issue, but after they realised and bought out the correct pizza, the sulky unhelpful attitude of the waitstaff didn’t change.

At the end of the meal we were still charged for the salad we never got, as apparently the salad is “free” and therefore couldn’t be taken off the bill.

To us it felt like a fairly obvious issue with white tourists (not just a language barrier), and therefore I wouldn’t bother recommending this restaurant to any tourists as they clearly...

I came by for dinner, not a great but not an awful experience. Starting with the positives, the buffalo cheese Margherita tasted awesome. The quality was well and truly on par with local Italian restaurants back in Sydney, Australia, where I am from. The wait time was also quite satisfactory, considering there was a large group of people dining at the same time as I was. Unfortunately, that's where the positives end. First off, the prices are fairly steep, even more so than in Sydney, which is already quite expensive. But I suppose that is fair enough, for an Italian restaurant in Japan. Second off, the portions are abysmal. They're almost kid sized portions. The pictures certainly looked bigger and I was quite disappointed with the portion sizes. Lastly, the pasta sauce is not great. It tastes like a pre-made pasta sauce bought from a store and my gnocchi sorrentina was quite severely overcooked. Overall, an okay experience, given that it's an Italian restaurant in Japan. But lots of...