Hanahana — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Started off well, but ended unprofessional and a straight up con attempt.

I ordered the "Land & Sea" and when the lobster arrived on the plate to be cooked I could see the lobster was comically tiny. Legitimately had bigger tiger prawns, as you'll see from the photo I took. I told the chef the lobster was too small for me, and was dismissed with "That's one of the bigger ones". He then proceeded to cook it despite my disappointment and flagging I wasn't happy with it. 🤦‍♂️

When the dish was served I said again that I was not happy with it and I went to tell someone away from the table. They said they would "sort it" but they did nothing. I asked one of them to take it away and needed a new dish for the "Land" element of the order. The chef again tried to argue with me at the table. 🤦‍♂️

To put it in to perspective, the edible bits of the lobster were the 4x penny-sized bits at the bottom of the photo and the claw which was ~3cm in length.

At the end when the bill arrived they tried to charge the full £40 for the order. 🤦‍♂️

I asked for the manager who then came to argue with me about the portion. I explained that I told them multiple times and they chose to cook the lobster anyway expecting me to pay for it. The manager said "well I can take £20 off", I said that would be fine as I ate the rest. She then tried to argue with me again... I said I'm not interested in arguing and she said she wasn't arguing and then started to argue again... Couldn't make it up! 🤦‍♂️

At one point we were ready to remove the whole service charge which would have come to over £100 given the size of the bill.

Incredibly unprofessional and amateur service. Truly an embarrassment vs many other Teppanyaki restaurants out there.

If you're looking for good value and service you should not book an event...

Have been here twice now. Both times it is to attend other people's birthday celebrations. The lunch time visit was lacklustre as hardly anyone was there and so it lacked atmosphere. The set menu was £18. The starters turn up so quickly you wonder how long the food has been sitting there. The chef then cooks the other carefully measured portions in front of you. Entertainment is watching people try to toss an egg into a chef hat. We visited again last week in the evening. It was fully booked and so there was more atmosphere. However it is so expensive. Again the starters arrived so quickly. Trying to get the chicken off the wooden skewers is hard and because the skewers are burnt, you end up eating half of them. The scallop shell has slivers of fish in it with a mayonnaise type sauce. There are 3 king prawns each. Small amount of chicken teriyaki and steak and a bowl of rice and bean sprouts. This wouldn't be too bad if you had the evening to sit and enjoy it but it is all done and dusted in 1 hour. They hover around to get you out and to be honest you might as well leave as there's nothing else doing. The entertainment is exactly the same and it's all a bit corny. It's very hard to be negative when someone else loves it but I think it's appalling to pay £35 to virtually have food shoved down your throat. It's either that or eat it stone cold with them asking every 2 minutes if you're finished. It was also very cold sitting by the door on the first table on the...

My partner was last at Hanahana almost a decade ago to celebrate a family birthday with a big group of people. Remembering it to be fun and a little different we booked in to visit again as a party of three.

The restaurant is easy to find and parking near by is good.

The restaurant is nicely decorated, although perhaps showing its age in certain areas and could do with a little TLC. That said it is colourful and vibrant.

We were seated quickly and drinks order taken. The menu wasn't explained to us which caused some confussion but we asked questions and made our choices.

Starters arrived in moments and, as with the rest of the food, was tasty and well presented.

The mains were prepared by the chef at the hot plate in front of us, with lots of banter and oppoetunities to participate.

The food was prepared very quickly and there was a little feeling in our group that this didn't give you much to to enjoy it. It was a feeling that the process is too quick and even pushy sometimes. We normally spend at the restaurant 2-3 hours on nights out, but we were done in 1 hour, as soon as chef finished his job. We craved to continue our evening, that's why we got some desserts, but we were surprised that they don't serve any coffees.

So we left with a little bit fast food-ish aftertaste about the vibe, but pleased with a performance itself.

Altogether a mixed experience. Perhaps more fun in...