IL TAPPO Hawaii — Restaurant in Honolulu

(Last visited December 6, 2022.) Vacationing in Hawaii for a couple of weeks so we're just exploring downtown Waikiki for a little bit, but it's time to eat! So we pulled out our trusty Yelp app to see what's around! We landed on Il Tappo since we like pizza! Let's see how it went!

Atmosphere/Appearance: So the entrance to this place is like, through a hotel or something like that. The details are a little hazy, but what I DO REMEMBER is the beautiful fountain right out front and the market looking theme that was actually one of the bars! It was so cool and elegant. Once sat upstairs the views out into the city were beautiful. The restaurant wasn't too loud and felt quite intimate, like a great place for a date.

Service: I can't remember who took care of us, but we had no problems whatsoever. I do remember the bartender being super friendly and approachable when we first walked in though.

Food: We kept dinner light this evening and tried their Isalata Di Pollo which is a salad containing rucola, cherry tomatoes, olives, roasted chicken & shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. It was crisp, fresh, simple and had an excellent mix of ingredients. Not too over the top at all. We also went for the Margherita Pizza which contains tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella & pesto. Delightfully simple. The pesto was a gentle drizzle as to not overshadow the rich flavors of the sauce and cheese. The crust was light and fluffy with a good crunch around the edges.

Value: Our salad was $24.00 and pizza was $23.00. It's Hawaii, it's downtown, it is what it is. Lol. Bring your wallet, you're on vacation right? Unless you live here... then you probably are a baller anyway.

I really enjoyed this spot. It was chill, felt tucked away while being in a downtown city. Check it out if you're...

HORRIBLE RESTAURANT AND HORRIBLE STAFF/SERVICE.

Came here on what appeared to be an incredibly slow night. Asides from our table, there were only 2 other tables occupied and we quickly came to know why that would be the case. We hadn’t even received our appetizers when we started getting questioned on our entrees. It was obviously not busy this evening so I’m not sure why we were being rushed. We ordered the garlic bread which was WAY too overpowered wth the garlic flavour to the point it was hard on the throat. Two servers then came around about 4-5 times asking us if we wanted to place our orders for mains but we were still working on the appetizers and had no intention of eating in a hurry. Anyways, fast forward to the mains, we noticed they were served in Costco dish ware which ironically we have at home ourselves. One of the pasta dishes we ordered was evident that there was Costco rotisserie chicken mixed in (an addition of $7). Mind you, this entire dish was $35 US which consisted of penne, Costco shredded chicken, tomatoes and a little cheese. There was no bacon as stated on the menu. Everything was served in dishes you see at a Costco on sale for clearance. This place is an absolute joke with what and how they serve their customers.

Here’s the kicker: they had the audacity to charge an automatic gratuity of 20% FOR A PARTY OF TWO. The bill then had a note on it stating a 10% discount if paid with cash or Venmo. This was NOT stated anywhere prior to us coming! Once they gave us this bill, it took 20 minutes for them to take our payment. We were then short changed another $3 after we paid in cash (expecting the discount). They also DO NOT have any digital receipts; everything is hand written - very, very shady.

AVOID THIS PLACE AT...

It was ok. We had high hopes because they have awesome reviews. Went in and were sat right away. The ambiance is really neat. Had the bruschetta appetizer which was good. My husband got red wine and I got A $5.00 fountain Coke which was never refilled once, albeit I could have asked them but generally a server will offer to refill the empty glass but he never did, I was going to ask the server who initially took our order but I did not see him again, so not certain who our server was. all the other folks/ servers who checked on us were nice. My husband ordered the $38 lamb special, which was a small arugula salad with olives and tomatoes and some Parmesan Reggiano, not pictured, and then a lamb shank. Nothing else. Just the shank. He said it was good but was absolutely not full off of 1/2 a cup of arugula and a lamb shank, the bruschetta appetizer we had ordered did help and since he can eat anything he ate my pasta as well. I ordered the pesto chicken. Clearly it was pre made. The Pasta was boxed pasta and pre made because my meal was out in 5 min after I ordered it. It has shredded chicken on it, again which was pre made, maybe Rotisserie chicken? I’m not sure, I could barely taste the pesto and it was drenched in Olive Oil. Probably 1/4 of a cup on the bottom of the pasta. It left a bad taste in my mouth, my husband finished it. My bland pre-made boxed pasta (we spotted a box on a shelf near by) was $30. I make the same thing at home for the entire family for $15 and you can taste the pesto. Meal was $107. We left $20 tip, so $127 for a meh meal and and I left hungry so that is not ideal. We...