La Bettola 2490 Kalākaua Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96815

"We came here to try the special Uni Pasta. This sister restaurant from Tokyo. This is their second location and happens to be in Hawaii. The food here is delicious and has lots of flavour and it really show cases chef Tsutomu Ochiai on its original uni pasta. I was lucky enough to come here twice and had the chance to enjoy the other sections on the menu. Service and atmosphere is wonderful very relaxing restaurant with an open concept. Keep in mind prices are bit high and with the extra drinks it can for add up by the end of your meal."

"Overall, it was a great experience. The view of the aquarium, along with the great food and staff, put it over the top. The bread the restaurant has there is made in-house, and when I say the bruschetta was to die for with the crunchy but soft bread with the tasty tomatoes, it was delicious at that. The pasta - is impeccable. It does say it has chili flakes, which may steer some away from picking it, BUT it is more tasty than hot. Overall, the bartender and singing waiter added a great vibe to the restaurant."

"I love this place! The staff here are extremely friendly, accommodating and professional. Everything that I’ve tried on the menu thus far has been delicious! I especially love the dishes including fresh sea urchin. The atmosphere was great and I love the aquarium!"

"WORST DINING EXPERIENCE EVER! Made reservations for a birthday dinner. Came dressed appropriately but was squirreled away into their back room when their main floor was literally empty. Server(s) were OK. Switched out server coz the first one was supposedly leaving. Hmmm...... Another table sat next to us and the server greated them with Happy Birthday. Lady said it's not her birthday, etc. etc. and the server then remarked "I guess it's not you then with all these dietary restrictions." Hmmm..... Had to chime in that I guess that's us. Still no Happy Birthday from the server but the lady at the next table was nice enough to wish us. Things just went from bad to worse from there. The bread that came out was dry and I got a burnt crusty end. Ordered the Eggplant Caponata, Uni Pasta and Carbonara. For a restaurant that purports to have a connection to the chef that invented the uni pasta, the food here is worse than what you would get at a hotel cafe. Oh wait. This is a hotel cafe! Eggplant Caponata had 1 piece of egg plant!!!!! 1 piece! And caponata is usually uniformly diced vegetables. This was chunky, rustic bell pepper, zucchini and onion slop. OK, doggie bagging this to toss into a future home cooked pasta sauce. Maybe...... Next up, the pastas. Uni pasta had two slivers of uni and nothing in the sauce. The sauce itself was too garlicky and salty (even though we requested no added salt) and overwhelmed the entire dish. The dish is heavy and they lean heavy on the cream. All you taste is the dairy fat, garlic and salt. One of the worst uni pastas ever. They couldn't even finely chop the chives for almost $40. The Carbonara. What can we say about this catastrophe of a dish. Drowning in the same heavy cream sauce. Salt lick and definitely not what a carbonara should be. When asked if there was fresh truffles, was told truffles are out of season. Are you kidding me? This is PRIME truffle season, especially white alba. Maybe it's an off night for the kitchen. It's a Sunday. Maybe the hostess deemed us unworthy of being seated on the main floor. I guess this is a hipster / Ken & Barbie kind of place then. Irrespective of the excuses - yes excuses coz' these are so egregious that anyone working in hospitality should think of a career change. Parting notes. Go anywhere besides La Bettola. This is nothing but a tourist trap. Line cooks in the kitchen as opposed to an actual chef. Nothing wrong with that but just don't pretend to be fine or even upscale dining when it is Olive Garden (sorry for the insult) type quality. Chef Ochiai should be wary of having his name associated with this. One and done! Just in case, Tanya (Business Manager) - No, we won't be giving La Bettola another chance. Never again."

"I was so looking forward to have dinner here. This restaurant is the sister restaurant of one of popular restaurant in Tokyo. I’ve never had chance to eat there, so I was so happy when I heard the place was opened in Waikiki. Restaurant is near lobby of the hotel. It’s a open space, so it was annoying flies were flying around. Also I wish they have kid’s menu. Those pastas were too adult-ish and it’s hard to pick one for kids. We got Hamachi carpaccio, bruschetta and Fritto Misto Di Mare for appetizers. Bruschetta and fritters were delicious. Hamachi was a little too thick to say carpaccio for my liking. We got Uni pasta, Wagyu beef Tagliata and Spaghetti Alla Pescatore Con Gamberetti. Uni pasta was the best! You should try that one for sure. Pescatore was also good. But not so special. We picked Wagyu Tagliata for our son but it was too beefy for him. For dessert, I was hoping either panna cotta, pudding or any tarts but non of them were there. I couldn’t pick the one I wanted to eat. So we skipped. Wait staff was friendly but I don’t know if I want to spend over $300 again for this menu and foods. I have 2 his recipe books. I really want him to keep up and do a little better so he can keep the restaurant as long as he can in super competitive Waikiki."