diff --git a/plugins/catalog-react/src/components/EntityRefLink/format.ts b/plugins/catalog-react/src/components/EntityRefLink/format.ts
index d94a576677..4787474c68 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-react/src/components/EntityRefLink/format.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-react/src/components/EntityRefLink/format.ts
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ import {
   Entity,
   EntityName,
   ENTITY_DEFAULT_NAMESPACE,
-  stringifyEntityRef,
 } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
 
 export function formatEntityRefTitle(
@@ -45,13 +44,9 @@ export function formatEntityRefTitle(
   }
 
   kind = kind.toLocaleLowerCase('en-US');
-
-  return `${stringifyEntityRef({
-    kind:
-      defaultKind && defaultKind.toLocaleLowerCase('en-US') === kind
-        ? ''
-        : kind,
-    name,
-    namespace,
-  })}`;
+  kind =
+    defaultKind && defaultKind.toLocaleLowerCase('en-US') === kind
+      ? undefined
+      : kind;
+  return `${kind ? `${kind}:` : ''}${namespace ? `${namespace}/` : ''}${name}`;
 }