Not suitable for (large) groups!

Yesterday, I visited Fushimi Sake Village for the third time, this time with a group of 16.

I tried to make a reservation by phone, and an automatic answering machine told me to make a reservation online. Online, it says to contact them if there are more than 10 people. However, when I contacted them through their website, they didn't respond.

Last time, when I was with a group of 7, it was me, not the staff, who suggested seating after we initially got turned down. The large space in the back is only open until 19:00, I was told, but we were eventually offered a seat at the counter after I pointed it out myself.

This time, I decided to go early just to be sure.

Although there were enough seats throughout the entire village, for reasons I am still unaware of, you can only order from the entire menu from the sake shop seats but not from the seats at the different restaurants. Even though we were eventually all seated, we could not order sake or food from other restaurants from our seats next! to the sake counter. I even told the staff it was okay to seat us at different tables, but according to them, there were none available.

In both experiences, it felt like there was a simple solution; there was enough seating, but unexplainable rules made it impossible to enjoy the full menu. If you would have been more flexible, or offered a solution, all of the different restaurants could have profited.

The pettiness and unwillingness to adapt made us walk out and look for a sake tasting experience elsewhere. It seems like a sense of business is non-existent here.

This review is not to deter people from going here. If you are just one or two people, it is probably fine, and the sake tasting is a great experience. I just wanted the shops here to know that the weird setup of their food and sake village made our group of 16 walk out. Unless something changes, I will not be bringing people here anymore because it always leads to a hassle or disappointment.