酒肴や鯔背 — Restaurant in Osaka

On the first night that we went, service was good and staff were friendly. However, on the second night that we went, we were unaware of the unspoken rule that we needed to order food along with our alcohol (this was not stated anywhere). Instead of informing us directly that we needed to order food, the staff passive-aggressively hinted for us to go to somewhere else by dragging us to the street and pointing at another bar down the street. Even after we got their “hint”, agreed to leave, and apologised, they continued glaring at us from behind the counter (even though the place was not busy).

Overall, the place was pretty nice but once you offend them, even unknowingly, most of them will drop their niceties and glare at you/hint for you to get out instead of just expressing their displeasure to you directly (which we would have been more than happy to accommodate).

Basically if you are a local and you are 100% confident that you know all the cultural rules and etiquette then go ahead this is the place for you, but if you are a foreigner or not familiar with local customs then go somewhere else or be prepared to get dirty looks. Don’t expect them to directly convey their intentions- instead, get ready to play guessing games with their roundabout hints. Also, the cocktails are really watered down. One star for...

A tip for foreigners, there is an unspoken rule to order food dishes along with your drinks. As we were unaware about this rule, we only ordered drinks.

Understandably, this might have come off as disrespectful to the restaurant as we have broken this unspoken rule.

However, instead of telling us directly that we needed to order food, some of the staff glared at us while other staff came up to us to ask if we wanted to order food / tell us about a bar nearby, in hopes to get us to order food or chase us away.

While we loved the atmosphere at the restaurant, we did not like their indirect way of telling us to leave & receiving rude stares from them. Additionally, there was available seats in the restaurant & there was no queue outside, which further implies that us breaking the unspoken rule was likely the reason for their dissatisfaction.

This experience definitely left us feeling very disappointed and hence, we think the restaurant is not very friendly for foreigners if you are unaware of such unspoken rules in Japanese...

Options of alcohol was limited and drinks were pricey. Not friendly to foreigners. We did not know that it was a Japanese custom to order food with our drinks and instead of letting us know, the cooks were obviously staring and talking about us. They then sent the waitress to recommend us to go to a nearby bar, which was obviously hinting to chase us out. I would understand if we ordered 1 or 2 drinks and sat for a long time, preventing them from doing other business. However, we ordered many drinks and the restaurant was not even full. Furthermore, had they just let us know that ordering food with drinks was a custom for izakayas, we would have just done so.

Paid for overpriced alcohol and had to chug our drinks and leave since we felt so unwelcome and uncomfortable by then.

First time in Japan and this really ruined...