Namishibuki - Sea Spray — Restaurant in Shari

Obviously in Japan there are 2 kinds of Izakaya style Yakitori restaurants:

The ones which warmly welcome anyone as a honoured guest. And the ones which think that choosing customers would be a great idea, often it ends up being Japanese only / local customers only restaurant only. Unfortunately Namishibuki in Utoro belongs to the latter.

I went there on a Tuesday at around 18:00 p.m. as this restaurant was recommended by the hotel I was staying in. I saw that Japanese guests were waiting outside, a sign in Japanese and English said "Please contact the staff if you want to get into the waiting line" so I thought great, I just get a waiting number and wait outside until it is my turn.

Inside there were quite a lot of happy Japanese customers, still empty single places which were not occupied. I can speak Japanese on JLPT N1 level so I tried not to fall into any foreigner rejection trap but impossible. The moment I entered the store in order to get a place in the waiting line I encountered a cold "today no" without any further explanation.

I asked (in Japanese) whether there would be a chance to come tomorrow, the surprised staff (surprised as I was talking Japanese) answered in cold Japanese "maybe". That kind of coldness in Japanese would be unthinkable towards a Japanese customer. Then I asked in my most polite Japanese whether it would be possible to make a reservation. The staff asked very cold "when and what time". Meanwhile they waived the waiting Japanese customers in in most polite way in Japanese language.

Then I thought the food can be as delicious as possible but if you don´t feel welcome in a restaurant it will never taste well so I gave up and went so 7-11 for a quite...

I have never encountered any rude service staff in Japan (this was my fourth visit to this lovely country) and it was in Namishibuki that my family and I experienced first-hand arrogance from the stall owner. We ordered the rice porridge which we found to be comforting in the cold autumn, and i really wanted to take home a portion for my mother, who stayed in as she was not feeling well. I asked politely if it was possible to bring our own takeaway container, since they did not have any. Perhaps, due to the language barrier, we understood that we were allowed to take away the food, just that we had to transfer the food into the takeaway bowl ourselves. To our shock, this guy (whom i assume to be the owner) in black spectacles angrily rejected our request to take away the rice porridge, even though we had offered to bring our own containers. While paying, i tried to clarify with one of the service staff to better understand their considerations (i tried to explain that my mom was not feeling well and i really wanted to bring a portion home for her). The rude owner proceeded to type via his translator app "if you cannot follow the rules, please leave". Like, hello? I was already in the midst of making payment? He then proceeded to chase me out of the restaurant, with a threatening look in his eyes, as though i had committed a crime in his shop. I certainly did not deserve to be treated this way, not even if the food is amazing (which wasn't btw as the chicken skewers were half-cooked, and i did not complain). You guys need to read the other reviews because I’m not the only one who has complained about this...

Came here with friends I met while studying abroad here in Japan. Ordered the spicy miso ramen (the mildest of the three options) and it was really really good, broth rich, noodles al dente, pork was fatty and melted perfectly in my mouth. The spiciness was also just right, hitting all the right spots and leaving the perfect amount of spiciness lingering in your mouth making you crave for more. Food wise, it was so so perfect.

But what is up with the attitude? There was another group of caucasian customers there when we dined in, they were treated with respect and kindness, but we were shushed and shooed when we asked politely to switch to seats next to the window. We could all speak Japanese and were respectfully asking questions in Japanese but were met with the owner harshly demanding to know if we were Chinese and spoke very rude English to us the whole time. We are Asians but we’re not Chinese though? We left the restaurant extremely uncomfortable and hurt. What did we do to deserve this kind of service? Such a horrible experience and honestly very very disappointed. A ramen restaurant this famous should not be treating their customers like this. Totally...