100% personal experience, Do Not Dine Here.

This restaurant is unworthy of whatever statuses it vaguely withholds. I wasted 30 minutes in a queue that consisted of only tourists. According to my observations, locals do not dine here.

Here’s my true experience in that 30 minutes spent here:

We arrived at the restaurant at around 6pm on a Monday. We are a family of 3 (2 adults and a four-year-old). We joined the queue and we were about 7th in line.

After awhile, our little one got impatient and I thought it’d be a good idea for my husband to take him for a stroll around the corner while I nonchalantly scrolled through my phone as I waited in the queue.

Approximately 25 minutes later, a man in white uniform walked out and began reorganising the queue, asking some patrons to move closer to the sides and randomly asking some how many were dining in. Then he came to me and asked if I’m dining alone, and I said: “We have 3 people.” with my three fingers sticking out, then went back to scrolling my phone and waited.

Few minutes later, he then came back to me and spoke in Japanese. He sounded serious and showed me “No” hand signals. And I thought to myself: “hmm? What’s he saying? Can’t be saying No table to me given how many people are still behind me queueing?”

So I passed my google translate and asked him to speak into my phone. What was translated was: “We have no appointment for you today.” I gave him a questioning look. And then he explained in the most demanding manner that my party isn’t present in the queue, so he won’t give me a table, and that I should leave. He wasn’t courteous at all, despite the fact that I was standing there looking all confused.

Then a helpful waitress came over and I explained to her that my husband took my son for a walk around the corner. They can come back whenever I asked them to. The friendly waitress informed that rude man in white uniform and she said to him it’s ok, they are here and that I can continue in the queue. I also texted for my husband and child to come back at that point. That rude man then told me to step out of the queue and that I should wait at another corner. So I obeyed as I did not want to cause a scene for the holiday-goers.

At that point, my husband and child came back and after learning that they were indeed just around the corner, the rude man in white came over and informed me that I can now join the very back of the queue and begin queueing all over again.

I have heard some ridiculous things in life, but this man’s idea of ways-to-waste-your-life-away is by far one of the most outrageous one.

Such a tragic representation of the polite and humble Japanese culture.