Sobamae Yamato — Restaurant in Tokyo

Dear fellow tourists of Japan, if being discriminated against by restaurant staffs for being a foreigner is not an item on your menu, please avoid this place at all cost. Let me list down my experiences with my friend here below:

I entered the restaurant with my friend and was seated by the staffs at a table (no problem here, but the problems start as soon as the staffs found out that I am unable to speak Japanese).

I attempted to communicate to a male waiter in my apologetically pathetic Japanese. The staff, once having noticed that I am unable to communicate fluently in Japanese, asked me in Japanese if I wanted an English menu to which I replied yes, the staff then left our table, leaving me thinking that he is on his way to grab the said English menu for us.

We then waited for 10 minutes to receive the English menu, during that time the said waiter went to serve another group of local customers who entered later than we did.

The English menu contained far less items available in comparison to the menu in Japanese. The daily special menu was also only available in Japanese. The English menu contained mostly set items which are in comparison slightly more expensive than the items on the Japanese menu.

We then waited 20 minutes to receive our food, whilst we were waiting, the locals (comprised of 4 persons) already got what they ordered and began to eat. This is to remind you that we have only two persons in my group, including myself.

Whilst we were eating, we were side-eyed by a short-haired female staff cleaning the tables beside us, for seemingly no reasons at all (we were very mindful of our behaviours and were not making any rude gestures, such as making unbearable or chaotic noises or asking the staff to hurry up with our order etc, our behaviours were in line with any reasonable and respectful person).

To my fellow tourists friends, again, as I have previously cautioned you, do not visit and patronise this place if you, in treating other persons with respect, wish for others to treat you the same.

We did not feel welcome here. The gestures of the staffs from this resturant, located in a somewhat bourgeois area, seems to be conveying this single message: "you should feel honored for being able to enjoy a meal at our premises". Instead of being the Patron, I became the patronised.

Being a foreigner and unable to speak Japanese should not be a excuse for you to be discriminated against in any Japanese restaurants, do not be emotionally manipulated by what they say on the internet, you are a patron who are paying their services with money, you deserve to be treated with respect (so does the other side, of course).

To the restaurant and its staffs, if this is how you are going to treat your foreign patrons that are spending money at your premises, you might as well put up a sign that says "Dear Foreigners, please enter our premises at your own caution, we do not welcome you and we will not hesitate to even hide it, but we still will serve you if you decided to enter because we know you can pay".

Seriously, you will find better services from a staff from any nearby...

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