Spajiro Gonnosukezaka — Restaurant in Tokyo

The Gonnesukezaka branch of Spajiro (near Meguro Station) is a Coronavirus cluster waiting to happen.

Spajiro has always provided delicious, reasonably priced meals, and for that reason, I have patronized it for years. However, with my most recent lunchtime visit (September 4, 2020), there were several hygiene and food safety issues apparent while I was there that would get a similar restaurant shut down by city authorities in almost any other developed nation.

There are no social distancing protocols in place in any aspect of how this restaurant operates. No table separators or wide spacing between tables. No plastic sheets protecting staff and guests from each other at the register. No preventative measures were apparent whatsoever aside from staff wearing masks and alcohol spray and wet wipes at the entrance for guests. Which are entirely pointless if you read on.

The serving staff were preparing drinks for guests by regularly and consistently inserting their fingers INSIDE the cups in order to grab three or four at a time, touching the ice inside, to prepare them to serve to guests.

This same staff was also in charge of cleaning tables after guests left. They would do this without using any sort of disinfectant spray or special cleaning towels. I witness a staff member wiping up liquid spilled on a table by the previous guest with just a simple table napkin. He then used another table napkin to wipe the sweat from his brow. Then he went to handle money at the cash register when guests paid their bill.

Also, because Spajiro restaurants tend to be chronically understaffed, the present staff is regularly overworked and in a rush. Because of this high-pressure environment, every member of the staff we could see from cooking staff to dining room staff had sweat visibly running down their foreheads and faces while they worked. They regularly wiped away this sweat with their hands. Then they resumed cooking, or serving, and preparing drinks and meals.

If the staff were wearing gloves and regularly disinfecting their hands between handling things throughout the day, then perhaps there might be some leeway for the things I saw. But never once did I witness any member of staff sanitize their hands during the hour that I was in the restaurant. In the Age of Covid, this is simply...

Tried this restaurant randomly as I was really hungry. Chose their shrimp, bacon and spinach creamy pasta. I was glad to know that getting a larger serving doesn’t have any extra charge. When my order came I was somewhat disappointed to see it was more of a soup than a creamy sauce. I read the menu again and there it said it was cream soup pasta. I should’ve double-checked. Anyhow, I was fine with it but when I tried the soup it was on the bland side. Had to add so much parmesan to try and get a taste out of it. Volume-wise it’s okay, but taste-wise, nothing special. It was really affordable, though. Not sure if I’m...

Food was OK, you'll get the Japanese version of the dish you want (e.g. Carbonara with cream), but it's not bad, the portions huge. Service was obviously understaffed, everything took a little longer. It's not the cleanest place, or at least it makes the impression since the tables were pretty sticky, even after cleaning. Toilet is outside shared with other venues, also OK, but have seen cleaner places. Overall OK, in particular if you are very hungry. Even the small...