Do You Need to Book Restaurants Before Your Trip to Japan?
Some meals are worth booking weeks ahead. Others are better left spontaneous.
Planning a trip to Japan often leads to one surprisingly difficult question:
How many restaurants should I book before I go?
Sushi?
Yakitori?
Izakaya?
That little restaurant you found on Google Maps?
And if you do want to book somewhere, can you simply reserve it online? Do you need to call in Japanese? Should you ask your hotel?
The answer is not as complicated as it may seem.
You do not need to book every restaurant before your trip to Japan.
In fact, I would not recommend it.
But there are some meals that are absolutely worth planning ahead.
The trick is knowing which ones.
Book the meals you really care about
If there is one restaurant you would genuinely be disappointed to miss, try to reserve it.
That is especially true for small restaurants with limited seating.
A sushi counter may have only eight seats.
A serious yakitori restaurant might seat only a dozen people.
Some kaiseki restaurants serve only a few groups each evening.
In places like these, “I'll just walk in” can easily become “Sorry, we're full.”
I would strongly consider booking ahead if:
you have a specific restaurant in mind
you want a small sushi or yakitori counter
you are planning a special dinner
the restaurant serves mainly a fixed course
you are traveling with a larger group
you need a particular date or time
Friday and Saturday evenings naturally leave you with less flexibility as well.
The important distinction is between these two thoughts:
“I want to eat good sushi in Tokyo.”
and
“I want to eat at this particular sushi restaurant.”
Those are very different situations.
Tokyo has an extraordinary number of restaurants.
If your goal is simply to eat good sushi somewhere, you have options.
If your goal is to eat at one specific eight-seat counter at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, make the reservation.
You can leave much more unplanned than you think
This is the part travelers sometimes forget.
You are coming to Japan to travel — not to spend the entire trip rushing from one reservation to another.
There are plenty of meals I would happily leave until the day itself.
Ramen.
Soba.
Tonkatsu.
Japanese curry.
Casual sushi.
Local Chinese restaurants.
Many izakaya.
Small neighborhood restaurants you happen to discover while walking around.
Of course, any individual restaurant can be busy. But you do not need a reservation for every meal simply because you are visiting Japan.
And leaving some space in your schedule has another advantage.
Your plans will change.
Maybe you expected to leave Asakusa at 4:00 p.m., but you are still enjoying it at 6:00.
Maybe you walked much farther than expected and suddenly want dinner close to your hotel.
Maybe you find a tiny restaurant on a side street that looks far more interesting than the place you bookmarked three months ago.
That flexibility is valuable.
If I were taking a one-week trip around Japan, I might reserve two or three dinners that really mattered to me.
I would leave many of the others open.
Book the meals you would be disappointed to miss. Leave the rest of Japan some room to surprise you.
How do you actually make a reservation?
This varies enormously from restaurant to restaurant.
Some restaurants have excellent English-language booking systems.
Some accept reservations through services such as TableCheck or Tabelog. Tabelog currently provides online reservation functions on its English site, while TableCheck lets travelers search and book restaurants across Japan in English.
Some restaurants can also be reserved through a booking option shown in Google Search or Google Maps, although this is only available when that particular business works with a supported booking provider.
Higher-end restaurants may use specialist reservation services such as OMAKASE, and their individual booking rules can be quite detailed.
And then there are still restaurants where the only realistic option is a phone call in Japanese.
So where should you start?
Keep it simple.
First, find the restaurant on Google Maps and check its official website.
Look for a reservation button or booking link.
If there is an online reservation system in English, use it.
If there is not, check whether your hotel can help.
A good hotel concierge or front desk may be able to call a restaurant for you, particularly when the restaurant only accepts reservations by phone.
But I would not build an entire trip around difficult reservations.
If obtaining a table becomes more complicated than the meal is worth to you, remember something important:
Japan has another restaurant around the corner.
Very often, it is a very good one.
A reservation means something
There is one more thing worth understanding.
If you reserve a small restaurant in Japan, please take that reservation seriously.
At a large restaurant, one empty table may not seem like much.
At an eight-seat sushi counter, two people failing to appear can mean a quarter of the evening's seats are empty.
Some restaurants also prepare ingredients specifically for the number of guests expected that day.
That is why certain restaurants require credit-card details, deposits or cancellation fees.
So if you make a reservation:
Arrive on time.
If you are running late, contact the restaurant if possible.
And if your plans change, cancel as early as you can.
A reservation is not simply a way to secure a table.
For a small restaurant, it is also a promise that you will show up.
Don't turn every meal into an appointment
Japan is an easy country in which to become obsessed with restaurant research.
You can spend weeks saving sushi counters, ramen shops, izakaya, coffee shops and yakitori restaurants on Google Maps.
I understand the temptation.
Food may end up being one of the best parts of your trip.
But I would resist planning every meal.
Choose a few places that genuinely excite you.
Reserve those.
Then leave some blank spaces.
Walk around.
Look through the window.
Read the menu outside.
Follow the smell of grilled chicken down a side street.
Ask yourself what you actually feel like eating that evening.
Some restaurants deserve a reservation months in advance.
Others are better discovered at 7:15 p.m. when you are hungry and happen to be standing nearby.
Both can become great meals.
And sometimes the meal you remember most from Japan is the one you never planned at all.
Going deeper
How to Book Restaurants in Japan — Without Speaking Japanese
A practical guide to online reservations, Google Maps, TableCheck, Tabelog, hotel assistance, cancellation rules and what to do when a restaurant only accepts phone bookings.
→Read the Deep Guide: 3 Things I Would Have Ready When English Stops Working in Japan
Need help deciding what is actually worth booking?
Maybe your question is not how to make a reservation.
Maybe it is:
I'm visiting Tokyo for six nights. I love sushi, yakitori and small local restaurants. Which meals would you book before the trip — and which would you leave open?
That is exactly the kind of question where a local perspective can be useful.
→ Ask a Local
