Kyoto sushi restaurant paid seats ?

I had a quite odd experience with one of the sushi places in Nabeyacho. When I entered the waiter told us it's 21,000 yen per seat. I was baffled by the amount – it just seem too ridiculous to be true.I just don't think it's possible – may be they just didn't wanted us there ?
Anyone had anything similar happening to them ?

Edit:
Thank you all for the responses, it turns out I was just ignorant, and waiter was kind enough to make sure to inform me what we were getting ourselves to 🙂