This seems to be the sub to post something like this, but if not I’d appreciate guidance to the right place.
Anyways, I’ve been trying to book a nice Christmas Eve dinner in Tokyo the past week but just about everywhere I looked was booked out. I managed to find a French restaurant called Lugdunum Bouchon Lyonnais and found [this page](http://lyondelyon.com/blog/?page_id=652) through the Michelin guide site. I emailed them from that page and to my surprise they had an opening for Christmas Eve!
However they also asked me to pay ahead of time in the following words:
*”There are so many visitors from abroad, and we ask to pay the Christmas course price in advance for overseas customers. To confirm your reservation, could you please remit your payment by December 14th via international bank transfer to our bank account given below?”*
I don’t mind paying ahead of time, but I guess an international bank transfer stuck out as a bit odd, and my mom who travels elsewhere in Asia frequently hasn’t seen something like this in recent years and is suspicious of fraud.
My question is, are these kinds of transactions common enough for overseas reservations, and is there any surefire way to check if this is legitimate or get around any worries here? The website seemed pretty official as it was linked by both Michelin and google maps, but I guess I just don’t want to be a sucker who was duped into wiring money to the wrong place. Thanks!
TLDR: American is mildly concerned as a restaurant he wanted to reserve at for Christmas Eve asked for an international bank transfer payment ahead of time.
4 comments
Oh, I actually know the chef, It’s a friend of the chef of the restaurant I worked at in Tokyo (also French). We wend there with my coworkers for our new year lunch.
I would say it is not overly surprising.
The restaurant where I work started to only take reservations from abroad if you book via a specific website and enter a credit card number and they will charge for no shot. The reason is that there is tourist (especially from some specific country) that where booking more than one place and just deciding on the night where they would go. Keeping an empty table can represent lost if you refuse other customers or if you purchased more ingredient expecting many customers.
And trust me, Christmas dinner can be an extremely busy night. The restaurant where I work usually only had one service for the night (meaning you can stay at your table as long as you want), while on Chistmas, we had two services, so you have to get to the restaurant at a specific time and leave at a specific time because there is a second booking for the table after you.
Bank transfer in Japan is quite easy, but I would ask them if they have a different payment method for people from abroad, like by credit card, as international bank transfer is not as easy and might have some high processing fee.
Usually higher end restaurants do that and more so for peak dates like Christmas Eve/day and New Year eve and even weekends during Dey. And definitely normal in Asia. It doesn’t matter if you are foreigner or local.
Am From Singapore and the practice is already in place even before pandemic.
If there is no show, you will be charged at a certain amount.
Am not familiar with Japan and bank transfer is my first time hearing that.
Unfortunately it’s normal for them to be wary of foreigners, reasonable or not. Too many no shows I guess…
Many only accept booking from Pocket Concierge or similar sites. You can ask if they have such arrangements, those sites will take credit cards.
This is very normal for high end restaurants and especially for special events / they have to buy the ingredients and don’t want to be out 400$ because you canceled last min.