how are checks divided at restaurants?

Hello, I am a college student who recently moved to Japan. I plan on getting lunch with a college friend soon so I wanted to know, how do you go about splitting or doing separate checks? Or is that something we should figure out amongst ourselves?

11 comments
  1. At the drinking parties I’ve been to with Japanese people they get a check for the table and then divide it evenly among everyone at the party.

  2. You can try saying べつべつ, but sometimes restaurants say it’s not possible.

    Just in case, keep track of how much your food is. Usually the price is written with tax included. Then if you can’t split it, you can pay exact change.

  3. Depends. If you are just ordering separate meals for yourselves, pay for your own meal.

    If you are ordering multiple dishes that you are going to share, do what people in the Netherlands apparently do.

  4. If I were a college student I would normally go up in a group and have the cashier ring each of us up separately if they didn’t split the bill for us.

    When I’m out with friends if they’ll split it for us great, if not we’ll just split it evenly.

  5. Typically, when you get to the cash register, you get to specify what items you’re paying for.

    Notes: most places won’t split your check half-and-half; you still get a compound statement at the table, that’s normal, and can pay for specific items at the cashier’s; I dunno about the places where you pay at the table. P.S. there’s an app for that!

  6. If it’s somewhere like Starbucks or McDonald’s where you order first and pay when you order then just line up separately and pay separately. If it’s a sit down place where you pay after your meal say べつべつで at the register. Some restaurants won’t separate bills though so in that case one person will have to pay first and check the receipt and sort it out between yourselves

  7. my friends and i always split it evenly unless there was a massive difference in meal costs (e.g. everyone had nomihoudai except one person then that person pays less)

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