My family and I were walking around the Gilco sign, looking for a place to eat. We saw this guy holding a sign in the street for a restaurant with food that looked pretty good.
It was pretty late, we were all tired, and we just wanted to some place to eat. So we asked the guy about the restaurant, and we ushered us into a building where my family of 6 squeezed into a tiny elevator into a dingy little restaurant.
We were sat down and they asked if we wanted Japanese or English menus. I asked for English, which looking back was a huge mistake. We ordered just a couple of items, but solely through a QR code on the table, no servers came to us. When we just asked for water, they told us to order through the QR code, where were charged ¥200 for each water. We assumed it was gonna be bottled water for that price, but it wasn’t.
We finish up our meal, and I calculated it to be around ¥6,000. When we went up to pay, they charged us ¥10,580. I was confused because that’s not what the prices were based off the menu. The guy goes on about “taxes” and says we need to pay the ¥10,580. I’m tired, confused, and just end up paying the guy the money, and we leave. On our way out, my dad makes a joke to the guy, and he laughs, then says in perfect English “I don’t speak any English.”
I know it’s kinda my fault for being a tourist, but I’m just annoyed at how we got scammed an extra ¥4,580.
by bdguy355
42 comments
To the tune of “I took a pill in Ibiza”
~~Japan~~ Tourist Tip #1 – Never follow people on the street that hold signs or usher you into places….
>We were sat down and they asked if we wanted Japanese or English menus. I asked for English, which looking back was a huge mistake. We ordered just a couple of items, but solely through a QR code on the table,
So there was an English QR code and a Non-English QR code at the table?
Life lesson learnt?
Sorry to hear that you guys were taken advantage of
Make sure you don’t grab CDs from sketchy people in American cities
what did you eat and how was the food?
Sorry to hear, likely they charged a cover as well or had an otoshi (small appetizer which you are charged for as a service fee.) but this guy sounds sus. I hear places in that area charge anywhere from ¥500 to ¥1000 per person. I generally pay ¥250-400 pp at izakayas.
If anyone ever offers you any type of service without you initiating or wants to take you somewhere especially at night, it’s probably not a good idea. This is not Japan, but just being street smart.
dinner for 6 – sounds like an average price – having to pay for water though…that sux
This sucks for you, but don’t dwell on it. All things considered you got of really lightly compared to other tout stories that are out there.
Chalk it up to a life lesson, and don’t let it ruin your holiday. My rule of thumb is, if the venue was that good they wouldn’t *need* a guy/girl out the front attempting to funnel foreigners into their establishment.
Yeah, don’t trust these guys/girls out on the streets. They’re even nice enough to dress like absolute tools to distinguish themselves from anyone reputable.
I’m sorry you feel scammed, but to be honest, you paid around 1.30 usd for water and around 70 usd for a 6-person dinner.. I mean. I don’t know what you’re used to, but that’s extremely cheap..
Bruh you’re in Dotonbori, surrounded by food and you decide to follow a sketchy tout? At this this was a relatively cheap lesson and you weren’t led to a bar
so you spent like $70 for 6 people? instead of like $40. Low grade scam. You didnt even say the food was horrible either soooo yeaaaaa.
10k for 6 person. Don’t think about it too much. Consider it as charity if u think you got scammed. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.
Are you sure you didn’t just miscalculate?
10,580 for 6 people doesn’t seem like a whole lot. That’s like 11 dollars a person.
I honestly have a hard time picturing a family of 6 eating for 10k, much less 6k.
4580 / 6 = 764 yen. This could very easily be the price of [otoshi](https://bald-traveler.com/otoshi-and-tipping-in-japan/).
If you were scammed/extorted it would probably be something like 30,000~90,000
What am I missing here? You paid $70 for 6 people to eat and feel scammed?
Are you sure it was a scam? Thats not a bad total considering it was dinner for 6.
Are we missing something here? By my count you ordered 800 yen worth of food per person, or just over $5 per person tax included. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten in a non fast food sit down place for that cheap. Isn’t it rather more likely that you misunderstood the extra charge?
This almost just sounds like a case of Oto-shi being added for each person. Assuming it’s 5-600 yen plus taxes, the bill would make sense. Hard to remember any late-night izakaya not forcing some extra dish on me.
I can’t say for sure. Perhaps you did get charged more. But, I’ve seen tourists claim to have been scammed before because they don’t understand otōshidai (お通し代)
750 yen pp isn’t so unreasonable especially if it’s a small Izakaiya.
But how did you like the food overall? I know you were hungry and tired, but looking back, was it up to par with other restaurant-style meals you had?
A lot of places charge you what is essentially a table charge of ¥300-400 per person. That’s ¥2,400 of the ~¥9,500 pretax, so ¥7,100/6 = ¥1,200 per person. That’s 1 very small dish, 1 drink or 1 dish + water depending on what type of place.
Don’t doubt it wasn’t a great experience, probably food is bad if they have someone stand outside and it’s not cheap but it had nothing to do with not being Japanese or speaking Japanese or a scam (imo). If it is, I got scammed about everywhere in the US with tip, added service charge, employee health insurance r fee, and living wage fee added everywhere.
Did you check the receipt? There was probably some sort of table charge and with 6 people, that would likely make up the difference.
Please ignore the Americans in here, they have no concept by the looks of it.
OP you may have been scammed, but you were definitely ripped off.
10,000 yen is very expensive, and charging for water is a massive red flag. As others have said never follow people who are trying to get you into a place.
1,700 per person should have got either a very good meal in a quality place where the water would be free, or you would have eaten like a king at a cheaper place.
If you are hungry and desperate you can always look for a Yoshinoya, Matsuya, Sukiya, Marugame, Saizeriya, Gusto or any Ramen restaurant with a ticket machine for easy ordering. Those places will have you paying less than 1,000 yen for delicious food.
Japan resident here. Without further information it is hard to know whether you are scammed or not. But just a couple of thing that could explain thing you experience.
First, many of the izakaya restaurants (which from the sound of it seems likely) have a table charge that is not mentioned on the menu. In exchange you get a small appetizer (otoshi). Price of it varies between restaurants but you can expect a price of about 300-700 yen per person. An easy way to see this is if they serve you a small dish per person that you didn’t order
Second, charging for water isn’t at all rare for Izakaya. People maybe basing their opinion on the chain restaurant, country they are from or non Izakaya. Truth is, Izakaya make money from their drink, and water is definitely something they would charge you (again some places don’t, but treat it as exception rather than the norm). 200 yen may sound expensive but that is expected for Izakaya menu when they charge you 400-800 yen for regular drink.
So if we add up the possible appetizer table charge (say 500 per person) and the 10% tax, the bill doesn’t sound that unlikely. What I am saying it may have been a misunderstanding rather than being scammed. Again with the information on the post it is hard to know if you get scammed
Finally, it is generally true that you should avoid following people who invite you over to their restaurants. Not all of them are shady but some do. Judging from the bill you get though it likely isn’t shady but just the price structure can be confusing for foreigners
In the Dotonbori area, soliciting customers is prohibited.
People who ask you kindly there are usually touts and frauds.
However, the price you paid for dinner for 6 people is pretty normal. You might have miscalculated, or they may have included a table charge as well. Table charge is really common in restaurants in Japan. It’s called ‘Otoshi’ in Japanese.
10,000 yen for six people? Sounds like you scammed them!
FWIW, typical scams will be charging 20 times that for one person. I think this one might just be a communication breakdown.
I’ve paid that much for water in a small izakaya. It was unlimited plain self serve bottled water. It’s pretty normal to be required to pay for at least one drink per person in lieu of a table charge. Depending on the restaurant and depending on what you order, this can range from 200 to 2000 yen per person. It isn’t a scam, but it can definitely be confusing and can get fairly expensive quickly. A table charge (often in exchange for a small appetizer) is also not uncommon, and this can also be charged per person.
There were 6 of you, so the difference in charge was approximately 750 yen per person. Probably some sort of table charge.
Sounds like a bargain for 6 people.
seems like a reasonable price tbh
10k 6 people. where is the scam?
> my family of 6 […] We finish up our meal, and I calculated it to be around ¥6,000. When we went up to pay, they charged us ¥10,580.
A family of 6 and you expected dinner in a restaurant for 6000en? I mean sure, it’s *possible* to feed 6 people for 6000en but you’re not going to be eating very much.
You may have overpaid a bit, and restaurants overcharging tourists is becoming an issue, but 10580en for dinner for 6 people isn’t exactly a *scam*. Adding a zero onto that would be a scam.
A lot of comments got this wrong. water is usually only free during lunch. for dinner service, most of the time you are expected to order drinks (mostly alcohol but for non-drinkers you can order oolong or soft drinks)
In this case, they probably have water on menu just so that they dont have to tell you that you have to order 1 drink/person in Japanese and confuse you anyway.
There’s also the seating charge where they give you some small snack which you cant refuse (unlike some Chinese restaurant, you can refuse peanuts) and charge you a small amount of money for each person in your party.
I believe this wasnt a scam
Am I the only one struggling to even see this a scam and more just poor communication. You literally got charged $70/£55 for a full family meal. If anything I think you scammed them
¥6,000 for a party of six is pretty optimistic for a sit down restaurant in Shinsaibashi.
Getting scammed in this scenario would make you an ignorant tourist. But seems like you’re an even worse kind of ignorant tourist for claiming you got scammed when you just didn’t understand the local culture (google “table charge”).
That looks kinda cheap actually for that many people lol.
I payed a lot of 3-5k meals just for me.
I think the American equivalent of this story is going to Times Square, taking a picture with one of the knock-off Elmos, and then stumbling into Bubba Gump Shrimp and wondering why the final tally was about 30% more than the total food and drinks.
The OP didn’t get scammed, but overpaid for what they got (and didn’t know about otoishi), when they could’ve walked 15 minutes in any direction and gotten better food for less.