Practical guide · 103 places

Japan's reservation system, explainedHow to book Japanese restaurants from abroad

A plain-English walk-through of every booking channel that works from outside Japan — Pocket Concierge, TABLEALL, OMAKASE, TableCheck, hotel concierges — with honest notes on when each one works and when it doesn't.

The landscape, in one paragraph

The best restaurants in Japan answer the phone, in Japanese. No OpenTable, no Resy, no reply to your email. About a third of them now release a slice of their seats to a small set of English-first platforms. The other two-thirds still need an intermediary — a hotel concierge who knows the restaurant, a Japanese-speaking friend, or a dedicated booking service. The tools below are the ones that genuinely work.

The channels, ranked by overseas coverage

Pocket Concierge (pocket-concierge.jp) has the largest English inventory in Japan — Den, RyuGin, L'Effervescence, Florilège, Jiro Roppongi, Kashiwaya, Hajime, and several hundred others. Clean English flow, pre-authorised card, confirmation in English.

TABLEALL covers many of the top Tokyo kaiseki and sushi counters that Pocket Concierge doesn't — Ishikawa, Koju, Nakamura, Sushi Arai, Sushi Shin. Smaller inventory but often the only English path to those names.

OMAKASE focuses on small-counter sushi and kaiseki with a members'-club feel. RyuGin, several hidden sushi counters, and Sugalabo occasionally release seats here.

TableCheck is a general-purpose reservation system Japanese restaurants use internally; English coverage exists but is uneven — some listings are Japanese-only.

Rakuten Travel Experiences is an unusual one: they're the named official partner of specific spots like Jiro Roppongi. Worth checking if your target is on the Rakuten list; it's usually the best path if so.

My Concierge Japan is a human service — you message a Tokyo-based concierge and they phone the restaurant on your behalf. Priced per booking. Useful for specific spots where no platform has the date you want.

When none of those work

For top-tier spots that operate like members' clubs — Sushi Saito, Sushi Sugita, Sukiyabashi Jiro Honten, Sugalabo — the only path is a luxury hotel concierge with a standing relationship, or an introduction from an existing regular.

This is also where Moshi Moshi fits. Our AI voice agent calls restaurants in polite Japanese, handles back-and-forth, and sends you the English confirmation — useful for the spots that are phone-only in Japanese (Chihana, Tempura Kondo, Gion Sasaki, Mizai, Hiiragiya, Tawaraya) but where a voice agent can actually reach the restaurant. For members'-only places, even we say 'this is a concierge problem, not a phone problem.'

By channel

With English channels

Phone-only in Japanese

Concierge or referral only

Common questions

Do I need to tip the hotel concierge?
Not in Japan the way you do in the US. A sincere thank-you and, if the booking took effort, a small envelope with ¥3,000–¥10,000 for the concierge is appreciated but not expected. The concierge may refuse a cash tip; in that case a follow-up thank-you note is genuinely enough.
Why do some Japanese restaurants not accept foreign cards?
Some still take cash only (Mizai, several older kaiseki) — this is a long-standing preference, not a technology gap. Many accept Japanese-issued credit cards but not foreign ones; the platforms handle this friction by charging the booking fee upfront. Pocket Concierge and TABLEALL are safe bets for foreign cards.
Is Google Translate good enough to phone a restaurant?
For simple cases (date, time, two people, no allergies), the conversation mode works. For anything more complex — menu preferences, dietary needs, negotiating seat position — it struggles, because the reservations clerk is speaking keigo (formal Japanese) that translation engines render literally but not idiomatically. The restaurant will often sense they're talking to a translator and get nervous about the booking.

Early access

We’ll place the call for you.

Leave your email and the reservation you want. Our AI voice agent calls in polite Japanese, handles the back-and-forth, and emails you the confirmation in English. No charge unless the reservation is made.

No spam. One email when your spot opens. That’s it.