Tokyo Izakaya Guide 2026: Otoshi, Ordering and Nomihodai

Give the number in your party at the door and you will be shown to a counter seat, a table, a sunken-floor booth or a private room. A hot or cold hand towel (oshibori) usually arrives first.

When the restaurant is busy, a two-hour table limit is common, and staff may ask you to leave when it is up so waiting customers can sit down. If the place is quiet, you can often stay much longer. It is worth asking two things as you sit down: whether there is a time limit, and what time last orders are.

Shortly after you sit down, a small appetizer arrives that nobody at the table ordered. This is otoshi (called tsukidashi in the Kansai region), and it is charged per person. It works as a cover charge delivered in the form of food, taking the place of a tip or service fee. It is charged once per person, so a second round of drinks does not bring a second dish.

Prices vary. In an August 2023 industry survey of restaurant operators, the most common otoshi price band was 300 to 399 yen, followed by 500 to 599 yen. Other guides report a wider range of roughly 200 to 1,000 yen per person depending on the venue, with upscale places at the top end. Not every izakaya charges one: the yakitori chain Torikizoku states on its official site that it does not charge otoshi, seat charges or late-night fees.

Whether you can decline depends on the shop. At some places, saying you would like to skip the otoshi as you are seated works; refusing once the dish is already on the table rarely does. Some izakaya also add a private-room fee or a late-night surcharge, so check the menu or entrance signage.

• Otoshi wa arimasu ka? - Is there an otoshi?
• Otoshi nashi de onegai shimasu - No otoshi, please (ask before ordering)

Order drinks first. Staff usually take the drink order before food, and it is normal to get drinks going while you study the menu. Toriaezu nama, meaning a draft beer to start, is the classic opening line. Oolong tea, soft drinks and non-alcoholic beer are standard options for anyone not drinking.

Food is shared. Rather than one main dish each, the table orders a few plates at a time and adds more as the evening goes on, and dishes arrive as the kitchen finishes them rather than in courses. Ordering everything at once tends to leave food going cold.

To order, press the call button if the table has one, or raise a hand and say sumimasen (excuse me); calling staff this way is not rude. Tablets on the table and QR-code ordering from your own phone are now common, and many of these systems switch to English, Chinese and Korean.

Nomihodai lets you order as many drinks as you like from a set list for a fixed period, typically 60, 90 or 120 minutes. Last orders usually come about 30 minutes before the time is up. Drinks outside the plan list are charged separately.

As one published example, the chain Miraizaka listed a standalone 120-minute all-you-can-drink plan at 1,980 yen including tax as of July 2026, with banquet courses that include drinks from around 3,300 yen. Conditions vary by shop: course plans usually require everyone at the table to take the same course, some standalone plans require the whole table to join, and one drink per person at a time is a common rule.

Whether it pays off is simple arithmetic. If single drinks cost 400 to 600 yen, the break-even point is roughly four drinks in two hours.

Costs depend heavily on the type of izakaya and how much you drink, so treat any figure as a rough guide that changes over time. Beyond food and drinks, the bill may include otoshi, a seat or private-room charge and, at high-end restaurants rather than chain izakaya, a service charge of around 10 to 15 percent.

Consumption tax is 10 percent for dining in. Menus are required to show tax-inclusive prices, but a format where the large number is the pre-tax price with the tax-inclusive figure in smaller type is permitted, so read prices carefully. If the total looks wrong, it is fine to ask staff to go through the bill with you.

Wait until everyone has a drink and the table has said kanpai before taking the first sip. Pouring for others from shared bottles is considered good manners. Alcohol is served only to people aged 20 and over, and staff may ask for ID from anyone who looks young, so carrying a passport or residence card helps.

Tokyo restricts indoor smoking more tightly than national law: under the city's ordinance, a restaurant with employees is non-smoking indoors as a rule, although it may have a separate smoking room. Signs at the entrance show whether a place has smoking facilities, and people under 20 are not allowed into smoking areas.

The usual pattern is to take the check from your table to the register. If there is no slip, say o-kaikei onegaishimasu (the bill, please). Chains generally accept credit cards, transit IC cards and QR-code payments, while small independent shops are often cash-only, so check the stickers by the door and carry some cash.

Asking for betsubetsu gets an even split per head at most shops; itemized splitting may be refused when the shop is busy. There is no tipping. The Japan National Tourism Organization states that it is not common to tip in bars, cafes, restaurants, taxis and hotels, and a thank-you of gochisosama deshita on the way out is the expected gesture.

Chains are the predictable option for a first night: published policies, larger menus and, often, tablet ordering. Torikizoku is known for a uniform-price menu and states that it charges no otoshi. Other chains mentioned by Tokyo travel media include Uoshin for seafood and Kin no Kura Jr. for fried food; menus and charges differ by branch, so check before you sit down.

Small independent izakaya, often marked by a red paper lantern outside, are more likely to have handwritten Japanese-only menus, charge otoshi and take cash only.