How to Order at a Japanese Izakaya
An izakaya is not a restaurant with drinks. It is a drinking place that serves food, and almost everything about how it runs follows from that. You do not order a meal and eat it; you order a drink, then a few plates, then a few more plates, over two or three hours. Visitors who treat it like a restaurant order everything at once, get eight dishes at the same time, and miss the point.
The mechanics are consistent from a chain in a station basement to a six-seat counter down an alley. Learn the sequence once and the rest is choosing what you feel like.
Walking in
At the door someone will ask 何名様ですか (nan-mei sama desu ka), how many people. Holding up fingers is a complete answer. You may then be asked whether you want a テーブル (table), カウンター (counter) or 座敷 (zashiki, a raised tatami area where you take your shoes off). Counter seats are usually the best for solo diners and for watching the grill.
Once seated you get an おしぼり (oshibori), a hot or cold towel for your hands, and you will be asked for drinks before you have looked at the food menu. That is not rushing you. The standard response is とりあえず生 (toriaezu nama), roughly "a draft beer for now, we'll decide the rest later." Say it and you have bought yourself ten minutes with the menu.
The otoshi is not a scam
Shortly after the drinks, a small dish nobody ordered arrives: simmered vegetables, a marinated seafood item, something pickled. This is お通し (otōshi), also called 突き出し (tsukidashi) in the Kansai region. It is a compulsory appetizer that functions as a table charge, billed per person.
Two things worth knowing. It is not optional in most places and cannot usefully be refused, and it is genuinely how izakaya cover the cost of a table you will occupy for hours without a minimum spend. Think of it as a cover charge that happens to be edible. It is normal, it is charged to Japanese customers identically, and the amount is modest. Some tourist-area places will waive it if you ask, but pushing back is not the local move.
Order in rounds, not all at once
The rhythm is: two or three dishes, drink, order more when those are gone. Kitchen items come out as they are ready, in no fixed course order, and cold dishes usually land first because they are faster.
A workable opening order is one thing from the cold or raw section, one fried item, and one grilled item. Then adjust. If you order six plates at the start, six plates will arrive within twenty minutes and half of them will go cold.
To call staff, say すみません (sumimasen) at conversational volume, or press the call button on the table if there is one. In chain izakaya there is often a tablet at the table; the language toggle is usually a button in a corner marked with a flag or "ENG."
The menu sections you will see
| Japanese | Reading | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| お通し | otōshi | The compulsory small dish, not something you order |
| お刺身 | sashimi | Raw fish, by piece or as a mixed plate |
| 焼き鳥 | yakitori | Grilled chicken skewers, ordered by the stick |
| 串焼き | kushiyaki | Grilled skewers generally, including pork and vegetables |
| 焼き物 | yakimono | Grilled items, including whole fish |
| 揚げ物 | agemono | Fried items |
| 炒め物 | itamemono | Stir-fried plates |
| 煮物 | nimono | Simmered dishes, often the most homely thing on the menu |
| サラダ | sarada | Salads, usually large enough to share |
| おつまみ | otsumami | Small snacks designed to go with drinking |
| ご飯もの | gohanmono | Rice dishes, ordered late rather than first |
| 麺類 | menrui | Noodles, also a late-evening item |
| 〆 / シメ | shime | The closing dish, the thing you finish the night with |
| 本日のおすすめ | honjitsu no osusume | Today's specials, often handwritten on the wall |
The 〆 concept is worth understanding because it changes when you order rice. Carbohydrates come at the end of an izakaya evening, not the beginning. Ordering rice with your first round reads a little like ordering dessert first.
Skewers: two questions you will be asked
Order yakitori and you get two follow-up questions almost every time.
塩 or タレ (shio or tare): salt or sweet soy glaze. Salt suits chicken thigh, skin and anything you want to taste clean. Tare suits liver, meatballs and richer cuts. If you cannot decide, ask for お任せ (omakase) and let the grill cook choose.
何本 (nanbon): how many sticks. Many shops sell skewers in pairs by default, so ordering "one" of five kinds may produce ten sticks. If you want singles, say 一本ずつ (ippon zutsu), one of each.
| Japanese | Reading | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| もも | momo | Chicken thigh, the safe default |
| ねぎま | negima | Thigh alternating with spring onion |
| 皮 | kawa | Chicken skin, grilled crisp |
| つくね | tsukune | Minced chicken meatball, often with raw egg yolk to dip |
| 砂肝 | sunagimo | Gizzard, crunchy |
| レバー | rebā | Liver |
| 手羽先 | tebasaki | Chicken wing |
| 豚バラ | butabara | Pork belly |
| しいたけ | shiitake | Grilled mushroom |
| ししとう | shishitō | Small green peppers, occasionally hot |
The drink list, which is where most people freeze
You will be asked to specify things Western drink menus do not ask. These are the answers.
| Japanese | Reading | What you are choosing |
|---|---|---|
| 生ビール | nama bīru | Draft beer; 中 (chū) is the standard size, 大 (dai) large |
| ハイボール | haibōru | Whisky and soda, the default light drink |
| レモンサワー | remon sawā | Shōchū, soda and lemon; very common, very drinkable |
| 日本酒 | nihonshu | Sake, served 冷酒 (reishu, chilled) or 熱燗 (atsukan, warmed) |
| 辛口 / 甘口 | karakuchi / amakuchi | Dry or sweet, the main axis for choosing a sake |
| 一合 / 徳利 | ichi-gō / tokkuri | A standard sake measure, served in a small flask |
| 焼酎 | shōchū | Distilled spirit from barley, sweet potato or rice |
| ロック | rokku | On the rocks |
| 水割り | mizuwari | Cut with cold water |
| お湯割り | oyuwari | Cut with hot water, standard in winter |
| 梅酒 | umeshu | Plum liqueur, sweet, often served with soda |
| ウーロン茶 | ūroncha | Oolong tea, the standard non-alcoholic order |
Two of these are effectively required knowledge. Order sake and you will be asked chilled or warm and dry or sweet. Order shōchū and you will be asked rocks, water or hot water. Having an answer ready keeps the conversation short and gets you something you will like.
Nomihodai, and its fine print
飲み放題 (nomihōdai) is all-you-can-drink for a fixed time and a fixed price, usually 90 or 120 minutes. It is excellent value for a group that drinks steadily and poor value for one person nursing a beer. The rules that catch people out:
- The clock starts when the plan starts, not when you sit down, and running late costs you minutes.
- ラストオーダー (rasuto ōdā), last order, falls 15 to 30 minutes before the end. Miss it and the plan is over even if time remains.
- Premium sake, certain whiskies and bottled items are often excluded from the cheap plan. The list of what is included is printed, usually in Japanese only.
- One drink per person at a time is standard. You cannot stack three.
- Many places only sell nomihōdai together with a コース (kōsu), a set food menu, and only for the whole table.
There is also 食べ放題 (tabehōdai), all-you-can-eat, sometimes bundled. The same time limits apply.
Paying and splitting
You do not usually pay at the table. A 伝票 (denpyō), a slip or small clipboard, sits on your table or in a holder collecting your order; take it to the register by the door on the way out and hand it over. Saying お会計お願いします (okaikei onegai shimasu) at the table works too.
Splitting is entirely normal and has its own word: 割り勘 (warikan), meaning an even split across everyone. Ask for it with 割り勘でお願いします. Japanese groups typically divide the total evenly rather than itemizing who ate what, and the register staff will happily take several cards or hand out change accordingly. Itemized splitting is possible but slower and less usual. Smaller independent izakaya are still frequently cash-only, and a sign reading 現金のみ means exactly that.
There is no tipping, and no service charge beyond the otoshi. Some places add a late-night surcharge after a certain hour, printed on the menu.
When the wall is the menu
The best izakaya put the day's specials on paper strips tacked to the wall, handwritten, in Japanese, in a style that is not the printed type you might have practiced. The laminated menu on the table is the standard year-round list; the wall is what came in fresh this morning, and it is usually the reason to be there.
Photographing the strips and reading the translation before the staff comes back is how you order from the wall instead of from the safe list. It also tells you which of those strips is the fish and which is a plate of fermented squid guts, which is information worth having before you commit.
FAQ
Can I go to an izakaya alone? Yes, and counter seats exist partly for that. Solo drinkers are ordinary. A single person ordering two or three small plates and a couple of drinks is a completely normal ticket.
Do I have to drink alcohol? No. Oolong tea, ginger ale and non-alcoholic beer are on every drink list, and ordering one as your opening drink is unremarkable. The otoshi charge applies regardless.
Are izakaya family-friendly? Many are, especially chains and places with tatami rooms, and children are common in the early evening. Small counter bars late at night are effectively adult spaces, and some post an age restriction at the door.