Podcast 09: How to Order Sushi at a Japanese Restaurant

In this week’s podcast Yoshiko and Alex discuss useful Japanese vocabulary and cultural points and advice for ordering sushi at a Japanese restaurant like a native.

The good news is you don’t have to learn a huge amount of vocabulary to order your your favorite dishes if you learn just a few useful key phrases.

Listen to the podcast and then you can read the vocabulary list, dialog and cultural tips and advice below.

Main Podcast

Japanese Dialogues

Vocabulary from the Podcast

Dialog for ordering Sushi

Here is the main dialog in the podcast for ordering sushi at a Japanese restaurant.

10 Cultural Tips for Ordering Sushi

Here are 10 useful cultural points that will really help you when ordering sushi in Japan.

1. Call the Sushi chef “Taishō”

When you order from a sushi chef it is custom to refer to them as 大将 – Taishō. This means various things including general, boss, cheif etc. but in this context is used specifically to adress a sushi chef.

2. Use “Kan” counter to order sushi.

When counting pieces of Sushi you usually use the counter “kan”. For example:

一貫 – Ikkan – One piece of sushi

二貫 – Nikan – Two pieces of sushi

三貫 – Sankan – Three pieces of sushi

四貫 – Yonkan – Four pieces of sushi

An important thing to remember is it is not so common to order more than 2 or 3 pieces of the same type of sushi at the same time. The most common is ２貫 Nikan – two pieces of sushi. It is possible to say something like this:

たまごを二貫、サーモンを二貫、マグロを二貫ください

Tamago o nikan, saamon o nikan, maguro o nikan kudasai

2 pieces of egg, 2 salmon and 2 tuna please.

3) Use the word “agari” to order green tea

When you want to order tea say あがり一丁 agari ichō. This is a special way to order green tea that is particular to sushi restaurants. When you order, they usually bring it to you in a cup. However, in many conveyor belt sushi restaurants it’s common to make your own tea by putting green tea powder in a cup and adding hot water from a tap at the counter.

4) It is OK to use your hands when eating sushi

Believe it or not it is acceptable to use your hands when eating sushi. There is no decidedly proper way to eat sushi. However, when in doubt just copy what every one else is doing in the restaurant.

5) How to dip sushi in soy sauce

The proper way to eat sushi is to very lightly dip the meat of the fish in the soy sauce and not the rice. If soy gets on the rice it can start to fall apart and is not considered the most tasty way to eat it.

Some people even turn the sushi upside down in their mouth when eating so that the tongue touches the meat first.

Also, go easy on the soy sauce and the ginger. Japanese people tend not to drown each piece of sushi in soy sauce. Ginger is supposed to be eaten just to cleanse the palate between dishes.

6) Not all sushi is raw

It is in fact possible to order broiled versions of your favorite sushi which is called 炙り aburi. One particular favorite is 炙りサーモン Aburi saamon or broiled salmon. The chef will take a torch to the Sushi which gives it a delicious seared and smokey taste.

7) Say Gochisōsama when you finish eating

ごちそうさま Gochisōsama means “that was delicious” and you usually say it at the end of a meal. It’s common to say it either eating at a restaurant or at someone’s house after eating a meal with them.

8) To get the bill say Okaikei kudasai

To get the bill say お会計ください okaikei kudasai. The staff will come to the counter or table where you are seated and count the empty dishes to calculate the bill.

If you enjoyed this podcast you can find all our other Japanese language learning podcasts here.

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