This week I managed to do the near-impossible. I secured a dinner reservation to what is one of the hardest restaurants in the world to get a seat at — Sukiyabashi Jiro. After going through countless exercises to get it, I decided to write a post on how to get a reservation at Sukiyabashi Jiro so that you can also have this mind-blowing experience of a meal.

My boyfriend and I are spending a week in Japan next month, and my one, big bucket list item of the trip is to eat at the restaurant made famous by the documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” (If you haven’t watched this documentary yet, pull it up on Netflix asap because it is super interesting and gave me such an appreciation for the art of sushi making).

Ever since I watched this documentary two years ago, eating at Jiro has been very high on my overall bucket list, but I was skeptical that the day would ever come. I did a ton of research on how to snag a reservation, and this Business Insider article “Every Single Insane Thing I’ve Done to Score a Reservation in Tokyo” made me really concerned about my chances of getting a reservation.

So, I set out to try and get a seat at the famed restaurant, which only has 10 seats per reservation time, to willingly shell out the $230/head which does not include drinks and taxes. I was so deadset on eating here that I even told my boyfriend that I would take dinner at Jiro over exchanging gifts at Christmas this year, and I love Christmas.

Here’s how getting a reservation works. The restaurant only takes reservations once a month on the first of the month for the entire month after. So, if you want to eat in November, you must call on October 1st. Now, I don’t speak Japanese and the timezone issue is a tough one. I had also heard that they don’t readily grant reservations to people with American accents, unless you are an Obama.

Instead of risking it myself (I mean, I’ve never even placed a call to Japan let alone spoken to someone by phone there), I enlisted the help of my hotel. (Note: Japanese hotels that are four or five stars have the best concierges that will book loads of things for you, so remember to take advantage of this service). We are staying at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, and already their service has been amazing, as will be evidenced below.

I emailed my concierge on September 27th and explained that I would literally do anything to get a dinner reservation at Sushi Jiro.

To increase your odds of getting a reservation do the following:

*Make sure to brief your concierge days ahead of the first of the month deadline so they are armed with everything they need to get a reservation.

*Be flexible on which Sushi Jiro location you will eat at. There are two — one run by Jiro, one by his son. They both deliver up a very similar experience in terms of quality, so if you are open to eating at either, you double your chances of getting a reservation.

*Be flexible on time and date of your dinner. We said we could eat dinner at any time and on any night we were in Tokyo. We told the concierge each night we would be there and told her to submit all of our dates to the restaurant.

Now, the results. On October 1st, we were made aware by our concierge that we had gotten two seats for dinner service at Sushi Jiro Roppongi at 5:30 pm (!!!). And yes, the reservation is on the early side, and my first choice was to eat at the Father’s restaurant, but still I can’t describe how elated I am.

UPDATE: Want to hear about our dinner at Jiro? Read our post about our experience with their omakase tasting menu here. Below, find our other Japan travel guides!

 

Read More of our Asia Travel Guides:

Travel Guide: Where to Stay in Tokyo
Travel Guide: Tokyo Itinerary
Travel Guide: Where To Eat In Tokyo
Travel Guide: Kyoto Itinerary
Travel Guide: Where to Eat in Kyoto
Travel Guide: Hong Kong
Travel Guide: Where to Stay in Hong Kong
Travel Guide: Shanghai
Travel Guide: Beijing Itinerary
Travel Guide: Where to Stay in Beijing

 

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