Any good sushi restaurants in Paris?

Tipping in Japanese Sushi Restaurants in the USA

• When I go out to some of the nicer sushi restaurants around town (Boston, MA, USA), it's not uncommon to see asian patrons (usually solo businessmen) drop off some bills at the sushi bar on their way out. Presumably this is a tip to the chefs. Being unfamiliar as I am with Japanese traditions, I'm curious as to the scale of the tip. Is it the traditional 15+% of American restaurants? Or is it higher? Is it usually constrained to round numbers ($5, $10, $20)? Is this tip intended to go above and beyond normal service and speak to the quality and preparation of the food? Is it always left, or only in instances of particularly good food? Are tips left for the waitstaff as well? Are there Japanese words / vernacular used to describe any of the above? Thanks in advance.

• Answer:

  Greetings! To address your question, a sushi chef is a chef and not a part of the waitperson staff in a restaurant. In most cases, the chef is a member of the tip pool by some percentage and being a sushi chef is a respected and honorable position in a restaurant. To tip your sushi chef extra is akin to tipping a bartender extra for a fine drink even though the drink was served at your table by a waitress. Rist, I discovered in her "Eating Sushi in Japan" article, About.com's Shizuko Mishima offers these as three of her tips under the heading "What to do at Sushi Restaurants": "It's nice to ask the sushi chef for his/her recommendation of the day. ...Try not to ask the sushi chef to bring you things - like a drink or your bill...It's nice to offer to buy your sushi chef a drink if he/she is doing a good job." The latter seems to infer that doing extra for your sushi chef is an honorable gesture and, in the grand scheme of things, it is certainly a great way to be remembered by the chef when you make future visits to perhaps get some of the better pieces of sushi. Then I dscovered an article which states tips are divided among the wautpersons and chef (I've included a medium portion of the article as it gave some phrases to use as well): "Even for experienced eaters, common practice is to ask the chef for recommendations. This demonstrates respect for the chef, and he will thusly give you the best pieces. At the bar, it is best to place many small orders continuously rather than one large order at the beginning. This will ensure continued interaction with the chef. And it is never bad to throw in a few Japanese phrases: Konichiwa (koh NEECH ee wah) How are you? Dozo (DOH zoh) - Please Domo (DOH moh) - Thank you Domo arigato (ah ri GAH toh) - Thank you very much The only thing you should ever order from the chef is sushi and sashimi. For everything else (your beverage, the check, etc.), ask the waiter. And try to leave around a 20% tip, as it gets divided among everyone." Therefore, tipping the chef extra would be a sign of great respect, a way to honor the chef's skill and knowledge and a way to get the best sushi. The size of the extra tip to the chef appears to be up to the patron. It is interesting to note that I read on a couple of sites that tipping at restaurants is seldom seen in Japan. Then there's this from Guerrilla Sushi Tactics at FatGuy.com (I thoroughly enjoyed this article): "Seventh, if you've decided that this sushi chef is someone you want to work with and learn from (this is just like choosing a psychoanalyst), ask the sushi chef his name, tell him yours (or earnestly present a business card with both hands), and give him twenty bucks (unless he's the owner, in which case no tip is necessary). Go back soon to reinforce his memory of you, but this time allow him to choose all your fish (the procedure known as "omakase")." I hope this information proves to be of assistance. SEARCH TERMS and LINKS: restaurant manners japanese [Google search] ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=restaurant+manners+japanese Japanese Sushi and manners in a sushi restaurant http://gojapan.about.com/library/weekly/aa102899c.htm restaurant manners japanese sushi chef [Google search] ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=restaurant+manners+japanese+sushi+chef SoYouWanna enjoy sushi, pt IV http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/sushi/sushi4.html tip sushi chef [Google search] ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=tip+sushi+chef Fat-Guy.com "Guerrilla Sushi Tactics" http://www.fat-guy.com/article/view/198