Restaurant rules: Eateries banning perfume, kids and casual attire
Brisbane’s most exclusive restaurant seats just eight, charges $245 a person for an 18-course dinner and comes with a long list of strict rules.
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From not being allowed to wear perfume or cologne, to needing a personal reference to score a reservation, two Brisbane restaurants are going to extreme lengths to create the ultimate in exclusive dining experiences.
Traditional Japanese omakase restaurant Fumiki’s Sushi Kappo in Robertson, in Brisbane’s south, opened in December and has a full page document of terms and conditions diners need to agree to before making a booking for its $245 per person 18-course dinner.
The T&Cs include everything from wearing appropriate attire – with the restaurant reserving the right to cancel your booking and forfeit the $120 deposit if you turn up in sandals, shorts or singlets, to not wearing strong perfumes or cologne.
“It’s not really for myself it’s for the respect of other customers,” owner Fumiki Hayashi said, claiming the rules were “very common” in similar omakase restaurants in Japan where he trained as a chef.
“If other people dress nicely and then they see this person wearing (an outfit) like he’s going to a beach, they feel like the standard’s not really there.
“I get a lot of business owners coming in and they feel respect and I’m just trying to unify that atmosphere for the customers.”
Mr Hayashi said most of his diners were “quite understanding” about the rules, though some liked to challenge them, particularly the perfume condition.
“The perfume thing is that the smell will get onto the raw fish sushi and when you eat it sometimes you don’t have the smell of fish, instead you have the smell of perfume,” he said.
“People still wear perfume. It’s written there but people like to challenge it. They don’t really read the terms and conditions. I understand that this can be a bit controversial, but it’s more for others.”
The restaurant also bans children under the age of 12, and locks diners out if they arrive more than 15 minutes late for their booking.
But Mr Hayashi said he was happy to accommodate young children if the family booked out the entire eight-seat restaurant for just shy of $2000 and that the kids didn’t run around, endangering his expensive crockery.
Meanwhile, at the tiny six-seat Japanese omakase restaurant Katsu Ya in Fortitude Valley, diners must have a personal reference – either a friend or family member who can vouch for them – to score a booking.
Denise Yang, who owns the business with her chef-husband Katsu Huang, said the couple only wanted to cater to diners they liked and who liked them and understood, appreciated and respected their unique concept. That meant hosting friends and families first, then regular customers, before the general public.
“Some of them (the public) just don’t get it and they might get a bit angry,” Mrs Yang said. “Some of them say, ‘I’m going to pay you so just open and let me in’. In that case, that customer is not suitable for us.”
Despite the restrictions on reservations, the venue is already booked out for whole of 2023, operating five nights a week.
Mrs Yang said the extreme exclusivity only added to the venture’s appeal.
“We have customers come from the Sunshine Coast just for dinner … we have also had a few inquiries from Victoria and New South Wales,” she said.
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