Celebrity Chef Insults ‘Poor’ To Defend 800 Yen Water Charge
by julia on Monday, June 17, 2013
by julia on Monday, June 17, 2013
As the popularity of social media increases, it gets easier to demand accountability from the businesses we interact with on a daily basis. Recently, public figures in Japan have been taking to the internet to express their dissatisfaction as customers, with varying results.
For example, Author Ototake Hirotada used Twitter to vent frustration about a restaurant in Tokyo that refused him due to his wheelchair, and the netizen community rallied behind him. On the other hand, politician Koizumi Mitsuo’s recent blog post about his dehumanizing experience at the hospital earned him widespread ridicule. Clearly, airing greivances on the internet can be a double-edged sword.
Last month, celebrity chef Kawagoe Tatsuya attempted to fight back against similar internet complaints about his restaurant after it received negative reviews on restaurant review website Tabelog. Most notably, customers complained about finding an 800 yen charge for water on their receipt without any warning or explanation. Instead of apologizing, Kawagoe claims reviewers on the internet must be too middle-class to understand the true value of his restaurant. Although the article cites reactions both in support of and against Kawagoe’s statements, it looks like Kawagoe’s elitism has largely turned netizens against him.
From Yahoo! Japan:
Chef Kawagoe Enraged at Tabelog Posts: “800 Yen For Water Is Reasonable”
Chef Kawagoe Tatsuya, famous for his appearances on variety shows, is furious about the insulting reviews of the restaurant he manages that were posted on restaurant review website Tabelog.
The review said that the water served at Kawagoe’s restaurant was too expensive at 800 yen [approx. $8.50]. Kawagoe said that it’s a natural price because he is serving high-quality water, and complained that it was ridiculous for people with a yearly salary of only 3 or 4 million yen [approx. $32,000 -- $42,000], who are unaccustomed to high class establishments, to write critical reviews.
“It’s ‘cause I’m serving high-quality water”
An interview with Kawagoe was posted on May 19 on Cyzo magazine’s website. When asked what he thought of review websites like Tabelog, he immediately replied, “They’re worthless.” People with annual salaries of 3 or 4 million yen go to high class restaurants and then post criticism to the website, but people like that don’t understand the history or business endeavors of high-class establishments. Previously, his own restaurant was criticized for “charging 800 yen for just water,” but he said, “That’s reasonable! It’s ‘cause I’m serving high-quality water. There are restaurants that charge 1,000 or 1,500 yen. They haven’t been to restaurants like that, so they have the sense that they were ‘robbed of 800 yen.’”
If you look at the posts on Tabelog about Kawagoe’s Italian restaurant, there are indeed two complaints about the water. One person got a meal that cost 8,470 yen per person including the service charge, and ordered a 800 yen bottle of beer in addition. A glass of wine or a cocktail was 1,200 yen. He said that when he paid the bill, he was horrified. He was thrown off by the 800 yen water charge. “I freaked out. It’s ok, charging a fee for water is fine. If I specially requested it. But freely serving the water without asking us anything, when the two of us didn’t even drink it, 800 yen?” He said that the water was served after the meal.
Another person wrote, “Since they charge 800 yen when they offer you water, I had hoped to refuse it, but I suddenly realized they had already given me water. Of course, when I looked at the receipt it said ‘Aqua, \800.’ I’ll think of this place as a foreign restaurant instead of Japanese.” It seems like it’s not just the high price of the water, but the way they serve it to you without asking and then charge a fee also really offends people.
“Why don’t they reject poor people who aren’t qualified to write posts?”
Now, the contents of Kawagoe’s interview have brought out comments on the net, such as “I’d complain if I had 800 yen taken from me for water,” “I’m just writing the way I felt, but why don’t they reject poor people who aren’t qualified to write posts?” and “He’s telling us not to arbitrarily apply our poor people’s reasoning to a place where people with salaries so high that they don’t have a problem paying 800 yen for water come to eat delicious food.”
However, a lot of people are wondering why high-class restaurants collect payment for drinking water. It’s strange because it’s overwhelmingly common for family restaurants and places with set meals to serve water and tea for free.
When we tried asking a restaurant and hotel consultant, his point of view was that the high cost in itself was the reason. “Good restaurants provide safe, delicious water. The reasoning is that instead of just using tap-water as it is, they have to import water from overseas and use equipment like water filters, so the costs from that add to the price of the water”. He also explained that depending on the restaurant, they might raise the price of the water in exchange for not charging a service fee.
Kawagoe has also endorsed a brand of kimchi.
