"Musashi" > writes:

> - Asking for something in Japanese and the server isn't Japanese.
> So I have to repeat it in English.

In a sushi bar in the US, I don't think it's essential that
the staff speak Japanese. They need to be able to communicate
with their clients - that's way more important.

Do you expect every server at every Italian restaurant
to speak Italian? Perhaps at the more traditional or
higher-end places, but not everywhere.

I do find it a little annoying to not necessarily
know before hand if I can expect a traditional,
japanese-run sushi place or if a given sushi place
is americanized or korean-run or whatnot. But
"sushi" seems no longer to mean specifically Japanese,
but, rather, any place serving certain foods which
can be called Sushi. There are plenty of brick-oven
pizza places which are in no way Italian, so, too,
are there plenty of sushi places which aren't Japanese.
These things happen. I don't expect the server at,
say, Bertucci's to speak Italian or for all the
dishes to be traditional. I don't expect the sushi
at Mr. Sushi (local Korean-run place) to be all
traditional, nor for the servers there to speak Japanese.

I do, however, expect servers in both places to speak
English.

For those who get upset when the server doesn't
speak Japanese - look at the menu. If it's got
bibimbap and kimchi on it, don't expect to speak
Japanese to your server. And if you start naming
items in Japanese and they don't know what you mean,
plan on pointing at things in the menu.

If you want Japanese-speaking servers and all the
amenities we have talked about here, plan on spending
a little more and finding a higher-end Japanese-run
traditional sushi bar. Chances are that Joe's Sushi
on the corner is not it.

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