Tips for the reservation

Japanese cuisine - done right - requires a lot of preparation! So if our chefs know a few days in advance approximately how many guests they may serve on an evening, they can better prepare for you. Therefore, if possible, please always reserve onlineWe will be happy to help you by phone for special cases or if you ask at short notice whether a place is still available spontaneously in the evening.

Very important: if you can't come for any reason or if your number of people changes, be sure to let us know! Not only for our team, but especially for other customers that we regularly have to turn away because all seats are reserved, it is extremely annoying when it turns out in the end that someone who has reserved does not come after all.

And if they book for 5, but only come in fours or threes, then we automatically have other table options to choose from, which may free up space again for other guests who are also very nice.

"Let us know in good time" does not mean "on arrival", but much earlier, please.

Please keep in mind that when you make a reservation, we keep a table free for you, adjust to your visit and turn away other guests if necessary. We therefore reserve the right to delete reservations with illegibly abbreviated names, fantasy names or false telephone numbers without further consultation! Please keep in mind that in such cases we often can not reach you to ask questions - if we do not receive the e-mail address, a wrong phone number is entered, we can not even consult with unclear information.

If you have written in a request that we cannot fulfill and we cannot reach you, in some cases we will cancel your reservation to be on the safe side. Typical Japanese. Please do not interpret this as rudeness or as if we are not happy to see you - but we want to avoid unpleasant surprises when you come to us. At the same time, it is often enormously difficult to reach guests who do not share the email address with us and/or do not have an answering machine on their cell phones - we are then busy contacting the reservation provider OpenTable with the request that you may contact us to try to reach you by phone again and again - we do not have the capacity to follow this up over sometimes several days.

For some reservations, especially larger groups or from a certain time, we require since 2013 to secure the reservation with a credit card. The credit cards are secured and managed by a special company working for the reservation provider OpenTable. Since we introduced this rule, the problem of "fun reservations", due to which we had to turn away other guests and caused us considerable damage, has decreased significantly. Cancellations at very short notice also hurt us, because we prepare high-quality sushi rice very elaborately, which may have to be thrown away, thus costing us money and work. When you make a reservation through our partner Opentable, you will be shown the cancellation policy. You can find a more detailed explanation in the blog. You can find the legal basis for this on www.sushiya.de/agb - our terms and conditions are the basis of every reservation and hospitality with us.

Our opening hours are sometimes subject to seasonal fluctuations, especially since a continuously high quality of sushi and hot cuisine requires a higher number of competent chefs on site than in comparable other restaurants. Therefore, please inform yourself about the current opening hours on our homepage. Please also understand if we close the kitchen earlier on some days when there might be less activity later in the evening (often Sunday and Monday or during important football matches etc.)! Our team works very hard, the preparations of the Japanese cuisine begin long before you place your order and when the store is almost empty, we also want to take the opportunity to offer our team a breather.

In particular, however, we take the rest periods and also the legal requirements for this seriously. So we actually close at the latest at the indicated times, which you can always find on our homepage and also on Google. So if you book for example on Sunday for 20.45h, then please do not be surprised that the kitchen takes the last order around 21h and we close the restaurant at 22h. This is not bad service, but the framework in which we can work. On a normal evening (except New Year's Eve, events, etc.) our restaurant closes at 23h at the latest and we ask you to respect this.

Important note for large groups: our kitchen is very small for the number of seats and each sushi is handmade. If you are six or more people, then it can quickly take some time to prepare the food - this also depends on what exactly you order and what the other tables that are in the restaurant at the same time have ordered. Especially if everyone is ordering sushi or all the main dishes from the hot kitchen, there may be a wait! Factor this in, order a few appetizers to snack on for everyone at the table, and if the order of courses is not that important to you, ask the wait staff to bring each dish individually if in doubt so that everyone does not have to wait long. Please be assured that our team is very concentrated and always works as fast as possible, but still the interaction "sushi + hot cuisine" is sometimes much more complicated than you are used to from other restaurants where there is only a hot kitchen.

Please note that our kitchen can only manage a certain amount of guests at a time -. Sushi is an elaborate craft and our team works tremendously diligently to satisfy all demands. Nevertheless, the preparation of sushi takes a lot of time and therefore our reservation system is set to accept only a certain amount of guests at certain times. Therefore, please come also at the indicated times: it is no use to reserve for 20h and write in the field "We come already at 19.30h", then it may be that your place is not yet free and we also have no alternative place for you or we can not really take care of you.

We generally try to fulfill special requests, but we can not always guarantee this or give feedback about it always individually, we ask for your understanding. So it is often difficult for us to know what is meant by "beautiful table". We also sometimes cannot fulfill requests such as "a table against the wall" because you may reserve for a time when these tables are simply not available. If you "A table by the window" we regularly don't know whether it means Japanese tatami or just a table by the window, but normal seating position. Sometimes we try to call guests back to coordinate special requests with them, but cannot reach the guests because they do not answer the phone and do not have an answering machine. Therefore, please understand if special requests are sometimes not fulfilled. This is not meant to be an expression of ignorance or lack of commitment to your request. If you have more specific special requests such as flowers on the table or similar, which we have to organize out of turn, so please write us in advance necessarily also a message via the contact form, so that we can prepare if necessary in time or react, because we do not get every day all reservations of the next 4 weeks reported.

In principle, dogs may be brought to us, if they are other guests or the Hygiene feeling not disturb. Of course, guests and the mood of the restaurant must not be disturbed by barking.

Please let us know when you make your reservationas we try - if possible - to find a place in our cramped restaurant where someone isn't constantly stepping on the dog's tail and causing it stress. We are very fond of animals ourselves. But we also clearly prohibit dogs on tatami or on our chairs - a dog has no place near our tables. A dog's snout should also not come near the table surfaces or seating areas for guests. Don't forget: in typical Japanese fashion, it's all about hygienefeeling of the other guests without them having to say anything about it. Therefore, please also keep the dog with you (whether by leash or by education) so that no matter how cute it is, it does not roam around the other guests. Of course we ask that the dogs do not leave their droppings in the green areas of the Amalienpassage leave behind where people sit every day to eat without worrying! 

Update spring 2024: Unfortunately, we have recently had bad experiences with dogs in the restaurant. We ask our regular customers to be prepared for a dog ban in the restaurant. Until then, if you are coming with a dog, please let us know in advance and let us know when you make your reservation so that we can find a suitable place!

We are proud and happy that all ages are represented in our restaurant and that's how it should be. Especially with children, you also need to have the opportunity to eat (well).
However, due to increasingly difficult experience, we ask that you take into account one important thing: especially on Friday or Saturday evenings, our restaurant is often booked for a date or by people who want to spend a nice, special evening.
If children spread too much unrest, keep bickering or jump through the restaurant, an unrest is quickly transferred to the entire room and to other guests. In particular, for us as Japanese, the chopsticks are also not drumsticks or toys. We have to make sure that the entirety of all guests can spend a nice, relaxing evening with us. 

If you are coming with children, please make sure that is possible and restrain your children accordingly if necessary. Otherwise, please do not come.
Please also remember that we no highchairs etc. have for small children. This is not ill will, but behind the scenes space is extremely limited with us and our focus then is to keep fine Japanese sake and other ingredients on hand for you, we are not a coffee with limited food and drink options. If you are coming with a baby, stroller or maxi-cosi etc, then you should always note that in the comments so that we can choose a suitable place for you if necessary.

We do not allow children to use cell phones or tablets to play games or watch videos with sound.

When you make a reservation with us (online), we always offer you only "normal" tables. However, if you want to sit on tatami (Japanese rice straw mats, where you take off your shoes), please note this in the comment field. Then, if tatami are still available, we will be happy to reserve one of the popular seats for you. We have tatami seats for 1-2 people, as well as tables for 3-5 people where you can sit (partially) on tatami. So a tatami table can be booked for a maximum of 5 people, in which case two would sit on normal stools. If due to the request for a tatami place a time shift should be necessary, we will try to contact you. Dogs are generally not accepted on tatami. We also ask that you treat the tatami with a certain respect and - typically Japanese - also think of the other guests in the restaurant: tatami are not "reclining tables", but a wonderful part of Japanese culture. UPDATE 2021: you can now partially choose "tatami/high table" directly when making a reservation - this is still under development.

Terrace: In summer we open our terrace in suitable weather conditions and try in principle to reserve you also a table on the Terrassse. However, since we want to pay very strong attention to the need for peace and quiet of the surrounding apartments, you should preferably reserve before 20h! In case of changeable weather, the team on site always decides at short notice whether the terrace will be opened or not. Unfortunately, we can not give advance information or feedback about this. Later reservations will then only be accepted for inside, depending on capacity, as our small service team cannot serve guests inside and outside at the same time, and at the same time place various tables outside, then move inside, while other guests have to be collected and the terrace has to be tidied up - this is possibly controllable in a beer garden, but not in a small Japanese restaurant, where we strive to offer our guests a sincerely committed service and to be a good neighbor to the surrounding residents. Please understand that the point here is that in the context of our neighbors and the relevant authorities, we want to continue to offer this wonderful space on what has become a gorgeous terrace in the middle of the Amalienpassage. Therefore, we also expressly ask to respect the possible need for quiet of residents from 10 pm.

And the other way around: if our opening hours change or we are exceptionally closed on a day, we will inform you on our homepage and via our Google entry, so that you do not unexpectedly find yourself in front of closed doors during a spontaneous visit!