Learn about getting the check
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| Today we will go over asking for the check when you’re done eating at a restaurant. First you may have to get hold off the staff. Again you can accomplish this by saying Sumimasen which means excuse me. Once the wait staff is at your table, you can ask for the check. In Japanese, check please is O-kaikei onegai shimasu. O-ka-i-ke-i-o-ne-ga-i-shi-ma-su. O-kaikei onegai shimasu. That was a long one. So we are going to break it down word by word. The first word o-kaikei is a polite way of saying check. This is followed by onegai shimasu which is the polite way of saying, please take care of it. So together, it’s simply please take care of the check. |
| When you say this, the staff will bring you the check to your table. You will then need to take it to the cash register and pay it there when leaving the restaurant. If you are at a restaurant and you feel like the food is great and you want to tell that to the wait staff or to the person that you are eating with, there is a certain phrase we can use. The word Oishii means delicious O-i-shi-i. Oishii. Now technically speaking, we should say Oishikatta desu. O-i-shi-ka-tta-desu. Oishikatta desu. which is a polite way of saying this was delicious in the past tense but here we will introduce oishi because it’s a simplest way of saying delicious and it could be said during a meal as well. |
| Now in Japan, there is a set phrase that we say after a meal. It goes like this Gochisō sama deshita. Go-chi-so-u-sa-ma-de-shi-ta. Gochisō sama deshita. And that translation is thank you for the wonderful meal. It’s typically said to the person who cook the food, the person who took you to the restaurant or whoever paid for your meal. It’s also a nice thing to say to the restaurant staff as well. They will be really impressed and tickled pink if you say that and now for Sachiko secret. Like I said earlier, in Japan, diners usually don’t pay at the table. |
| They take their checks to the cash register which is typically near the entrance of the restaurant. A staff will ring you up there and ask if you want to pay individually or pay as a group. To pay as a group, one person can just pay the total amount and make a hand gesture meaning all of us. I am sure you can imagine that but if your party wants to pay separately, each person should say what dishes they ordered and then the wait staff will calculate the total amount for each person. |
| So for example, I would go up to the cash register and say, I had the Karubonāra and the coffee or Karubonāra to kōhī. They would do the calculations and give you a total amount and you pay there. Simple as that and the good news, there is no tipping in Japan. So there is no need to leave a tip at the table. Okay so to close our today’s lesson, let’s practice what you’ve just learned. I will give you the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud in Japanese. You got that. I will give you a few seconds before I give you the answer. |
| So good luck Ganbatte kudasai. check please O-kaikei onegai shimasu. O-ka-i-ke-i-o-ne-ga-i-shi-ma-su. O-kaikei onegai shimasu. Delicious in the present tense Oishii. O-i-shi-i. Oishii. delicious in the past tense Oishikatta desu. O-i-shi-ka-tta-desu. Oishikatta desu. and the set phrase we say after meal,Gochisō sama deshita. Go-chi-so-u-sa-ma-de-shi-ta. Gochisō sama deshita. All right, that’s going to do it for today. See you later which in Japanese is Matane. |
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