‘We follow Japanese culture here’: Restaurant staff tells food vlogger he can’t eat sushi with his hands

Did you know that sushi is traditionally a finger food? It seems this Japanese restaurant in Indonesia did not get the memo.

A food vlogger based on the island of Batam, who goes by @enjoybatam on TikTok, has inadvertently served us an important lesson on sushi eating etiquette by uploading this video depicting his recent visit to a local Japanese restaurant.

@enjoybatam Jujur pertama kali dapet pengalaman gini , kalau kalian diginiin gimana ? Yuk sipaling jepang saatnya keluar dong kita edukasi bareng. #sushi #enjoybatam #japan #batam #sushijapan ♬ suara asli –

The video, which has been viewed 1.1 million times since it was uploaded on Monday, shows the vlogger enjoying sushi rolls at the restaurant with his friend. At one point, he put down his chopsticks and grabbed the rolls with his hand, which earned him disapproving looks from a waitress watching from afar.

A male restaurant staff then approaches the vlogger before respectfully asking him to pick up his chopsticks.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t eat sushi with your hands here. You must use chopsticks,” the employee said.

“We follow Japanese culture here. There, they eat sushi with chopsticks, so we do it here, too.”

Though the vlogger complied with the request, he did seem displeased as he claimed he overheard other patrons mocking him by saying he shouldn’t have gone to a Japanese restaurant if he didn’t know how to use chopsticks. 

The vlogger did, however, commit an actual chopstick faux pas by stabbing a sushi roll to pick it up in an apparent attempt at mocking the restaurant’s policy.

Online, people threw their support behind the vlogger, with many recounting their experience of eating sushi with their hands when they were in Japan.

In a follow up video, @enjoybatam said he was shocked that his video garnered national attention, and called on people to go easy on the restaurant as he does not wish for their staff to lose their livelihoods over the incident. He said he and the restaurant had a productive discussion, in which the latter pledged to improve their service.