🍮 Lessons from The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders

5 Communications and Community Values for Work and Life

Imagine being okay with this dining experience — the egg you ordered scrambled arrives sunny side up or a brownie is served when you ordered apple pie a la mode. At a pop-up restaurant in Japan:

37% of the orders delivered are incorrect. But 99% of the customers leave happy with their experience. 

At The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, patrons are prepared before their dining experience that what they order will likely not be what they’re served — and they must accept what’s delivered to the table with a smile, not send it back to the kitchen. 

There’s a good reason for the discrepancies in the food orders — the servers are people with dementia and sometimes they simply forget or make a mistake. But, instead of being chastised, servers and patrons embrace the moment with JOMU — the joy of messing up! 

The intention of pop-up restaurant founder Shiro Oguni is simple and kind. According to a video interview from the restaurant, he shared:

Dementia is so widely misunderstood. People believe you can’t do anything for yourself and the condition will often mean complete isolation from society. We want to change society to become more caring and easy going. So dementia or no dementia, we can all live in harmony. 

Since 2017 when the first pop-up opened, there have been iterations across the country, most recently a 12-seat cafe in Sengawa, a suburb in western Tokyo, was featured in The Washington Post. 

Here are five lessons this restaurant can teach us about the ways we communicate and connect at work and in life:

1. 🙏 Treat Everyone with Kindness 

2. ❣️ Accept People For Who They Are

3. ♟️ It’s Ok Not To Be Perfect

4. 😂 Choose Your Reaction

5. 🍜 Enjoy The Moment

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1. 🙏 Treat Everyone with Kindness

Dementia is invisible at The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders. Servers are treated with respect and dignity.

In work and life, we should take the same approach of kindness, regardless of a person's title, years of experience or role. We might not know if someone has a learning disability, experiences anxiety or there’s another reason for their behavior. Rather than make a negative assumption, believe that everyone is trying their best and respond with kindness.

In The Washington Post, Tokyo Bureau Chief Michelle Lee writes:  

The cafe’s administrators wanted to help the community see that dementia patients can prolong their active years, with a little bit of understanding and patience from those who interact with them.

2. ❣️ Accept People For Who They Are

While in some restaurants, hospitality might start with the host — at The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, the patrons are encouraged to welcome their servers with a smile. Tears of joy are frequent. The guests don’t tell the servers they’ve made a mistake or request a different waiter if their order is not right.

The same approach could be taken at work as we embrace each other — be patient and understanding of the unique experiences we each bring and value everyone’s backgrounds and experiences.  

In The Washington Post:  

It’s a safe space where they can interact with new people, be productive and feel needed — key to slowing down the progression of dementia, a neurodegenerative condition that has no cure. ‘It’s so much fun here. I feel like I’m getting younger just being here,’ said Toshio Morita, the server. 

3.♟️It’s Ok Not To Be Perfect

There’s a lot of pressure to be perfect — sometimes we place it on ourselves or there’s societal pressure. We wouldn’t have had chocolate chip cookies, microwaves or post-it notes if it weren’t for famous mistakes. Of course, for surgeons, bridge builders, bankers, or manufacturers of food, perfection is expected for life, security and safety.

When we normalize discussing failures, Wharton Professor and New York Times best-selling author Adam Grant suggests we might actually become more creative. This restaurant teaches us that we all can make mistakes. But when we go with the flow rather than fight them, the results can be even better than we originally intended. 

And even a non-perfect restaurant can win an iconic award — The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders won one of the world's highest creative accolades — the Cannes Lion in 2019.

According to Tasting Table:

The spirit of The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders speaks to the Japanese concept of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired with gold to not only define but beautify its fractures. Philosophically, kintsugi celebrates the history of an object by artfully emphasizing its imperfections rather than treating them as a reason for it to be discarded. 

4. 😂 Choose Your Reaction

When food is served at The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, the patrons respond with a smile, even if it’s the wrong order. They are accepting and understanding, brushing off mistakes and choosing to react with laughter rather than frustration, or disrespect.

In The Washington Post:  

He walked up to a table but forgot his clipboard of order forms. He gingerly delivered a piece of cake to the wrong table. One customer waited 16 minutes for a cup of water after being seated.

But no one complained or made a fuss about it. Each time, patrons embraced his mix-ups and chuckled along with him. That’s the way it goes at the Orange Day Sengawa, also known as the Cafe of Mistaken Orders.

In the world of communications and culture, if a mistake is made, it’s all in the response — choose your reaction. There could be a lot of reasons for an error — the information could have been ambiguous or leadership might have had different perspectives. But, maybe, “the mistake” isn’t so bad after all and it could actually lead to something extraordinary — a new work friendship or a new dish in the office cafe.

5. 🍮 Enjoy The Moment

There’s a lot of fun to be had at this restaurant — people enjoy their experiences, taking photographs with servers as they get to know their stories. Together, they laugh, smile and celebrate the moment, even if it’s a mistake.

In a video from the Restaurant featuring its Founder:

If your order was mistaken you can shrug it off with a smile and enjoy what comes your way anyway. It’s a place to foster this kind of open-minded caring freedom and communication.

What lessons did you learn from The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders?

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