Please note: Reservations are required; walk-ins cannot be accommodated.
Please note: Reservations are required.
It has been a little over a year since we opened REONA Sushi Tokyo.
Since then, we have welcomed guests from many different countries, backgrounds, and cultures. Every day at the counter feels slightly different depending on who is sitting in front of us, and that is one of the things we enjoy most about this work.
Over the past year, we have also received many reviews from our guests. At the moment, there are 148 reviews on Google Maps and 59 on TripAdvisor, with an overall rating of 4.9.
Of course, as a restaurant, we are genuinely happy and grateful for that.
But honestly, the numbers themselves are not what stay with us most.
What we remember are the individual moments behind those reviews. The conversations during dinner. The nervous guests who slowly relaxed as the meal went on. The families who were relieved their children could enjoy the experience too. The guests who became curious about sushi in ways they did not expect before arriving.
And one thing we are quietly proud of is that none of those reviews are fake.
Not one.
Every review came from somebody who actually spent time with us at the counter.
Today, we wanted to share a little about what those reviews have taught us over the past year, and why we have continued approaching hospitality the way we do.
In today’s restaurant industry, ratings matter a lot.
Especially in Tokyo, many international visitors decide where to eat almost entirely through Google Maps or TripAdvisor. Reviews have become part of the travel experience itself.
Because of that, there are now many services offering artificial ways to improve rankings and visibility.
“How can we increase reviews?” “How can we raise ratings faster?” “How can we rank higher than other restaurants?”
Those ideas are everywhere now.
And to be fair, we understand why restaurants think about them.
But from the beginning, we tried not to focus too much on that side of things.
At REONA, we spend much more time thinking about the person directly in front of us.
What kind of atmosphere would help this guest relax? How much explanation do they want? Are they nervous? Are they curious? Do they want conversation, or would they rather quietly enjoy the meal?
Those are the things we think about during service.
The reviews are just what remain afterward.
Some of the reviews guests leave are surprisingly long. Sometimes they read less like restaurant reviews and more like small stories about their night in Tokyo.
We almost never strongly ask guests to leave reviews, so when somebody takes the time to write one, it usually feels very personal.
You can tell they genuinely wanted to talk about what they experienced.
To us, that feels much more meaningful than simply collecting numbers.
To be honest, during our first year we received many messages from companies offering review related marketing services.
“We can increase your review count.” “We can improve your rating.” “We can help you rank higher immediately.”
Especially right after opening, those offers can sound tempting.
When you are a new restaurant, visibility matters. Everyone wants people to find their business.
Still, we chose to decline all of them.
The reason was actually very simple.
Reviews only matter if people trust them.
Once reviews start feeling artificial, something important disappears. Even if the rating is high, guests can usually sense when the reactions do not feel real. The words become strangely generic. Everything sounds positive, but nothing feels personal.
And when a restaurant suddenly gains a huge number of reviews in a short period of time, then suddenly stops, people notice that too.
We never wanted REONA to feel like that.
Even if growth is slower, we would rather build trust gradually through real experiences.
What we hope guests take home is not simply the feeling that “the sushi was good.”
We want the evening itself to stay in their memory.
The atmosphere. The conversation. The feeling of discovering something new about Japanese culture. The moment they relaxed. The time they shared with the person sitting beside them.
Those things matter more to us than short term numbers.
Maybe that approach looks inefficient from the outside.
But over time, the reviews that accumulated naturally became something we value very deeply.
When we read through our reviews, what stands out most is not the score itself.
It is the amount of feeling people put into their words.
Many guests write not only about the sushi, but about the entire evening around it. Some mention how comfortable they felt despite being nervous at first. Some talk about conversations they had with our chefs and navigators. Others mention the sake pairing, or how relieved they were to find a place where they could comfortably dine with children.
There are also many guests who tell us they already recommended REONA to friends before even leaving Japan.
Reading those reviews, we can often remember the guests immediately.
Sometimes we even remember exactly where they were sitting.
Most reviews are written in English, but we always share them with the whole team. Even staff members who are not fully comfortable reading English still want to know what guests felt during their visit.
Sometimes reviews mention our chefs. Sometimes our navigators. Sometimes floor staff quietly helping in the background.
Those comments make everyone happy.
And honestly, being appreciated by somebody gives people energy.
That feeling naturally carries into the next service, and then into the next guest experience after that.
To us, reviews are not just evaluations.
They are traces of time shared together.
That is why we care much more about what is written inside the reviews than how many there are.
One Guest at a Time
As REONA Sushi Tokyo continues growing, we do not want to lose the way we approach hospitality now.
No matter how many guests visit in the future, the most important thing will still be the individual sitting directly in front of us.
Creating one memorable evening. One comfortable conversation. One experience somebody will remember after returning home.
Those moments slowly turn into memories, then words, and eventually reviews.
Not through artificial strategies. Not through fake reactions.
Only through real experiences people genuinely wanted to talk about afterward.
That accumulation of honest voices has become something we are very proud of.
And moving forward, we hope to continue creating the kind of hospitality that quietly stays with people long after dinner is over.