In a jungle of neon lights and cacophony of sounds sits Shinjuku Station, one of Tokyo’s largest transportation hubs adjoining a luxury shopping mall and office buildings. On the eighth floor of one building is a small café, Solo-Yama where the staff greets diners in gesture and wispher --- instead of words --- in keeping with their no-talking policy.
Solo-Yama is designed for solo diners, who are asked to keep conversation to the minimum. Light jazz flows in the background with the occasional clinking of utensils against the plates filling the dining room.
Savoring a meal alone is not an anomaly at restaurants in Tokyo, especially when 43% of the population lives alone. Groceries are even offered in single-household-friendly sizes: 3-piece toasts, 100-gram grounded pork, and 3-pack Shin-Ramen package.
While countless chain restaurants, such as Ichiran, accommodate solo diners with one-person booths, about half a dozen places actually specialize in serving solo diners. We take a look at three that each offer their own spin on solo dining.
Solo-Yama: A Pandemic Inspiration
Hirofumi Masuda, the 52-year-old manager and partner of Solo-Yama, was inspired to open a solo diner spot from his experience during the pandemic where he spent long periods of time in silence. “It is necessary to have a space where you can look at yourself and talk with yourself,” said Masuda.
During the pandemic, the Tokyo government issued a set of health guidelines for restaurants, including no-talking and social distancing. Seats were separated by plastic dividers, and customers and staff reduced conversation to the essentials. The regulations not only stopped the spread of the virus, but daily restaurant visits dropped by 57% in 2021, according to Asahi Shimbun news.
Masuda manages four restaurants including busy udon and ramen places that target commuters. When business returned to its normal level post-COVID, he found himself missing the quietness and tranquility, so he opened the 26-seat café, Solo-Yama, in 2023. “This is a place to refresh, reset, and just to reflect on themselves,” said Masuda.
While Masuda enjoys coming back home to his wife and two daughters after a long day, he needs some solo time in between the two scenes, as he would like to call it, and just to think. People have to “put on different faces at each scene,” no matter if it’s at work or at home, and “It’s tiring” to always presenting the best of ourselves, said Masuda.
To boost sales value, Masuda decided to loosen the no-talking rule but would still love to keep the quiet ambiance of the store.
Gopinatha: The Vegetarian Solution to Noise
While 40% of Japanese people reported a sense of loneliness, the popularity of no-talking-allowed restaurants suggests that some millennials and Gen Z are alone by choice. “There are people who need to stay away from noisy conversations and eat quietly,” said Sachiko Sasada, the owner of the solo-diners-only restaurant in Nakano, Tokyo.
Sasada, 52, opened Gopinatha in 2013. It started as a five-seat vegetarian restaurant where customers come in groups and converse freely, but it all changed two years ago. “After the pandemic, more and more customers said they prefer to eat alone in silence,” said Sasada.
Gopinatha originally adopted the no-talking rule just to stay aligned with pandemic regulations, but Sasada decided to extend the rule and made Gopinatha a solo-diners-only restaurant. “I want to create a space for those who prefer eating in silence, even if there’s only a couple of them,” said Sasada.
In this alley-like restaurant, dinners sit either at counter seats facing a matrix of seasonings and ingredients or at table seats facing a plain wall. Sitting face-to-face with friends is impossible at Gopinatha.
Gopinatha offers a set menu that changes daily and a weekly vegan dessert rotation with Japanese and Indian inspirations. The restaurant is small but managed to fit in a bookshelf full of nostalgic manga and a compact open kitchen where Sasada prepares the meals.
R-Za Reading Café: Right to Be Alone
Historically, Japanese societal norms emphasized communal activities and social cohesion, making it uncommon for women to be seen alone in public settings.
This cultural context created a stigma around solo activities, often leading to feelings of embarrassment or awkwardness for women dining alone. “It used to be difficult for women to go to trendy stylish cafes or crowded restaurants by ourselves,” said Hori Aoi, a 28-year-old staffer at a gym. “People around might think I have no friends.”
Hori enjoys hanging out in groups, but when she needs private time, she heads to a no-talking-allowed oasis, R-Za Reading Café, where most customers come alone, making her less self-conscious.
Hori visited R-Za Reading Café for the first time by herself during the golden week (a public holiday in May). She went to the Goenji neighborhood to see a live music performance and was trying to find a place to kill time.
After learning about R-Za’s no-talking-allowed rule, she decided to pick up a book, “The Ethic of Time and Boredom,” from the nearby bookstore and spend some quality time alone. “Usually, you don’t really hear sound of running water in Tokyo, but in R-Za, all you can hear is the quiet dripping of water and pages being flipped through,” said Hori.
Hori believes that time alone is a chance for her to reflect on her life. “When you are bothered by something, although it’s nice to have some advice from people, but before you can take those in, you must think through the issue by yourself,” said Hori.
Now millennial women have become the main consumers for R-Za Reading Café, composing 60% of the consumer base, said Daiki Watanabe, owner of R-Za. “When I first opened it in 2008, almost no one came,” said Watanabe. But now the café is gaining popularity with several feature stories and social media posts that made it viral.
“People used to come for the rule’s novelty, because it’s really rare,” said Watanabe, but now dinners come “because they agree with my concept” of a space for self-reflection.
Customers are encouraged to share their thoughts or anything in one of the 34 notebooks stashed in the nine booth seats of R-Za. In the notebooks, there are spontaneously written poems, heavy confessions about work, complaints about romantic partners, and much more.
Reading through the notebooks is like stepping into the inner world of people. Hori said by doing so, she realized that there are other people struggling over the same thing as her, making her “feel less insecure and anxious.”
Each of the nine seats at R-Za has a unique theme, such as a fish tank seat with a model island hidden in the drawer. There are surprises for visitors to explore at each seat, and visitors are encouraged to touch and handle every decoration in the café.
However, solo-diners-only restaurants have critics too.
Sasada said revenue shrank after implementing the solo-diners-only rule. “People that don’t know about the rule left bad Google reviews,” said Sasada. As Sasada avoids talking while waiting on customers, some diners accused her of bad customer service.
“The food was indeed delicious, but after visiting twice, I found the customer service truly disappointing,” a 1-star Google map review reads.
To avoid misunderstanding, Sasada posted the solo-diners-only rule on the restaurant’s Google map profile and on bilingual signs inside and outside of the store. Laminated cards on each table caution dinners to refrain from conversation, and if necessary, whisper. Sasada said that dinners who agreed upon the rule often just eat in complete silence.
But despite the bumpy road, Sasada has decided to keep the solo-diners rule. “There’s nothing else you can do, but just have to stick through it for those who really need this place,” she said while standing behind the counter after closing at 8 p.m. on a stormy Wednesday.
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