True Story. Dementia is not a death sentence.

The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders — A Recipe for Dementia Redemption

Would you put up with this level of service, for a good cause?

Suddenly a table of 6 people seated to my right erupted simultaneously …

“We did it” … “We did it…”!

And with that, every waitperson stopped, and they all started clapping. The entire order was perfectly executed. And as this seldom happened, there was cause to celebrate.

I sat next to them, as a first-timer to this restaurant. I was not yet fully up to speed, so I informed my waitress:-

“Excuse me, I ordered the chicken Yakitori with fried noodles and fresh tomato sauce. This looks like Gyoza,” I exclaimed.

“Hahaha. Yes, it is Gyoza, enjoy it,” and the waitress walked off, laughing to herself. Stopping only to explain to her manager how badly she had messed up. Soon both of them were creased over and laughing.

So I ate my gyoza, they were delicious. “I’ll have another portion, this is delicious,” I asked my waitress. A few minutes later, she presented me with a plate of steamed Bok Choi and chili beef. And we danced the “wrong order dance” again. She was old and despite the error, laughed again. She wasn't having a great day but took it all in her stride.

What else is an 87-year-old waitress expected to do? I looked up from my delicious beef to see her manager pat her lovingly on the shoulder as she explained the second mistake made, at the same table.

I overheard the man next to me explaining that he had ordered salt, not pepper. The waitress was poised above him with the biggest pepper mill in the Western hemisphere. So she too, started laughing and grinding black pepper on his meal. His face broke out in a smile.

He was one of the lucky ones … like me, he had a story to tell.

I looked ahead of me, and a man was storming out. He turned to complain that he had ordered a medium rare steak with sesame soy dressing, and he got well done. And asparagus instead of steamed broccoli. He was livid.

As he stormed out, the entire wait staff cracked up laughing. “Please come again soon …” they cried in unison to his departing shoulder blades. The man next to me leaned into my space conspiratorially, and said, “he doesn’t understand … does he,” and giggled.

What if I told you this restaurant gets 39% of all orders wrong?

And they are proud of that statistic. That’s more than a third of all orders. And yet, 99% of the customers are repeat customers, and said, they’d keep coming again.

The table that shouted, “We did it…”, can say “WE” because they assisted in ensuring everything was perfectly ordered. In short, they went as diners but became mentors.

Welcome to Japan’s “Restaurant of Mistaken Orders”.

I personally love this place. You feel let down if your order is perfect. You want the fault so you have a story, and the bigger the fault, the greater that story.

Here is why:

Mr. Shiro Oguni saw elderly people doing nothing in old age homes. They were the walking dead. And they were miserable. So he came up with an idea.

These people had dementia and had been more or less locked away. A so-called danger to society. And sadly, few people really know much about dementia.

So one man …, one man, Mr. Shiro Oguni, came up with the idea of opening a restaurant in Japan that brought dementia-suffering restaurant staff into contact with mentally healthy, paying customers.

Japan has an aging population with 1 in 5 suffering from dementia.

Shiro noted that elderly people with dementia can still cook, clean, do laundry, and shop. They’re totally normal. And he noted that Joe Public is a bit scared of them, or rather of what they’ll do.

We are all a bit afraid of the unknown.

He fathomed that knowledge and contact would fix that and that a restaurant was the perfect vehicle.

The effect on the dementia-suffering staff was remarkable. They came alive. But they still had dementia. And got 39% of the orders wrong. But they gained self-respect. A reason to get up in the morning. A purpose.

The mistakes are quietly monitored. No fuss. Just as a record-keeping exercise. And as the restaurant gets busier, the mistakes percentage is not increasing. That is a good sign.

Customers often ask for something, and got something completely different … Nobody cares. Well mostly nobody. 1% walked out annoyed. I call them the wankers of society.

A customer just ordered a coffee and it came with a milkshake straw .. and sprinkles. Wahoo. At least they got the coffee. And it was hot.

Progress.

Whole orders go missing. Supplies are misplaced. They found a bottle of soy sauce in the toilet. I wonder what poor customer is still waiting for soy sauce … and what he may have had delivered to his table, instead. And that is all okay.

Obviously, they are well monitored for safety reasons. But not intrusively. They are left to make mistakes. Stepping in and doing the job for them, defeats the purpose. Guidance is preferred.

A light touch.

But amazingly, customers learn to communicate with the wait staff. They study how to communicate with dementia sufferers so that certain triggers keep them on track. And when the order is delivered perfectly … the community, as a collective celebrates the victory.

We did it!

The cry of success. And it is celebrated by all.

And the best thing … customers and waitresses are all laughing. You really do hear a lot of laughter. You hear “We did it!” being shouted out quite a lot too. It’s a collective success because the healthy patrons end up ‘helping out’ the elderly dementia sufferers. And feel good about it, and themselves.

You get to feed your body and soul.

That’s a good thing, right?

And you sit there and think, why are we normally so uptight about this stuff? So stressed about stuff that is really unimportant. We get so mad if our order is even slightly incorrect — I ordered medium rare, not medium.

You sit there and eat while setting a new framework. A reset of what is truly important in your life. And paying a bit of money for a wrong meal, or a “We did it” right one, is small potatoes in the grander scheme of things.

Watching a dementia sufferer fuck up, teaches you this. Not in some book-smart, superior way, but in a real, down-to-earth, honest way. A good way.

And it is humbling.

As we enjoy our normality, let’s stop for a moment, and also remember the disadvantaged in our communities. Countries that have some sort of social care program are better places to live. And they top every known list of best places to live in the world year after year. Many countries, most citizens, and every corporation could do well to put humanity before profit.

And for me the biggest takeaway in all this.

One man …(person)

That could so easily be you.

Welcome to The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders