This Pop-Up “Restaurant of Mistaken Orders” Only Staffs Waiters with Dementia

Activities for Dementia Patients

When dining out, there's an expectation that your order will be correctly served to you. But if you're going to eat at the Tokyo pop-up called Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, you should rethink your expected outcome. This dining experience is staffed by people living with dementia who may, or may not, get your order right.

The first iteration of Restaurant of Mistaken Orders began in 2017 with a pre-opening event that doubled as training for staff and servers. When a tweet by a patron went viral, there was even more fanfare for the official launch event in September of that year. Since that time, the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders has continued to collaborate with different dining establishments around the city.

With the word “mistaken” in its name, diners approach their meal with the expectation that it might be wrong, but that they’ll still eat something delicious. In a short video about the restaurant, there are about 37% of orders that were wrong, but despite these errors, 99% of customers said they were happy dining there.

Shiro Oguni, the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders producer, hopes that this yields more open-mindedness about dementia. There are 35 million people worldwide who live with this condition, and it’s projected that this number will increase to 115 million by the year 2050. “We want to change society to become more caring and easy-going,” he says in the video. “So dementia or no dementia, we can live together in harmony.”

The pop-up Restaurant of Mistaken Orders has a wait staff of people living with dementia. As a patron, you may or may not get your order right.

Restaurant of Mistaken Orders

But when you relax your expectations, you can see how much fun the wait staff is having, and you'll eat something delicious either way.

Activities for Dementia Patients

Restaurant of Mistaken Orders

Learn more about the incredible pop-up in the video below:

Restaurant of Mistaken Orders: Website | Facebook 
h/t: [Open Culture]

All images via Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.

Related Articles:

Designer Develops Alzheimer’s-Friendly Tableware Thanks to Inspiration from Her Late Grandmother

Man Creates Edible Water “Jelly Drops” to Help Dementia Patients Stay Hydrated

Photo Book Designed Specifically for Dementia Patients to Exercise Their Minds

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
Become a
My Modern Met Member
As a member, you'll join us in our effort to support the arts.
Become a Member
Explore member benefits

Sponsored Content