Nomihoudai

The first time I encountered nomihoudai in Japan, I was told that you can't order it on your own if you're in a group -- meaning if there's three of you at a table, either everyone takes the nomihoudai option or nobody.

But when I was in Osaka in 2013, I was told and it looked like you could also order separately, i.e. nomihoudai for two and one person pays drink by drink or sticks to softdrinks. But I was also travelling with a pretty boozy group, so we never put this directly to the test.


What are experiences with nomihoudai 'rules'? How common is it that you can do a 'split' in the ordering?

As you have experienced, it just varies by establishment. Most of the places I have been to allow for separate orders.

Also I know both in Tokyo,
by the way, I can't drink alcohol but often we order nomihoudai include me.
So commonly it's all or nothing, I think?

After all, it's not a law but a service of the restaurant.

for the ones i've been to... the non-drinkers paid for the houdai anyway, and drank juice/soda/tea.

It depends on the establishment. Some allow it, some don't.

In my experience it's usually all or nothing. Very occasionally you'll find a shop that allows some, but not all, members of a party to order nomihodai, but it's really a small minority. It's just too ripe for abuse, and impossible for overworked restaurant staff to keep track of who's drinking what.

In a group, if one pays for nomihodai, while others not, (s)he could order more & more to pass around to others who didn't pay for nomihodai.
I've seen this happens in other countries, other places, too, i.e. all-you-can-eat restaurant. Some even ask for a doggie bag, lol.

It depends on the establishment, and it also depends on how you are booked. Often the host of your group books a sort of a "party course" (enkai) where the whole party is supposed to follow the same course.

On a related note, a customer can easily cheat by drinking from the glass of a friend who has ordered nomihoudai, which is probably the reason some establishments will not allow you to order separately. Most locals don't cheat in this way though, just because it doesn't look too good. I'm not saying that locals are more polite. There just are bad things they tend to do and not tend to do, and people as mature as drinking-age don't cheating nomihoudai.