Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnBraden
Is there a general average this "patronage fee" is? Could I expect it to be from 1000-1500 yen or can in go higher than that?
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The average お通し（おとおし） should be around 300-400 yen for most places. By that, I am referring to regular Mom & Dad's type or big chain type izakaya where you get a tiny non-meat dish for that price. So it is actually very modest and reasonable.
At higher-end palces, it can be 1,000 -2,000, but it is called a table charge and you will not get that tiny dish in return. I have personally never been to a place where I was charged for both table and お通し, though.
For those barely legal back-street bars where ugly girls with pancake make-up sit next to you and ask if she may have a drink, and keeps ordering drinks that are actually tea, the table charge can be higher. But what really costs you much more than the table charge at these places are those many glasses of "tea" your hostesses order, making Japan a rare country where some women make a living by drinking lots of iced tea at night.