Originally Posted by
BENLEE
Not really. It's a matter of where to look in the internet and which websites to look out for. There are many websites from foodies that actually travel and ate at the restaurants and can make the right recommendations. I rather trust that then some random clueless concierge staff that make recommendations based on tips from the restaurants. And from past experience, I have my fair share of incidents whereby concierge recommend the wrong restaurants that were either totally not what I want or were a ripoff. Regardless, they are still useful for doing the errant of calling and making reservation and occasionally get the hard-to-book table like what vuittons said.
p/s : most popular restaurants have also english version in their websites. And even the tokyo metro has english version. So knowing Japanese is not a must to find the way.
I wouldn't really agree with this. I've found that most high end concierges either have first hand experience at a wide range of applicable restaurants, or at the very least, have taken the time to read the same blogs available on the internet--in addition to attending a variety of conferences and events aimed specifically at those in their field.
There are always going to be a fair number who just steer you toward the closest overpriced commission-based place, but usually with a little prodding you can get some excellent and more tailored recommendations.