Dining with dementia: The heartwarming concept of the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders
Every server at the restaurant lives with dementia.
Image: Facebook
What would you do if you got the wrong dish at a restaurant? Are you fed up because of the server’s mistake, or do you pull a Karen and demand to see the manager?
At this restaurant in Japan, receiving the wrong order is not a problem at all. In fact, it is the whole point.
Welcome to the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders, a one-of-a-kind dining experience that flips everything we think we know about eating out, patience and human connection.
Here, every server lives with dementia, and customers come knowing that their meal might not be exactly what they ordered.
Instead of frustration, what is served alongside the food is compassion, understanding and a powerful lesson in grace.
The concept was born in 2017 after creator Shiro Oguni had an experience that quietly changed his perspective.
The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.
Image: Facebook
While visiting a nursing home, he ordered a burger but was brought dumplings instead. Rather than correcting the mistake, he accepted the meal.
That small moment sparked a big idea. What if a restaurant could turn mistakes into moments of learning? What if people could experience what it is like to live with dementia in a gentle, human way?
And so the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders was created as a pop-up concept where all the staff members have dementia.
The goal was never to be perfect. The goal was to be real.
While many people believe dementia only affects the elderly, it is most common in people over 65 but can also affect people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
This widespread misunderstanding, along with the stigma around ageing and cognitive decline, helped fuel the need for an initiative like this.
Through food, conversation and lived experience, the restaurant educates the public in a way no pamphlet ever could.
For the servers, the restaurant is about far more than just taking orders.
Image: Facebook
For the servers, the restaurant is about far more than just taking orders. It gives people living with dementia a chance to be seen, to work, to interact and to feel included in society.
It challenges the damaging assumption that a diagnosis immediately strips a person of their independence, skills or worth.
And for guests worried about paying for one dish and receiving another, the restaurant cleverly keeps all menu items at the same price. That way, no one feels shortchanged, even if they receive something completely different from what they expected.
Over the years, the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders has captured hearts around the world.
Its continued success has allowed it to return in various pop-up formats, with its most recent opening taking place in September 2025.
Dementia itself is not a single disease but a general term for a loss of cognitive abilities such as memory, reasoning and thinking that is severe enough to affect daily life.
It is caused by a range of conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
It is also not a normal part of ageing, even though the risk increases with age.
Symptoms can include memory loss, confusion, difficulty with familiar tasks and changes in mood, judgment and personality.
What makes the Restaurant of Mistaken Orders so special is that it does not present dementia as something to fear or pity.
In a world obsessed with speed, efficiency and perfection, this little restaurant in Japan reminds us that mistakes are part of being human.
Sometimes the wrong order turns out to be exactly what we needed.