We are besieged by arms reaching around, between and over us, all simultaneously trying to flip the pages of the single menu to their own outlet's selection and telling us, in variously accented Japanese, just how good this or that particular dish is.
Choosing what to have is perhaps the biggest problem you face in this multinational yatai tucked down an unprepossessing side street off the main drag that passes beneath Shin Okubo Station on the Yamanote Line just north of Shinjuku.
However, as I'd never been there before, my first reaction when I walked in the open doorway was, I admit, mild shock. After dining out in Japan for many years we become, for want of a better word, spoiled.