DAIKI Angel Help's dementia-waitstaff restaurant wins ACC 2019 Grand Prix

The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders is an event-style restaurant in which all front-of-house staff have dementia — meaning there is a real chance the dish you get is not the one you ordered. The concept originated with a director at national broadcaster NHK and was taken on by Hakuhodo creative director Satoshi Chikayama, who brought in art director Yuki Tokuno; it opened in Tokyo in 2017 for dementia-care provider DAIKI Angel Help.

The creative bet was to make the mistake charming rather than embarrassing. Tokuno designed a tongue-out logo — the Japanese equivalent of biting one's lip in embarrassment — as an apology in advance, repeated across plates, hand wipes and staff aprons, and the event was built as a proper fine-dining restaurant with professional chefs and restaurant producers, so guests came for the food and stayed for the tolerance.

The work collected the Grand Prix for Marketing Effectiveness at the 59th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS in 2019, a Cannes Lions Silver in Design, Spikes Asia Golds in Design and PR, an ADFEST 2020 Gold in Brand Experience, and more at D&AD, LIA and New York Festivals. Hakuhodo reported that similar projects were being undertaken by people whose intentions it resonated with, spreading far beyond Japan.

The deeper move was changing what audiences felt: instead of asking people to be kind to dementia, the restaurant made tolerance itself the entertainment. One woman with dementia told Tokuno she hated making mistakes herself, but if there were a place where mistakes were overlooked with a chuckle, she would like to try working again — the entire bet of the project in one sentence.