For the male members: What type of restaurant do you choose for the first date after making an offer? And for the female members: What kind of cuisine would you be happy with?

I’m Tetsu, a male member. I always have a hard time choosing a restaurant. Basically, when making an offer, I ask the woman what she feels like eating. If there isn’t much time before the offer, or if we’re going on a date while I’m traveling for work, I’ve sometimes let the woman choose the restaurant instead. For a first date, I avoid yakiniku and hot pot. Some women don’t like their hair or clothes smelling of yakiniku, while others feel uncomfortable eating from the same hot pot as someone they’ve never met. To play it safe, I choose places such as French, Italian, or Chinese restaurants where the food is served individually on separate plates.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. For a first date, I decide on the restaurant after we meet. I usually have a few options ready—sushi, Western food, and Italian, along with Japanese cuisine, shabu-shabu, yakiniku, and eel rice—so we can choose something enjoyable together. The four types I use most often are Western food, shabu-shabu, sushi, and eel rice. I imagine the process of choosing a restaurant is something the person asking about can also enjoy when looking for places from the second date onward. When girls see “meat” listed, they often picture a great steakhouse or yakiniku restaurant. They may be delighted by somewhere like Wolfgang’s, for example, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to go somewhere that heavy for the first date. There’s a risk that both of you will force yourselves to eat too much, leaving little energy to enjoy the rest of the evening. Even when it comes to meat, on a first date, a small amount of really good meat is often enough to satisfy you. A restaurant where you can enjoy some meat in a stylish, elegant atmosphere that also gets you in the mood tends to go over well. A Western-style restaurant, a chic little Japanese restaurant, or even a Japanese restaurant serving steak is more than enough. Western-style restaurants are especially popular with girls, followed by Italian. Oh, and eel rice is extremely popular too. Sushi is handy when you don’t have much time. Of course, sushi is also something you can enjoy again and again from the second date onward. It would be ideal if you could arrange a restaurant the girl wants to visit for the first date. As you mentioned in your question, one way to build up your selection is to explore restaurants in your area while looking for favorite places with the girls you’re seeing. If you try one or two new restaurants a month, you can visit 20–30 places over the course of a year or two. Then, if you keep the best restaurant in each category as your go-to, you’ll be able to confidently take a girl there for her first date. If you don’t have that kind of selection yet, you’ll probably end up choosing restaurants through sites like Ikkyu.com, as you mentioned. But since your question is about which type of cuisine to choose, I assume you’re hoping to avoid a mismatch between the girl and the restaurant or cuisine. These days, even restaurants listed on Ikkyu.com can sometimes be nearly empty, so reservations are relatively easy to get. You could also meet first without making a reservation, suggest a few possible restaurants, and see what kind of place or cuisine she feels like. And if all else fails, you can usually choose from a wide range of restaurants at a city hotel. So I’d suggest taking the plunge and offering a few of your own favorite places, then seeing which one she seems most interested in. From the second date onward, you can look for places while walking around, and you’ll also know more about her preferences, dislikes, and how much she eats. I often end up finding and reserving a new restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try myself.

I’m Maezawa from the President’s Office, and I’ll weigh in as well. The food itself is important, of course, but apparently the atmosphere of the restaurant matters too, so it’s a good idea to take that into consideration. People who take someone to a family restaurant, an izakaya, or—during the summer—to a beer garden usually get negative feedback, so I think it’s better to avoid those options. Actually, most people would probably think, “Wait, do people really do that?” > “A girl says, ‘I don’t like sushi, especially sea urchin.’ So I take her to a proper sushi restaurant with counter seating and have her try Hokkaido sea urchin without alum. Then she’ll often say, ‘This is delicious!’” This is actually a common thing in Hokkaido. A lot of people from outside Hokkaido—here, people from places like Tokyo or Osaka are considered “mainlanders” (laughs)—say they don’t like sea urchin. When they visit Hokkaido, I tell them, “Come on, just try it—you might as well, even if you think you’re being tricked,” and get them to try it. After that, they usually end up liking sea urchin. I wonder if it’s a distribution issue. Sea urchin from outside Hokkaido and sea urchin from Hokkaido taste completely different. I assume high-end restaurants can source that delicious sea urchin, while ordinary restaurants have a harder time doing so. But in Hokkaido, you can eat delicious sea urchin even at regular restaurants. (laughs)

I’m Kazu, a male member. Most women usually say “Japanese food” or “meat,” right? (笑) “Meat” is too vague, so I usually go with Japanese cuisine and choose a kaiseki or Kyoto-style restaurant. More than anything, though, I prioritize places with private or semi-private rooms. If she writes “sushi,” it’s easy—I just choose a sushi restaurant.

I’m だて◎ゆめ, a male member. My sample size is pretty small, but rather than focusing on whether the food is good or bad, I’ve mostly gone for Japanese cuisine in quiet private rooms where we’re unlikely to attract attention（笑） Since it’s prepared by skilled chefs, I’ve always enjoyed the food. The women I’ve met so far have said it was delicious too. More than anything, though, since it’s an older man and his daughter, I’m actually the more cautious one when it comes to being seen（笑）