Draft — pending review
Reserving a table at Laughing Monk Cafe is free. We don’t take a deposit, we don’t keep a card on file, and we don’t charge a fee if you don’t make it. What we ask for instead is a word: if your plans change, tell us. A table we know about is a table we can give to someone else — it is the disappearing, not the cancelling, that costs a small restaurant its night. The one exception to all of this is omakase and the Omakase Box, which are paid in full when you book and have their own cutoffs (Section 4). Where a particular booking states different terms, those control. This policy is part of our Terms of Service.
1. Holding a table costs nothing
Regular reservations — any size, any night, including peak times — require no deposit, no prepayment, and no card. Nothing is charged to you for booking a table, changing it, or cancelling it, and we will never place a no-show or late-cancellation charge on a card. If a booking ever does require payment, that is stated plainly before you confirm.
2. Changing or cancelling
Change your party size, date, or time whenever you need to, subject to availability, and cancel at any time at no cost. Any change re-issues your confirmation with the updated details. Prepaid omakase seatings are the exception — they have a cancellation cutoff (Section 4).
The one thing we ask: if you can’t come, tell us. Cancelling frees the table for someone else the moment you do it, and on a busy night that is the whole difference.
3. Arriving, and running late
On a busy night your table may not be ready the moment you walk in.We don’t keep a particular table standing empty waiting for a name — we give you the right table as soon as one turns, which is how we keep the room full and the wait short for everyone. If there is a wait when you arrive, the host will tell you where you stand, and the bar is yours in the meantime.
We hold your table for 15 minutespast your reservation time. After that it may be given to other guests — and you are still welcome. If your table has gone, we’ll add you to the waitlist the moment you arrive and seat you as soon as we can.
A phone call helps more than anything else. If you tell us you’re running late we will hold the table where the night allows.
Omakase is the exception, and it has to be.The seating begins at the reserved time and runs about two hours, course by course, prepared for the guests in front of the chef. We can’t hold it, and we can’t start it again — a late arrival joins partway through and the courses already served are gone. Please arrive ahead of your seating time.
4. Omakase and prepaid seatings
Omakase is the one booking that is paid for in advance. A dine-in omakase seating is $175 per guest, prepaid at booking, with a 20% service gratuity added — $210 per person in total. It runs about two hours and begins promptly at the reserved time, for parties of one to 6. Payment is handled by our payment processor, Stripe; we do not store full card numbers on our own systems.
- Book by 5:00 PM the day before. Omakase is never same-day — the day’s fish is bought for the seats already sold, so booking closes at 5:00 PM the day before for the following day.
- Cancel any time before the day of your omakase for a full refund, returned to your original payment method within 5–7 business days.
- Cancellations made on the day of your omakase are non-refundable. By then your courses have been bought and prepared for you. Call us and we’ll move your booking to another day instead — what you paid moves with it. An outright cancellation on the day is a manager’s decision, made case by case. This does not apply where we cancel (Section 6).
- Because seats are limited, prepaid seatings are non-transferable and may not be resold; we may cancel any reservation we reasonably believe has been resold or transferred without our approval, without a refund.
- Please tell us about any dietary restrictions or allergies in advance — the courses are planned before you arrive, and we can rarely change them on the night.
The Omakase Box — our takeout omakase, offered at both Mission Hill and Wellesley at $160 per person — is prepaid in the same way; one box serves one person. Ingredients and presentation follow the market and may change without notice. The same rules apply: ordered by 5:00 PM the day before for the next day, cancellable in full until the day it is due, and non-refundable on that day. To change or cancel a box order, please call or email us rather than doing it online.
If you’re unwell, call us.Illness and emergencies don’t keep to a cutoff. We won’t ask you for proof of anything — we’d far rather you stayed home and told us than came in sick. Usually the answer is a new date; where more is needed, the manager decides. A phone call is the whole of it — the number for your branch is on our contact page.
A valid government-issued photo ID is required for any seating that includes alcohol.
5. Reservation emails, texts, and calls
When you book, you agree to receive messages about your reservation — confirmations, reminders, changes, and waitlist notices — by email and, if you give us a mobile number, text message, including through automated systems. Reply STOP to opt out of texts and HELP for help. Message frequency depends on your reservations, and message and data rates may apply. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. These reservation messages are separate from marketing email and SMS, which you sign up for separately and can leave at any time.
We may also call you about a booking you made— to confirm your party size and time, or to reach you if something changes. That call may come from our team or from our automated assistant, which says so at the start of the call. We call only about your own reservation, never to sell you anything, and if you’d rather we didn’t call, tell us and we won’t.
6. Events beyond our control
If we have to close, cancel, or reschedule for reasons beyond our reasonable control — severe weather, loss of power or water, public-health or government orders, or similar — we’ll offer you a rebooking or a refund of amounts paid. We aren’t otherwise liable for those disruptions.
7. Questions about a prepaid booking
Regular reservations are never charged, so there is nothing to bill you for. If something about a prepaid omakase charge looks off, please contact us first — most questions are resolved quickly, and we would rather fix it directly than have it go through your bank.
8. Eligibility
Anyone can reserve a regular table. You must be at least 18 to book a prepaid seating.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The terms that apply to your reservation are always those shown when you booked and repeated in your confirmation.
Questions about a reservation? Email hello@laughingmonkcafe.com.
This policy is provided for general information and does not constitute legal advice. We may revise it to reflect changes in our services or in applicable law.