Restaurant reservations Part 3: Requesting accommodations for special occasions, such as birthdays or anniversaries.

🇯🇵 Use [もしもし] only on the phone, not for face-to-face greetings. It's normal when answering a call to a restaurant or when checking that the line is connected.

💬 [はい] often means more than just "yes" — it can also mean "I'm listening" or "I understand." On the phone, it's very common before saying who you are: [はい、田中です].

💬 In [〜です], the [す] is often very light or almost dropped in normal speech, so [です] can sound close to (desu) with barely any final vowel. After a name, it's the standard polite way to identify yourself: [山田です].

🇯🇵 This is a standard phone-answer pattern when someone asks if they've reached the restaurant or asks for a person. In service settings, staff will usually say the restaurant name too, not just [はい、〜です].

💬 [なさる] is a polite "do," and [いかがなさいましたか] literally asks what someone has done, but it really means "How can I help?" or "What seems to be the matter?" You'll hear the same pattern in shops and clinics.

💬 [したい] attaches to the verb stem to mean "want to do": [食べたい] "want to eat," [予約したい] "want to reserve." In polite requests, Japanese often softens it with something after it, instead of stopping at [したい] alone.

💬 At the end of a request, [のですが] softens what you say and signals "I have this situation…" rather than a blunt statement. You can reuse it with lots of needs: [確認したいのですが] or [変更したいのですが].