Isn t it good to wipe my face with a towel at a restaurant? Experts reveal more NG-like behavior than facial wipes: causing trouble for store owners

 9:31am, 26 May 2025

When dining at a restaurant, some stores will use hot or iced towels. What is the anti-goal of this towel except for using it to wipe your hands? Japanese nutritionist and housekeeper and Hansui teach the correct way to use towels.

The cloth wet towels in Japan are said to be from the Muromachi period to the Eko period. When travelers arrived at the hotel, they would dry the towel in the bucket at the door and wipe their feet to eliminate the fatigue of the journey. Today, wet towels are mainly used in restaurants and are usually provided before meals and adjust the temperature according to seasons, cold in summer and hot in winter.

Some people use wet towels to wipe their faces, which is often a topic of discussion on gifts. Although it is absolutely not necessary to wipe your face from the perspective of "making people feel refreshed", since the main purpose of wet towels is to wipe hands, this behavior may make people around you feel unsuitable. If you consider the view that others feel, you should avoid using wet towels when you have a deskmate or someone else on the scene.

The most important behavior to avoid using moist towels

The most important thing to pay attention to is not to wipe your face, but to wipe the desktop or other items. Moisture towels are not rags. If you accidentally overturn the beverage or dirty the desktop, you should ask the store staff to help clean it, rather than wipe it directly with a moisture towel.

In addition, most cloth wet towels will be reused after being cleaned and hygienic by operators. If used to wipe dirty oil or sauce that is difficult to clean, it may affect its reuse and cause trouble for the store. Therefore, wet towels should be limited to hand rubbing and should not be used for other purposes.

Basic gift for wet towel

Wipe hands with wet towel, and fold the wiped face inside. If there is a tray, you can put it back on the tray. If there is no tray, you can place it on the table or on the packaging bag, but it cannot be stuffed back into the original packaging.

If your fingers are dipped in food during meals, you can use a wet towel to wipe it lightly, but if the corners of your mouth are dipped in food, you should use a paper towel or napkin instead of a wet towel, otherwise it will be considered a gift.

After the meal, do not place the wet towel directly in the plate you have finished eating, and fold it lightly and put it back on the plate or packaging bag to maintain the tidy.