Name of expensive restaurant item

Wet towel is the only expression I’ve ever heard.

Oshibori ?

Nope. Neither one. I don't think that I have heard the term in, well lets say, a lot of decades.

Region- I think that your picture may be right, but not the term.

I’ve heard of finger bowls, bowls of hot water to wash with but nothing like you’ve described.

Izzy- You have got it! Now I know that my description was not on target, but I had the general idea. Googling "finger bowls", I have come to the conclusion that this item, (which does come with a napkin to dry your fingers) is just about obsolete in most areas.

Thanks for the right answer!!!

It’s the sort of thing you get with medieval banquets, where you use your hands.

It’s a bit archaic, and that’s in keeping with that sort of thing.

This is the Japanese version of hot towel -

Not sure if you are referring to finger bowl or hot towel often times either also has lemon with it - from an excerpt from table etiquette

"If you want to clean your fingers, use your napkin or, if a dish has been messy to eat, excuse yourself to clean your hands in the restroom if no finger bowl or hot towel has been provided."

finger bowl


vs hot towel

There's a story about Queen Victoria concerning a finger bowl. A banquet was being held for an honored woman from one of the colonies, an exalted royal of her nation. As they sat around the table the guest, not knowing of the custom, thought the contents of the finger bowl (lemon and water) were there to be consumed and raised it to her mouth, taking a sip. The assembled lords and ladies gasped at this faux pas — until the magnanimous monarch raised her own bowl to her lips and took a sip in solidarity with her guest.

(Apologies to izzy if this tale be apocryphal.)

Don’t worry, I’m not personally invested in Queen Vic or any of the Royals.

Interesting story!

It’s a bit of a trope. Hannah Montanna did it and an urban legend claims Liz did too.

It’s appeared in a few films. There’s a scene in Greystoke where something similar happens if not that.

None of that means your story about Vic isn’t true.