28 February 2026

Review: GwP 40906 Restaurants of the World – Japan

Posted by Tim Johnson

One of three gifts with purchase (GwP) currently available on LEGO.com, set 40906 Restaurants of the World: Japan is a bite-sized morsel of LEGO® goodness for LEGO® Insiders members. It is, presumably, the first in a series of four, but unlike previous "... of the World" collections, it comes with a minifigure: a sushi chef. Better still, that minifigure comes with an exclusive torso! Let's take a stool and see what's on offer.


We were given this product early by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

40906 Restaurants of the World: Japan

  • Release date: 27 February 2026
  • Pieces: 289
  • Ages: 12+
  • Measures: over 6 in. (16 cm) high, 4 in. (10 cm) wide and 3 in. (8 cm) deep
  • Availability: free gift for LEGO Insiders with purchases at or above the threshold listed below, until 8 March or while stocks last

Threshold: 

Other countries click here

Lego GwP 40906 Restaurants of the World: Japan

 

 

New printed torso

Here he is in all his glory. It's a beautiful torso design, with light grey lines adding details like creasing and stitching. The kanji writing on his pocket, 寿司, translates as sushi.

That's it for new elements in this set – and there are no rare ones either. That makes for a dull parts review but it is good news if you want to replicate the set yourself; for authenticity you will only need to acquire the torso and sticker sheet.

Buy pieces for GwP 40906 on LEGO® Pick a Brick

 

Sticker sheet 

The four white stickers are used for the sushi sign, and the red one reads おしながき (menu). I love the matching fish designs.


The model

This is really charming, and feels authentic to me – said as a Westerner who is yet to travel to Japan.

Firstly, an apology: only as I was finishing this article up did I realise I built the sushi wrong! (They were so hard to put together, that's my excuse.) The gold piece next to the orange sashimi should actually be the small hair tuft piece in bright light orange (6456642 | 68212).


©2026 The LEGO Group

With no time today to rebuild and set the photo studio back up, here is an official LEGO render with the hair tuft in place! The best guess of the New Elementary hive mind is that it represents uni (sea urchin). 


As a two-seater restaurant, I guess this is more a stall? New Elementary's two residents of Japan have not seen such things commonly, however this certainly combines two very Japanese things nicely: the famous cuisine and the yatai food stalls you’d find at a Japanese festival. 

It is perhaps intended to be a "cut-down" version of a full restaurant, and indeed would be lovely to develop this into a larger building. There are so many details to enjoy in such a small space, like the stool design and the panelling under the table.


The blossom branch adds a perfect contrasting detail, but the crowning glory is the giant ebi nigiri and chopsticks sign that adorns the roof. Note the reddish orange bar with handle on the shrimp tail, adding to the detail.


It's a lovely standalone design too, which you could take as the beginning for designing your own tray of LEGO sushi, perhaps with longer chopsticks. The bed of rice could have been made much more simply with a single white plate, but instead is rendered with texture here, thanks to a great quantity of rounded plates: five 1x4s (6501816 | 77845) and six 1x2s (6210272 | 35480).



The restaurant works really well without the slightly overbearing signage, too. It's a different vibe; calmer and more charming I feel.



There are further details to enjoy around the side, with a tap, crates and empty bottle. I wonder if it was a deliberate design choice to position the bottle in the trash, to avoid any conception of it potentially containing alcohol? Of course, where you place it for your sake-loving minifigure patrons (not supplied!) is up to you.

The rear is open, adding to the street-stall vibe, and allowing access to get the chef to work. When he's not thwacking that salmon with his cleaver to make sashimi, he can hang it on the wall. As for that white 2x2 round plate, I thought it was perhaps an internal sink – but why the spoon? Ah, of course, it's the rice!



Here I've pulled the roof off to show all the delicious details (and the lack of that hair tuft). I have to say the soy bottle is my favourite. Who needs the Kikkoman label when it already looks this authentic?


Conclusion

These themed LEGO Insiders GwP collections are always high-threshold items, so inevitably that's a barrier to owning. However with so many exciting March releases, perhaps there's something on your list that will easily qualify like LEGO Pokemon which is already available, and there's always the latest LEGO Pick a Brick loose pieces to help you top up to a threshold.

I loved the previous collections like the Shops of the World, which were all in microscale. The approach here is minifigure scale, which is much more common in LEGO products than microscale, however it is hard to deny the attraction and value of a minifigure-based set. 

The small size, be it a street stall or a visual shorthand for a larger restaurant, is extremely cute and effective. The sign does dominate at that scale, but is so well rendered and fun that I can't complain. 

It's a fun and varied build with a well-planned colour scheme and no "expense" spared on detail. It would have been a wonderful opportunity to get another sushi printed tile (or frankly even a sticker) to complement the existing maki, but to get an exclusive printed torso here is pretty wonderful.

There's plenty of story starters here, not least the chef running round with a giant knife, and while the age mark of 12+ may frustrate young builders, I doubt there's anything here that a 9 year-old couldn't manage solo.


 

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