Kai Darake 貝だらけ @ Shinjuku

This is a great place for shellfish lovers which I chanced upon while walking around Nishi-Shinjuku.

Kai Darake 貝だらけ is a hole-in-the-wall izakaya specialising in all kinds of shellfish and organic vegetables at a dingy corner of Nishi-Shinjuku near the Post Office. Due to the nature of the area, a group of slightly mischievous old men accompanied by pretty ladies and salarymen were drinking in the same space, next to each other. It’s a bit fun and interesting, and I was the only one not speaking Japanese there.

After ordering a drink, the first thing we got was an appetiser, customary to an izakaya for the ootoshi or cover charge. There are various suggestions for eating shellfish, including raw, grilled, fried or steamed. Looking at the menu, there were about 60 different dishes listed, and I was impressed that I could have so much fun choosing from just shellfish. 

お新香 Pickles

I ordered a small plate of お新香 oshinko (pickles) tog with the beer (and then highballs). Oshinko (“fresh fragrance”) more specifically referred to vegetables that had been only lightly pickled and that had not yet changed colour very much.

白子 ポン酢 Milt with Ponzu Sauce

As someone who can eat a lot of “weird” things, this is nothing new for me. A seasonal unique delicacy of milt or soft cod semen, only available during the Autumn/Winter season of Japan. If you don’t think of it as fish semen, shirako ponzu is where creamy meets citrusy perfection.

貝の天麩羅 Shellfish Tempura

Next up, five types of shellfish tempura that consisted of sea urchin (uni) wrapped in seaweed sheet (nori), milt (shirako) wrapped in perilla leaf (shiso), scallop (hotate), Fishermen’s kariage (漁師かき揚げ).

For the softer items like sea urchin and shirako, they are wrapped in a containing vessel like perilla leaf or nori sheet and deep fried. Delicious.

貝刺八点盛り Eight Types of Shellfish Sashimi

Today’s main dish is a platter of shellfish sashimi and there are eight types of shellfish in total. It’s amazing how they’ve managed to gather all these shells, from turban shells to whelks. 

Some shellfish are crunchy and firm, yet melt in your mouth slowly. For example, turban shells. At first they are disappointingly hard, but then they gradually become sticky. The umami and astringency of the shells become stronger and stronger. The squid and ark shell cling to your tongue, and the thick scallops are meaty and addictive.

白エビ上げ Fried White Shrimp

I ordered some deep fried items to round up the meal. First up, shiroebi-age or deep fried white shrimp. Salty, crispy and addictive, they are the fishermen’s potato chips.

小柱の串揚げ Obashira no kushi-age

Obashira is the connector of the abductor muscle of the scallop (which we incorrectly refer to as the scallop meat or hotate) to its shell. These are harvested as well, and are often dried and used as ingredient for soup stock. These are pretty good eats as they are skewered, breaded and deep fried like kushiage.

In a country where sushi/sashimi and sakana restaurants are everywhere, there are surprisingly few restaurants that focus on shellfish. So if I have the chance, I’ll go again. However the environment is not exactly the best, there’s the shellfish smell that can be quite off-putting. Nothing is in English, and the staff does not speak the language. We had to use a language translator to help along. If it wasn’t for my love of shellfish.

Kai Darake 貝だらけ
東京都新宿区西新宿1-13-8 LeCIEL西新宿館 1F
Tel +81 03-6279-0116

Visited Jan 2025