Kaisuke Sangenjaya: Tokyo Shellfish Izakaya Review

A few streets back from Sangenjaya Station there is a place that runs on shellfish alone. Sancha Kaisuke (三茶貝介). Sashimi platters, grilled shells, sake steaming: it is all shellfish.

Several kinds of shellfish arrive together in a silver pan. Big ones, spiral ones, bivalves, down to a pile of small shells you could hold in one hand. There is broth at the bottom, and once the shells are empty that is what is left.

Beer and the otoshi

The beer is Sapporo Lager, the red star label, in a large bottle. A big bottle on a wooden counter is a combination I like.

The otoshi, the small dish that comes automatically with your seat, was already shellfish: a bite-sized nori roll with shellfish inside. The nori is printed with the shop’s name, 貝介. By that point I knew roughly what the place was going for.

Grilled and raw

Two grilled hamaguri, shells open, the juice still pooled in the hollow when they reached the table. Blue and white rectangular plate.

One raw oyster on the half shell, with a wedge of lime.

Thin slices of shellfish under a heap of chopped aromatics, with wakame and cucumber underneath. It came on an Imari-style plate.

The rest of the order

Firefly squid, dried overnight, with spiced mayonnaise on the side.

The hand roll carries both sea urchin and salmon roe. Same nori as the otoshi, name and all.

To finish, two small yaki onigiri grilled with shellfish on top, and takuan pickles.

Shop information

Otoshi to last course, almost all of it shellfish. The kind of place you want to keep to yourself.

Sangenjaya is on the Den-en-toshi line, so Shibuya is an easy hop. For yakitori and a drink there, see Shibuya Toritake Yakitori: Wait Times, Menu & Booking, and for the area itself, Shibuya Half-Day Itinerary: Scramble, Sky & Shopping.