A note on the words: an izakaya is a Japanese pub, and hakko means fermentation, which is what this one is built around. Shio-koji and shoyu-koji are seasonings made by fermenting rice mold with salt or with soy sauce. Kasu-zuke means pickled in the lees left over from brewing sake. Tataki is fish or meat seared only on the outside, and karaage is the Japanese way of frying chicken. Samgyetang is the Korean whole-chicken soup. Matsusaka pork and Koshu wine beef are branded Japanese meats. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Hakko Izakaya 5 on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. This time I am at a rather interesting themed izakaya in Omotesando — Hakko Izakaya 5! From what I gather, the whole menu is built around fermented food, which is a very Omotesando kind of theme if you think about it. Gut health, gut health! I already eat plenty of kimchi, natto and pickles on a regular basis, but I was curious what a whole izakaya devoted to it would put in front of me.
Walking in, well, it was about what you would expect — roughly 95% women lol
A lot of people seemed to be there alone for dinner. Among the solo diners, samgyetang seemed to be the popular order.
Now then, let us look at what is on the menu and order a few things a la carte!
For drinks, an enzyme lemon highball and an enzyme lemon beer!
I ordered both, and they are both sweet! If you are not a fan of sweet drinks, take note lol
My guess is there is some kind of enzyme-lemon liqueur or extract added in, and that is probably where the sweetness comes from!
Good for you, I am sure, though lol
Natto with beans larger than usual. Apparently it is a one-of-a-kind brown rice natto, fermented from natto bacteria cultivated on their own herb-grown brown rice.
I wonder whether the source you culture the natto bacteria from actually changes the taste and character.
The soybeans are apparently a red-and-white pair, from Hokkaido and Yamagata respectively. They really do not cut corners here!
As for the taste, the beans are large and the natto flavor really comes through. The smell is not too strong either, so it goes down easily.
There was a large and a small size — this is the small.
Potato salad turned into a fermented potato salad by mixing in sake-lees sour cream.
The flavor of the sake lees and the tang of the sour cream go really well with the potato salad. It even feels healthy, which is a nice bonus^^
Sake-lees pickles. When you say fermentation, sake-lees pickles are what come to mind, right? That distinctive flavor is irresistible!
I love myoga, so I was thrilled — or really, myoga pickles in general are just delicious.
A set of shio-koji steamed chicken, Matsusaka pork ham, and Koshu wine beef tataki marinated in soy sauce.
The steamed chicken is seasoned with shio-koji first, then slow-cooked at low temperature, which is what gives it that tender, moist texture.
Turns out there really is a pork called Matsusaka pork. Cure that pork in shoyu-koji and turn it into ham, and you get Matsusaka ham.
Then there is tataki made from Koshu wine beef, cattle raised on the pressed lees left over from winemaking, marinated in shoyu-koji. Yes, as a drinking snack, this one hits the mark perfectly.
Chicken fermented and aged in a house-made shio-koji sauce, then turned into karaage!
Each piece is quite large. One extra piece costs 400 yen, by the way! Fried up nice and crisp, and delicious.
Maybe because it has been marinated, the meat came out moist and tender for karaage!
I thought about eating a bit more, but last order is 21:00, so my impression is that it closes fairly early^^. In the end I called it a night here and headed off to the next place. If you want to take your time and really enjoy it, coming early is probably the way to go! On the whole this is really about koji being worked cleverly into the cooking, rather than anything wildly beyond what you would expect from fermented food, so I would also recommend just treating it as a normal izakaya and relaxing into it!
Hakko Izakaya 5 (izakaya / Omotesando Station, Gaienmae Station, Meiji-jingumae Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
