A note on the words: jiyaki is the Kansai style of grilling eel without steaming it first, which keeps the skin crisp. Kaiseki is a formal multi-course Japanese dinner, and omakase means leaving the menu to the chef. Katsu is a breaded, deep-fried cutlet – here an eel katsu sandwich opens the meal. Uzaku is a vinegared dish of grilled eel and cucumber; this kitchen adds seasonal fruit (Shine Muscat grapes on this visit). Shirayaki is eel grilled plain without sauce, and kabayaki is eel glazed in a sweet soy-based sauce. Ryu no Hitomi is a large-grained rice variety, cooked here in a Nanbu cast-iron pot.
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Kagurazaka Hamasen on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
To all you eel lovers out there, thank you for waiting! It’s time for Hangover Meshi!
All right, it’s eeeeeeel!
Eel is one of my absolute favorites, and this time I headed to “Kagurazaka Hamasen,” a stylish eel restaurant in Kagurazaka.
Just a few minutes’ walk from either Iidabashi or Ushigome-Kagurazaka, you take the elevator down to the first basement of a building on a side street and there is Hamasen. It is a still-new eel restaurant that opened in spring 2024, with a counter of eight seats plus just one private room. They serve eel from Isshiki in Mikawa (Aichi Prefecture), grilled without steaming in the Kansai “jiyaki” style.
It feels more like eel kaiseki than an eel shop. Dinner runs in three seatings starting at 5:30 p.m. This time I booked the 5:30 p.m. seating for the “Seasonal omakase course” with a drink pairing for 19,000 yen.
Step inside and it is an intimate, counter-only space. You are right up close to the server, lol.
When they asked, “Your course comes with a pairing, but would you like something to drink first??”
Of course I’ll have a beer!
While I was enjoying that first drink, they brought out the day’s eel to show us.
“This is what we’ll be cooking for you!” And with that, the course started.
To my surprise, the first dish of the course was a sandwich. This is the restaurant’s signature eel katsu sandwich! Turning eel into a breaded cutlet and sandwiching it between slices of bread is a dish that steps right outside conventional eel-shop wisdom lol. Take a bite and the batter is light and crunchy, and the eel fat seeps out as you chew. Then the acidity and heat of whole-grain mustard cut right in, keeping the fat from feeling heavy to the very end. The bread is a mildly sweet white bread, apparently from a bakery in Kagurazaka. You can see it was chosen so as not to get in the way of the eel’s savory aroma.
I see, tasty, but… hmm, lol. I couldn’t help thinking it didn’t really have to be a katsu, lol.
Here is the pairing served with it.
It has a rich, apple-like acidity that cleanly cuts the frying oil of the katsu sandwich.
The saltiness of the prosciutto sits smoothly over the rich, sweet fig, and as you chew, the popping seeds kick in right after. The fresh herbal aroma and acidity of the green sauce pull the whole dish together. Cute to look at, too!
A white wine made from Koshu and Delaware grapes. With aromas of citrus and pear and a gentle acidity, it softly brings together the sweetness of the fig and the saltiness of the prosciutto!
Uzaku is normally a vinegared cucumber dish, but at Hamasen they apparently always pair it with seasonal fruit, and on this day it was Shine Muscat. The shirayaki eel (grilled plain without sauce) carries a charcoal aroma; the flesh falls apart tenderly while just the edge of the skin keeps a crisp bite. The Muscat skins pop and their sweet juice rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar. The crunch of the cucumber works nicely too, keeping the eel fat light to the very end.
A sake from Hiroki Shuzo in Fukushima. Despite its vivid, fragrant aroma in the mouth, the finish cuts off cleanly and meshes beautifully with the acidity of the uzaku. Sake in the pairing too!
And one more here, from Sagara Shuzo in Tochigi. A food-friendly sake in which the umami of the rice swells gently.
lol where did the eel go?
Here we step away from eel for a moment for wagyu and foie gras. The meat is lightly cooked, the foie gras melts smoothly on the tongue, and a sweet-savory sauce binds the two together. A whiff of truffle aroma rises softly.
Paired with the wagyu and foie gras is a California red. Sweet aromas of cassis and dark berries layer with a roasted hint of mocha, and the tannins are surprisingly smooth. Its plush fruitiness meets the fat of the meat and the sweet-savory sauce head-on. Yep, delicious.
Granita is an icy confection served partway through a course meal, frozen more coarsely than sherbet, just as the name suggests. The basil granita crunches as it breaks apart, sending a fresh herbal aroma straight through the nose. Lightly sweet, its chill and acidity sweep away the fat lingering in the mouth all at once. A true palate cleanser lol.
The rice cooked per party in its own pot is “Ryu no Hitomi,” with huge grains 1.5 times the size of Koshihikari. I have been seeing it at quite a few places lately, and it really is delicious!!
The kabayaki is grilled without steaming in the Kansai jiyaki style. You can clearly see how crisp the skin is just by looking at it.
The skin edge crackles, while the fibers of the flesh loosen and the fat seeps out gently. The sauce is fairly light, so the flavor of the eel itself stands out clearly without overpowering the sweetness of the rice. Yep, it’s delicious!
When you chew the rice, it bounces back with a chewy spring before its sweetness comes through a moment later. Since they cook that whole pot of rice, refills are possible, though both of us were already pretty full lol.
Dessert is melon. The chilled, richly sweet flesh gives way with a crisp bite — just right to finish the meal.
It was an eel kaiseki meal that lets you enjoy about one whole eel from all sorts of angles in course form — catching you off guard with the katsu sandwich, slipping in acidity with the uzaku, and finishing head-on with pot-cooked rice and kabayaki. If you only want to savor the eel, the other dishes in between may not suit you, but for a fun, chatty dinner in a nice atmosphere, I recommend it!
May you meet something delicious today too!
Kagurazaka Hamasen Menu
Dinner Courses
Reservations prioritized. Dishes incorporating seasonal flavors are prepared each month.
About one large domestic eel, grilled whole in long fillets (nagayaki). Choose two styles from shirayaki (plain-grilled), shoyu-yaki (soy-grilled), and tare-yaki (sweet soy-sauce glazed).
About one whole eel served across seasonal dishes.
This is the course we had on this day. Pairing available in alcoholic or non-alcoholic options.
If you would like the private room, there is a private room charge of 5,000 yen per room.
Drinks
The pairing added to the course came to 4,000 yen per person on the bill that day. It seems to vary depending on the number of glasses and what is poured.
*From the menu at the restaurant at the time of the August 2026 visit. Prices include tax, and the dishes change with the seasons. Please check the official website or at the restaurant for the latest details.
Kagurazaka Hamasen (Unagi (Eel) / Ushigome-Kagurazaka Station, Kagurazaka Station, Iidabashi 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?
