A note on the words: oden is a winter pot of things simmered slowly in a broth — here a gentle one made with kombu, the dried kelp the shop is named for. On the plates: daikon radish, konnyaku (a firm jelly of konjac root), shirataki (its noodle form), hanpen (a soft whipped fishcake), chikuwa (a tube-shaped one) and chikuwa-bu (a wheat-gluten version), atsuage (thick fried tofu), nama-fu (fresh wheat gluten), gobo-maki (burdock rolled in fishcake), satsuma-age (deep-fried fishcake), tsukune (minced meat balls) and yuba (the skin lifted from soy milk). Yatsuhashi is a soft cinnamon sweet from Kyoto; mentaiko is cod roe cured with chilli; heshiko is mackerel cured in rice bran; chirimen sansho is tiny dried fish simmered with sansho pepper; chazuke is rice with broth poured over it; tataki here is beef seared outside and rare within. Zoni is the New Year soup with mochi rice cake in it, and Kanehachi is a barley shochu, the clear distilled spirit. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Table of Contents hide
Konbuya, Ebisu branch, on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today as well. This is Hangover Meshi.
It has been bitterly cold lately, and the cold may be about to end. In which case the thing that must be eaten is oden. So: to Konbuya, on the thirty-eighth floor of Ebisu Garden Place.
The lifts at Garden Place let you watch the view on the way up, which is good, but they feel a touch slow. The building is an old one, so they were probably remarkably fast at the time; lifts in recent towers are quick, and one does compare.
There are a great many kinds of oden, but we decided to order as the mood took us.
Something to go with oden, so we started on Kanehachi with soda from the off.
Cream cheese sandwiched in soft yatsuhashi. Sweet and salty at once, and good.
Easy to pick at, and exactly right while you wait for the oden.
As for the oden, I dithered over how to order, and since there were a fair few of us we decided to take every kind they had.
Mochi soaked in a gentle kombu broth. Something of the New Year zoni about it.
Is it seasonal? Fugu tempura, written up outside the main menu. Fluffy, springy white flesh, and good. If ever a snack suited barley shochu with soda, this is it.
Let us eat our vegetables as well. The smoked salmon is good.
The octopus is beautifully springy and good.
I ordered one of each, but pull them off the skewer and they turn out to share round quite well.
Here, an unusual thing: a beer made with yuzu koji.
Very fruity, low in bitterness, an easy beer to drink.
The tempura earlier was good, so we ordered more.
These are the ones that would fall apart in the shared pot, I suppose, which is why they come out one by one.
Behold!
The rest of the oden, all of it at once. The full set conquered!
Daikon, konnyaku, knotted shirataki, egg, hanpen, grilled tofu.
Atsuage, cabbage rolls, chikuwa and chikuwa-bu, sweet potato, potato.
Three-colored nama-fu, Kujo spring onion, gobo-maki, sausage-maki.
Satsuma-age with aosa seaweed, with octopus, and with onion.
Plum tsukune, duck tsukune, pouches of braised pork belly and mochi, Spanish mackerel fish balls, grilled cod roe.
Grilled conger eel rolled in yuba, and knotted kombu!
An enormous amount, but a good deal of it comes in small pieces, so we shared it out little by little.
There was so much of it that I had meant to eat this lot and then repeat my favorites, and I was simply full. All of it was extremely good, but the octopus satsuma-age, the grilled cod roe, the sausage-maki, the daikon and the egg stood out. If I were to repeat one thing it would be the octopus skewer.
The sweetness of the sweet potato with the cheese is good. The crisp wrapper is a fine touch.
I wanted a little meat as well, so I ordered this — very tender, melting in the mouth. Good.
And here to the closing dishes.
There. That was a meal.
Full, and thoroughly satisfied.
I suspect the way I ordered was not ideal (everything they had). Assembling that much oden takes a while, and once the oden pot had landed last orders felt as though they came round quickly — so it may be better to settle on your oden and put the whole order in early, in one strike. That said, the rest of the snacks are remarkably good as well, so overall the satisfaction is very high. The thirty-eighth floor of Garden Place, as you would hope. A thoroughly relaxed and comfortable evening.
Konbuya, Ebisu (Oden / Ebisu and Meguro Stations)
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?
