A note on the words: taishu sakaba means a cheap, everyday drinking house; sundubu jjigae is a Korean stew of soft tofu in chilli broth; chanja is spicy salted cod innards, a classic drinking snack; otoshi is the small dish brought to every seat in a Japanese drinking shop, which carries a small cover charge whether you asked for it or not. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Lucky Seoul Nishi-Shinjuku on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too! This is Hangover Meshi.
Wondering whether to have one more drink, I was drifting around Nishi-Shinjuku when a shop with unusually loud neon caught my eye.
Looking closer — Korean, perhaps? It might be a good place for a quick stop.
So in I went for a short visit.
I could not eat a great deal, so I picked out only the things that looked good.
First, a beer.
Terra is the famous Korean beer, I gather.
That clean, light mouthfeel is very much an Asian beer!
Rather than the Japanese sense of “dry and cutting”, or the savour of the barley, it is flat and calm all the way through. The bitterness is restrained and the aftertaste fades cleanly. Designed to be neutral and let the food speak, I suppose. It ought to go well with spicy Korean cooking.
As a drinking snack, chanja will keep you going for quite a while. The trouble is how fast it makes the drink go down.
Then, while I was drinking my beer, a bright red soup arrived bubbling at the rim of its stone pot! First the sea-scent of clams and crab drifts up. The broth is built properly: shellfish and crustacean stocks layered together, with the house Korean chilli paste dissolved into it. Inside the heat there is a firm, rich savour — the point being that it does not stop at merely hot.
You can choose the spice level, and of course I took the hottest. The tofu is meltingly soft and takes on the broth the instant you lift a spoonful. A mouthful of tofu with clam stock soaked into it gives you heat and gentleness at the same time, a strange sort of satisfaction. And the chilli really does work, so “that is hot!” escapes you despite yourself. The savour of the crab holds up the base of the whole broth, and it deepens the further you go. Eat it together with the egg yolk and a roundness spreads through it — another face entirely.
The more I ate the more I drank, but closing time was near, so: time up!
I only ate a little, but the room glitters, and it did feel Korean (not that I have been). Bright, plenty of young customers, and just right for a noisy group. Next time I am drinking around Shinjuku it might do very well as the first stop of the night.
Korean Taishu Sakaba Lucky Seoul Nishi-Shinjuku (Korean / Shinjuku-nishiguchi Station, Seibu-Shinjuku Station, Nishi-Shinjuku Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.1
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
