A note on the words: the shop’s name, Okumantorija, is a pun on the word for billionaire with the character for bird swapped in, and honden is the main sanctuary of a shrine — the whole place is built as a joke about wealth; yodare-dori, literally “saliva chicken”, is the Sichuan cold chicken in chilli oil; chicken nanban is fried chicken in sweet vinegar with tartare sauce; umesuisho is shark cartilage dressed with pickled plum and tako-wasa raw octopus with wasabi; myoga is Japanese ginger bud; bonjiri is the chicken’s tail; Kinmiya is a shochu brand favoured for highballs; otoshi is the small dish brought to every seat, carrying a small cover charge; an izakaya is a Japanese drinking house that serves food; yakitori is charcoal-grilled chicken on skewers; sansho is Japanese pepper, citrusy and numbing. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Okumantorija Shinjuku Honden on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
This time, a leaving party! If we are doing it at all, let us do it somewhere flashy — so I booked somewhere that looked entertaining. The name: “We built an izakaya for a hundred million yen. Okumantorija Shinjuku Honden”. The name alone promises something.
Inside — luxurious, of a sort?
Hmm. Luxurious is not quite the word.
The glittering concept is easy enough to grasp. It might be unexpectedly good fun.
First, beer!
And then, straight to the climax.
This being a leaving party, I had telephoned ahead to order the special-sized wagyu prosciutto!
Enough for eight people, apparently. It is enormous.
The meat rather looks like a texture map.
This is how they set it down. Whether it conveys any real sense of lordliness, I could not say.
The thing itself is ordinary wagyu prosciutto (not that one hears much about beef prosciutto), and they told us it is also good eaten with the grapes. To my taste, wasabi and soy suit it enormously! It makes an impression, and with a group it is fun to order. You do have to book it by telephone, though, which is a little bothersome.
Having had our fill of spectacle, we moved on to the ordinary menu.
First, the real saliva chicken. Whether it is the real thing I cannot say, but the heat is quite mild.
Millionaire… portion? They are ordinary chips. But the concept is carried through consistently, which is fun.
That thick, fritter-like batter is the good part. Prawn mayo is justice.
At this point a young woman appeared carrying a box…
Rather a long way into the evening, but this is the otoshi!!!!
wwww
It was a macaron.
Every last piece of staging is entertaining.
An ordinary chicken nanban, but the generous heap of tartare sauce makes it feel substantial, which is welcome!
Charcoal-grilled: fragrant outside, meltingly soft within.
Grilled mushrooms. Good with nothing on them at all.
Wasabi and sansho, myoga and spring onion — the condiments go well with duck.
Wagyu tartare on toast! This was rather good.
Spring onion kimchi is justice!
I chose this because I wanted umesuisho. Kimchi and tako-wasa came with it.
We asked for a few of each of the yakitori!
The yakitori itself is entirely ordinary in taste, and the dishes are entirely ordinary too.
In a shop like this, a menu item with nothing done to it may be the novel thing.
Last, the house avocado kimchi. Made into kimchi, avocado turns creamy and delicious!
And then, towards the end, they asked whether we would like a turn at the roulette.
Win and it is 5,000 yen off the bill! Lose and it is tequila! How could we not!
We bet — and it came up 8. A big win!!
It is 580 yen a go, so 580 yen times seven is 4,060 yen.
With 5,000 yen off, that is a net 940 yen saved and six tequilas into the bargain. Excellent!!
So: an entertaining izakaya with a fun concept, full of surprises from start to finish. The food itself is of thoroughly ordinary quality, but the way it is presented — the plating and the staging built around the concept — is very entertaining indeed, and it never palls. For everyday use it might be a little much, but for a noisy evening with friends it is strongly recommended! On the way out we were given a free all-you-can-drink voucher and various other discount coupons, so I may well use it again for a party of eight or so.
We built an izakaya for a hundred million yen. Okumantorija Shinjuku Honden (izakaya / Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku-sanchome Station, Shinjuku-nishiguchi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
