A note on the words: the shellfish here are hamaguri (a large clam), asari (a small one), akagai (ark shell), hokkigai (surf clam), baigai and tsubugai (two kinds of whelk), and sazae (turban shell, eaten with its bitter liver). Namero is fish or shellfish chopped with miso and spring onion; otoshi is the small appetizer you are charged for on sitting down; shabu-shabu means swishing thin slices through a pot of broth; zosui is the rice porridge cooked in what is left of that broth at the end. Yamahai is an old, slow method of making sake; shochu is a clear distilled spirit, and gari-chu is shochu with the pickled ginger from a sushi counter dropped in. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Kainomi 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. This time to Kainomi in Yotsuya, a shop that deals in nothing but shellfish.
I love shellfish. Enormously.
But some people cannot stand it, and a specialist shop does rather narrow the field, so I had never managed to get a party together. This time everyone in the group was happy with shellfish, so off we went to the specialist round the corner.
And this place is not only a shellfish specialist — it also does all-you-can-drink from a fridge of regional sake from across the country. Two unusual things in one shop: shellfish cooking, and self-service sake.
The Yamahai course, six dishes with free-flow drinks, 6,500 yen
That is the standard course. Make the main the oyster nourishing hotpot and it is 7,000 yen, I think; make it the kankan steamer and it comes down to 6,000.
For now we took the orthodox course.
First, then, to fetch a drink.
A refrigerator full of sake. You take a board with three cup-holes cut in it and pour yourself three at a time. I am no great expert on sake, but there was everything from bottles I knew, like Kid, to labels I had never laid eyes on. Heaven, surely, for anyone who loves the stuff.
And not only sake. Barley and sweet potato shochu, whisky and the rest, all free to mix with soda as you like.
Personally I was pleased to see Java Tea, which took me back, and a buckwheat shochu from Shinshu.
There is even pickled ginger set out for making gari-chu, so there is plenty here for people who are not drinking sake.
One of those self-pour beer machines I have seen somewhere before.
The otoshi first.
Isotsubu whelks at the front; in the middle, namero of hamaguri clam, I think they said.
It is always a pleasure when shellfish turns up as a snack — though here it is going to be shellfish all night anyway.
Ark shell, surf clam, and two kinds of whelk — baigai and tsubugai, I believe.
That firm, crunchy bite and the deep savor peculiar to shellfish. Irresistible.
Raw oysters are the one thing I am not so fond of, mind.
Shipped direct from the grower, so no off smell and none of that prickle on the tongue. Good, and a relief.
Hamaguri clam, oyster, and a small turban shell.
Hamaguri is bound to be good (well — all shellfish is bound to be good), but bringing out a grilled oyster is a clever touch. I assumed it would be raw ones only, and here they grill them for you as well. I prefer them grilled. With the turban shell it is the bitterness of the liver married to sake that does it.
Last comes the shabu-shabu in shellfish broth.
Take a sip of the soup and it is a thick, concentrated shellfish stock.
Mostly asari clams, I think. There is a great deal of shellfish in it, so the pot has real volume. The mushrooms, vegetables and meat all give up good stock of their own, and the soup improving as you go is surely the whole point of a hotpot. Once you have worked your way through it they bring out a set for the zosui to finish.
Nice of them to add butter to it.
So: a good deal of drinking and a thoroughly satisfied table. This much shellfish coming out one plate after another does raise the spirits. Most of the dishes use the ingredient plainly as it is, and tasting the shellfish itself while choosing your own sake and drinking as much of it as you please makes the place feel almost like a fairground attraction. Next time it might be worth trying the Shinjuku-sanchome branch — the one I went to by mistake first.
Kainomi (Izakaya / Yotsuya, Yotsuya-sanchome and Akebonobashi Stations)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
