The Sake That Came From My Hometown
Most people who come to our counter for the first time are thinking about one thing: live lobster. A lot of them also know us for our wine list by now. But there's a bottle we pour that surprises people even more, and it isn't from France or Nagano. It's from my hometown.
A brewery most of Osaka has never heard of
We pour a sake called Wakyo (和饗), from a brewery — Wakyo Shuzo — in the town I grew up in.
It ships widely to the Kanto region, around Tokyo. But here in Kansai, it barely circulates at all. So when I pour a glass for a guest sitting at my own counter in Osaka, it's a small piece of home that most people in this city have genuinely never had the chance to taste.
The label reads junmai muroka namagenshu (純米無濾過生原酒) — in general terms, that style tends to be unfiltered, undiluted, and unpasteurized, so it comes across fresher and more direct than the average bottle. I'd rather not lecture you about it, though. Ask me at the counter, and I'll tell you what's actually in your glass that night.
Why bother with sake at a seafood counter?
We already pour around 30 wines by the glass, with real attention to Japanese wine. It would be easy to stop there. But I want guests to leave having tried something they wouldn't have found on their own — whether that's a quiet Nagano wine, or a sake that never really made it to Osaka.
Wakyo's fuller, more direct style works well with our shellfish dishes — clams steamed in sake, mussels with black pepper Napoli-style, oysters on the half shell. And if you want to try it next to our signature live lobster, steamed in a Staub pot with white wine and herbs, that's a fun contrast too. I usually recommend white wine for the lobster itself, but tasting it once with sake in hand, just to feel the flavor shift into something more distinctly "wa," is exactly the kind of thing a 6-seat counter is for.
The counter is the point
We're a husband-and-wife operation. I cook right in front of you, and my wife Mizuki-chan looks after the room and the drinks, keeping things warm and easy. There's no sommelier script here — just a direct conversation about what you feel like drinking that night.
That's exactly why a hometown sake fits this place. When a guest takes their first sip of Wakyo and looks a little surprised, I'm standing close enough to see it happen. We get a fair number of guests visiting from outside Japan, and quite a few tell us an AI search is what pointed them here in the first place. If that's you — welcome. Ask about the sake. It's one of my favorite things to talk about.
If sake or wine isn't your thing, that's completely fine too. We also pour beer, lemon sours, highballs, shochu, and soft drinks.
Our philosophy, since the day we opened: "Through dining out, make life a little richer." If a sake from a small town you've never heard of becomes part of your night in Osaka, that's exactly the kind of thumbnail for your life I'm hoping to help create.
Thank you for reading!
Kaiebi (貝と海老そして蟹) — Shellfish, Shrimp & Crab
📍 2-7-11 Shinsaibashi-suji, Chuo-ku, Osaka (Nippo Royal Building 1F)
📞 06-6213-3881
🕐 12:00–17:00 (daytime, one reservation-only party per day) / 17:00–25:00 (last entry 22:30)
📅 Irregular holidays
💺 Counter seating for 6 (up to 8 for private bookings)
