Last night was huge! We met up with some old friends at a place called Zauo ざうお where you can fish for the fish you want to eat.
The restaurant is a short walk from one of the Shinjuku station exits and was hidden away in a shopping building.
It had a little river of fish that ran around the inside of the restaurant with izakaya style tables situated around it.
There were three main fish to choose from, though the cheaper fish were difficult to catch. The most expensive fish, the snapper, was easily caught, so of course I caught that one. Lol!
I was able to fish out the window of my restaurant room and had a net to catch them but wasn’t able to keep the ones in the net that I had caught simply on a hook. The one that took the bait of a baby shrimp (prawn) I was able to get into the net and keep it there long enough for the serving girl to grab it from me.
My friends advised her in Japanese that I wanted sashimi to start, so they cut it up for me.
The service was quick and the fish was on the table lovingly prepared within about twenty minutes.
It tasted fantastic! Very juicy and melt in your mouth sashimi.
There was still the head, tail and part of the body on display so one of my friends advised them to take that away and fry it up. This was also a great flavour, with the bones fried to crunchy perfection!
Many other dishes and drinks were had as well, with one fish served in a baked bread covering.
A fun night!
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A note for new travellers.
We were supposed to have the izakaya room for just 2 hours but we definitely overstayed that time and, even though we had ordered a lot more, and with 7 people ordering food and drinks probably spent a lot too, we were still advised a few times that we needed to leave, as our time had expired.
This was a good reminder to prepare us for visiting further restaurants around Japan. There is usually a maximum 2 hours in most izakayas, and it is usually expected that you would only spend a maximum of two hours in other places. Keep a maximum two hour plan in mind for staying at a table or in a seat for any restaurant, pub, cafe, festival, event or other public venue when visiting, to avoid any hassles. Or book a longer timeslot ahead of time to avoid disappointment.
