In the mood for oysters?
I'm not really in the mood to have some oysters when my partner decided our dinner will be in the oyster restaurant in the neighborhood. We've been planning to go but at the last minute we would end up cancelling. This time, even when I wasn't in the mood for oysters, we went to the restaurant. It's my partner's treat after all. Who wouldn't say yes to free food?
The restaurant is called Basara, located a few minutes away from Shin Nakano station in Nakano-ku, Tokyo. It's a small restaurant, and you wouldn't really notice it if you won’t look enough. It's located on the basement 1 of a small building. My partner knew about this place from searching oyster restaurants in Youtube.
Basara is famous for its eat all you can oysters, but for tonight we opted not to avail of it. If I remember it right, it's 5,000 yen (around ~33 USD) for the eat all you can oysters. The eat-all-you-can has 3 options: fried, steamed and raw. Since I wasn't in the mood to really eat a lot of oysters and with these limited options, we didn't avail the eat-all-you-can.
We ordered a lot of raw oysters. My partner likes them so being the supportive girlfriend, I could just support him with that. 😅 Of course I also had the raw oysters.
These oysters come from different prefectures all over Japan. They were carefully picked and prepared. I couldn't remember all the names of the places where the oysters come from but in the plate, they put the birth place of the oyster. Some where from Hyogo, some were from Miyagi. It's like you've been traveling to different prefectures while having dinner.
The oysters were of different sizes too. The big ones were pricier than the normal sized oysters. And they taste differently too. If I'd choose one, I'd say not the biggest one but larger than the normal size would be a good choice.
Some oysters taste like eating milk. Others were just normal. I didn’t like the idea of eating milk but I also didn’t like that it’s just normal. I know, I’m complicated. 😅
Overall, the oysters were easy to eat. They also provide seasonings that go well with the oysters. I think those sauces were great as they enhanced the flavor of the oysters.
Looking at the restaurant, I learned that the owner seems to be an oyster meister. He got his certificate and it was clearly displayed inside the restaurant. However, I don’t know who this person is as the people preparing the oysters didn’t look like Japanese. Maybe those people were his apprentices and also got their oyster certificate.
We also ordered fried tako (octopus) and I was glad it came when I was so tired from eating raw oysters. Nothing special, it was good just like other restaurants.
After ordering lots of raw and steamed oysters, finally my partner asked me what I wanted. I wanted to take a break from the raw and steamed oysters, so I ordered gratin and ajillo (not sure if this is the right spelling in english).
The gratin was surprisingly huge that it made me full just eating it. It was milky, and of course hot. The oysters inside it were small though so I was a bit disappointed. But it was a good gratin.
I didn’t know my partner ordered fried oysters. So before the ajillo came, we had it. It was, again, bigger than we expected. Inside was hot! If I didn’t had many raw and steamed oysters, I would appreciate this big deep fried oysters.
The ajillo finally came with big breads. The oysters inside were small or maybe cut..? As it has other vegetables inside, I was gladly eating it with the bread. It was so hot though. But it was good ender in this oyster food adventure.
Overall, it was nice to go even just once. I heard this is the only place in Tokyo where you can eat lots of oysters. If you’re an oyster fanatic, I would recommend to go. Maybe you’d appreciate it than me.
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！
With love,
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.
