Zauo Fishing Restaurant is a unique eatery where you can fish your meal and tell the chef how you want it prepared. It’s worth a try!

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Location of Zauo Fishing Restaurant

Zauo Fishing Restaurant is a small chain of restaurants that specialize in the same theme: the ability to catch your own fish and cook it. We have been to restaurants before where you can point to a fish and ask them to cook it. But this was our first time where the concept is taken a step further and you can use a fishing rod to reel it in. For our visit, we went to the Shinjuku location, which was extremely convenient for us as it was just one hotel down the street from where we stayed (the Park Hyatt Tokyo). The Shinjuku location is inside the Shinjuku Washington hotel.

Booking

We made a reservation online using Table Check. It wasn’t ultimately needed, but it was nice not feeling the need to stress about dinner. When booking a reservation, you can also pre-select courses. You can always add on more food when you’re here, so I would recommend skewing towards ordering less in advance and just adding more when you arrive. Specials change with the season, but we ordered a course that included a fish hot pot set. It also included fishing tickets, but it’s important to note that one ticket does not equal one fish. I’ll explain more later.

Arrival to the Shinjuku Zauo Fishing Restaurant

We arrived at the Shinjuku Washington hotel right at our reservation time. We immediately found signage on the lobby level that led us to the right location.

Once inside, the front desk led us to the seating area: a large boat surrounded by open tanks. And then we checked out the area once we confirmed our pre-order and chose drinks.

Waiting for us at the table were some instructions in English. As mentioned on the laminated papers, English comprehension is lacking here, but not so much that it makes it difficult to dine here.

Fishing our dinner

Included in our meal selected when reserving were 12 fishing tickets. You can think of each fishing ticket as being a different type of currency. Each fish costs a different number of fishing cards. The blue card at the table specifies the cost of catching each fish. The smallest seafood will fewer numbers of fishing tickets while the largest fish cost more, which is logical.

Also at your table is a card that mentions where you can catch each fish. Most tanks have only one type of fish. However, if you’re looking for striped jack, note that it’s in the same tank as sea bream. If you catch the wrong type of fish, they don’t permit you to catch and release.

Walking around the tanks, everything is clearly labeled. Naturally, Alex was thinking he wanted the largest fish possible.

There are rods stationed throughout, along with bait for those fish that need bait (check the card that says which fish need bait). No one showed up to assist us, but we had no problems getting started on our own.

Once you catch your fish, restaurant staff asks how you want to prepare it. We caught the striped jack, large enough for two different methods of cooking. Some methods incur an extra charge, we chose two included methods (sashimi and deep fried). We also relayed our table number to the fishing assistant.

Food

Shortly after catching our main course, the meal started appearing in front of us. We started the evening with some sashimi (can never have too much).

Next came some salad and the broth for the shabu shabu. Vegetables were provided for the shabu shabu, but I have to admit it wasn’t too filling on its own. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as I tend to overeat easily when eating shabu shabu.

Our freshly-caught dinner was also served. The victory was impaled on a stick and served alongside the sashimi. Next to it was the fried fish. I’m surprised with how quickly the fish was prepared. This was Alex’s first attempt at eating raw fish and he loved it. Perhaps there’s something about being open to eating what you caught.

We ordered udon and fried fish for the table, along with some rice and seaweed (one of Char’s favorites).

At the end of the meal, eggs and rice were brought out and mixed with the remaining broth in the shabu shabu to form a porridge. Very tasty!

Recommendation: It works if you’re into gimmicks

Full disclosure that this restaurant seemed to attract more gaijin (foreigners) than locals. That’s not by itself a bad thing, but those looking for a more authentic dining experience should look elsewhere.

That being said, this is a clever experience that combines fishing and dining. Usually you would only see this combination when out at sea. I honestly wish there were more restaurants like this. The kids had fun and it encouraged our son Alex to try out foods he would otherwise not be interested in. The preparation was good, but the price was a little higher than other restaurants. It’s not a place we would eat at every day, but it’s worth a visit if you want to give fishing a try.

When was the last time you fished your own meal?