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Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2022/9/27 18:59
I plan to be going to Toyosu, Tsukiji and/or Hakodate Morning Market and I have seen documentaries on NHK that show restaurants that cook what you buy from the market for you. Basically you bring them your own seafood, and they cook it for you with various choices of styles.
You only bring the seafood, they use their own sauces/spices/veggies/etc.

In one episode they showed one in Tsukiji, which is close enough to Toyosu Market.
They showed one in Hakodate in a seperate episode.
As I am going to both Tokyo and Hakodate I plan to visit both markets.

However, I am unable to find any on google.
Can anyone please share their experiences, or if they know of any? Thank you.
Bonus points if foreigner/english friendly but not essential as I can speak some basic Japanese.
by Chris S (guest)  

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2022/9/29 21:10
Chris,

I am 90% sure I have seen what you are looking for in Hakodate seafood market, just cannot give your specifics, sorry.

Not sure of your timing for travel however, as for Tsukiji, I will be in Tokyo in 3 weeks (arrive Oct 19) and can check for you as I roam the market late that week, if that helps. I don't recall seeing a shop like that in Tsukiji but then I have never looked specifically for that either, so I am curious too.

Stan

by USC4Ever rate this post as useful

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2022/9/30 13:49
USC4Ever thanks for your input.
I would not like to trouble you during your holiday, but if it also fits in with your interest then I will look forward to your travel report :)
I won't be going until next year, probably in Jan/Feb, so looks like your trip will be before mine.

It seems like an interesting concept. In fact I believe it used to be more popular in other Asian countries but has mostly been replaced by conventional restaurants in most developed cities now.
We like seafood and know Japan has great seafood, but we don't eat raw food. Therefore, this presents a unique opportunity for my group, in that we can buy foods we would like to try that are almost always served raw, and ask the restaurant to prepare it in various styles. In my experience, almost any kind of seafood will work in a nabe, I have tried it at home with various types of sashimi-grade seafood :D

I hope to buy some bluefin tuna, crab legs, scallop, abalone and perhaps other types of fish to prepare a nabe feast. In the documentary, they also had other styles available such as tempura and grilling.
Regrettably as it was some years ago I cannot remember the name or date of the NHK World documentary.
by Chris S (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2022/10/2 20:21
In Hakodate, it seems that you can have it cooked at this restaurant.
https://www.hakobura.jp/db/db-food/2011/06/post-218.html
Located on the 2nd floor of the EKINI market, you can have what you bought on the 1st floor cooked at the shop. (Separate cooking fee required)
https://asaichi-ekini.com/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298151-d3210230-Reviews...
There is a squid fishing pond on the first floor, and they will cook what you catch there.
https://www.hakobura.jp/db/db-fun/2010/12/post-36.html
Other than that, you can take out sashimi and eat it in the empty space.
https://www.hakobura.jp/delicious/post-205.html
by haro1210 rate this post as useful

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2022/10/22 21:08
Chris,

As promised, I went to Tsukiji market this week to see if there were places that you could purchase seafood and they will cook it for you right there and...I did not see any sorry to say.

Having said that, I did not go down every alleyway but went down all the streets and into the buildings to see what the vendors were offering. As well, on a Saturday morning, many of the shops were still closed...some until an 11a opening, others permanently unfortunately.

Hakodate may be a better bet for this activity.

I am sure I will get to Tsukiji again since it is less than 10 minute walk from my hotel, so if I happen upon a vendor that sells and then cooks what you buy, I will amend my post.

Thanks.

Stan
by USC4Ever rate this post as useful

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2022/10/23 16:44
Thanks for the follow up Stan. I saw it in a back-episode, few years before covid, and well before the Toyosu move. There were supposedly more than one shop doing this concept but it is easy to see why it has proven unpopular, and maybe they converted to normal restaurant style or shut down after the Toyosu move, during covid, or other reasons with the passage of time.

Toyosu seems to be a much "cleaner" experience where visitors don't really go into the wholesale areas, so it would not surprise me if no-one started something similar there.

Will probably try my luck at Hakodate.
It is a way to cook things that people normally eat raw, which we cannot due to preference as well as health reasons. Some of my group have sensitive guts, it's not a matter of cleanliness, just undercooked foods and certain items sets off the runs - and then the whole day is ruined.

The "alternative" is to buy several bowls of ramen, save the soup, and cook that in the hotel microwave - if the hotel has a microwave. That will allow me to cook some sashimi shabu-shabu style (or just boil it), though obviously less ideal.
by Chris S (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2023/1/16 11:10
A reply to an old thread, maybe in time for OP. This may be out of the way for you, but the fish market in Shiogama has this exact concept.

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5043.html

We did a day trip from Tokyo to Matsushima, and we started at the Fish Market, then a bay cruise to Matsushima. Then shopping in downtown Sendai with dinner there, before returning to Tokyo. We had a rail pass, so this was cost effective.
by Oenophile Angler rate this post as useful

Re: Tsukiji/Hakodate BYO seafood restaurants 2023/1/17 23:10
Thanks for the info. I don't quite have time to add any more locations, but seems like the Hakodate one may still be ongoing. Therefore, I will get my BYO seafood fix at Hakodate.
by Chris S (guest) rate this post as useful

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