Hi! I’m the owner of Kaiebi (貝と海老そして蟹 / Shellfish, Shrimp & Crab), a 6-seat seafood counter in Shinsaibashi, Osaka.
Most guests who sit down here 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 behind the counter that surprises people even more than the wine does, and it isn’t from France or Nagano. It’s from my hometown.
A sake from 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’s not an obscure or hard-to-find brand everywhere. It actually ships widely to the Kanto region, around Tokyo. But here in Kansai, it barely circulates at all. So when I pour a glass of it for a guest sitting at my own counter in Osaka, it isn’t just “here’s a nice sake” — it’s a little 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 of sake tends to be unfiltered and undiluted, with a fuller body, and unpasteurized, giving it a fresher, more direct character than the average bottle. I’d rather not lecture you about it, though — ask me at the counter, and I’ll tell you more about what’s actually in your glass that night.
Why I bother pouring sake at a seafood counter
We already pour around 30 wines by the glass here, with real attention to Japanese wine. It would be easy to stop there. But sake is part of the same idea: 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.
It also happens to sit naturally alongside what we cook. Wakyo’s fuller, more direct style works well with our shellfish dishes — littleneck 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 a Japanese sake in hand, just to see the flavor shift to something more distinctly “wa,” is exactly the kind of thing a 6-seat counter is built for.
Wakyo isn’t the only sake we pour, either — it’s just the one with a story I can tell you myself.
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 more than 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 at all, that’s completely fine. We also pour beer, lemon sours, highballs, shochu, and soft drinks for guests who aren’t drinking alcohol.
FAQ
Q. What exactly is Wakyo?
It’s a junmai muroka namagenshu sake from Wakyo Shuzo, a brewery in the owner’s hometown. It ships widely to the Kanto region but is rarely found here in Kansai.
Q. What should I try it with?
It pairs naturally with our shellfish dishes, like sake-steamed clams or mussels. If you want a different experience with the live lobster, try a glass alongside it — I usually recommend white wine for that dish, but the sake makes for an interesting comparison.
Q. Is Wakyo the only sake you serve?
No. We also have other sake available beyond Wakyo, alongside roughly 30 wines by the glass, beer, lemon sours, highballs, shochu, and soft drinks.
Q. Do I need to know anything about sake to order it?
Not at all. Just ask me at the counter — I’ll tell you about the bottle and pour you a glass.
Q. Do you have allergy accommodations if I want to try the shellfish pairings?
We’ll do our best to substitute ingredients where we can, though some dishes can’t be changed due to how they’re prepared. Please let us know when you book so we can talk it through.
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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 to the end!
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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)