Kakigoya

You would think living on an island, seafood would be cheap and plentiful right? Well, I guess that is true for water type Pokemons but not so much the case for fresh shellfish. The solution? Enter Kakigoya! This place serves delicious oysters and other seafood dishes to your heart’s desire. The restaurant looks like a nice traditional Japanese fisherman’s pub complete with all the red lanterns and different types of sake bottles on the counter. They manage to keep the place pretty clean considering that you get to grill the oysters on top of your table and you discard the empty shells in a steel bucket on the floor.

I went there with my family and we all decided to go a-la carte rather than the all you can eat option so that we can order and taste the other items on the menu. I had the steak (as usual) together with a couple of oysters, while everyone indulged in all the shellfish they can grab their hands on which also included some scallops and mussels. The steak was not at all the best but come on, you’re not there for the steak.

The oysters on the other hand were delicious. Cooking the oysters come with very strict instructions because if it’s too raw there is a possibility that it may still contain some bacteria and if it’s too cooked, on occasion, the shell may explode causing a big popping noise which can be pretty suspenseful. So make sure you really pay attention to the waiter when he is explaining how it should be cooked. Might even be better if you are able to bring a stop watch. I was using my cellphone to measure the cooking times and ended up getting all kinds of gunk on my phone. Now for the best part. For a corkage fee of 600 yen, you can bring any, I repeat, any outside food to grill on your table. You can bring a nice supermarket bought steak and a whole salmon to grill together with your oysters no problem. They will even provide you with the basic seasonings required for your outside dish. Not many restaurants would allow you to do that so I thought it was pretty awesome.

To conclude, I think Kakigoya is one of the must try restaurants here in Okinawa especially if you love oysters. The grill-it-yourself experience alone is already worth the visit. I’ll admit, it was a bit pricy averaging about 3,000 yen a person but I think it was worth it. Kakigoya is located in the Makishi Public Market area in Naha and parking is going to be a struggle. I recommend to park around the Kokusai street area and walk towards the restaurant. You can also use the Hyatt Regency hotel as a guide to find the place since it’s located just a block away.

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