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Slurp Hamo Eel Soup at Choi Oden Shinjuku Honten Izakaya

Update-Date: Feb 27, 2026

Author: Sydney Seekford

Categories: Izakaya

Slurp Hamo Eel Soup at Choi Oden Shinjuku Honten Izakaya

Choi Oden is a national chain with a home-cooked feeling that has made it a fan favorite for diners around the country. You’ll know you’ve made it to the Shinjuku flagship when you see the tank of conger eels greeting guests at the corner. Here, travelers can enjoy the timeless flavor of oden, a warming soup known for its healthy ingredients and regional quirks, as well as totally unique dishes and drinks found nowhere else.

Sydney Seekford

Gourmet Creator

American living in Japan since 2022. Food writer and gourmet content creator for Japan’s most well known food media. Founder of menu translation and language support service MENUWIZ. Work history includes copywriting for booking platforms, video and media production and appearances, and consulting in F&B for household brands. Passionate about regional revitalization and slow tourism with a focus on local food culture.

About Oden

Have you ever heard of oden? Oden is an essential Japanese winter food made of vegetables, fish cakes, meat, and tofu products simmered in broth. At least, usually. Choi oden beefs up its oden offerings with some truly unique menu items, bending the definition of this comforting food.

Oden is known for coming in a range of regional styles. That includes the dark, salty Shizuoka oden and the light seafood broth of Kanazawa oden. Most styles of oden are served in a bowl with spicy Japanese mustard, called karashi, and sometimes a green citrus-pepper paste called yuzukosho.

To order, you select the pieces you’d like and how many of each. When sitting at the counter, staff dish pieces of oden out from a large trough that keeps the soup circulated and slowly stews each piece until it’s soaked with broth and becomes chewy-soft.

Traditional oden pieces include thick cut tofu, hard-boiled eggs, konjac, fish cake like chikuwa and hanpen, and daikon radish. Different regions have different traditions, but Choi Oden goes a step further to create an original oden that defies genre expectations.

Choi Oden Shinjuku Main Branch

The restaurant is located close to Omoide Yokocho, one of Shinjuku’s most storied drinking streets. Its convenient access makes it ideal for dinner before hitting the town. But that’s not the only reason that despite being a national chain, Choi Oden Shinjuku is also a local Shinjuku favorite.

Amid the bustle of Shinjuku, the crowded 6-seat bars in Golden Gai, and nightlife that spills onto streets long before sunlight does, Choi Oden is a comforting, welcome space with a long bar and plenty of room to stretch out. Hearty, warming flavors win over visitors and locals alike.

Although their service (and affordable pricing) is not directed at inbound tourists, Choi Oden is happy to offer digital menus in English and Chinese. No doubt, the popular sight-seeing location is partly to thank. It’s a place to meet the local community and rub elbows with average people.

If you’re looking for an authentic slice of everyday life in Tokyo, this is a great place to experience it. You’ll find Japanese interpretations of Western flavors as well as home-grown favorites. Some are more traditional than others!

Choi Oden Shinjuku Main Branch

Open: [Monday-Thursday] Lunch 11:00 am - 3:00 pm (L.O. 2:30 pm) / Dinner 5:00 pm - 11:00 pm (L.O. 10:30 pm), [Friday] Lunch 11:00 am - 3:00 pm (L.O. 2:30 pm) / Dinner 5:00 pm - 4:00 am (L.O. 3:30 am), [Saturday, Sunday, National Holidays] 3:00 pm - 11:00 pm (L.O. 10:30 pm)
Closed: None
Average price: [Dinner] 4,000 JPY / [Lunch] 1,000 JPY
Access: 5-minute walk from Shinjuku Station on Toei Oedo Line / 3-minute walk from Seibu Shinjuku Station on Seibu Shinjuku Line / 114m from Seibu Shinjuku Station
Address: 1F, Sanko Park Bldg., 7-3-1, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Map
More Details Reservation

Unique Hamo Dashi

Choi Oden’s most distinguishing feature is its dashi – the soup used for simmering. Instead of using ago dashi or ichiban dashi which are katsuo (bonito, aka skipjack tuna) based, Choi Oden makes a hamo dashi. Hamo are conger eels, usually eaten in summer in Japan.

Although it might not seem that strange to simply substitute a different fish for the soup, Japan’s centuries of reliance on stock from dried bonito (with occasional forays into other tuna varieties or sardines) makes the use of fresh conger eel quite remarkable.

Using hamo offers a lighter, cleaner finish, more similar to seafood heavy Kanazawa oden than the deeply flavorful brown soups that are more popular in Kanto and Kansai. It's a very unique, nontraditional choice that has become the brand’s calling card.

The dashi is almost more “Western” in some ways, which might account for menu items like garlic toast oden (250 JPY) and mac and cheese (420), that wouldn’t be found on your average oden menu. First time visitors will appreciate the not-too-salty soup as a compliment to the restaurant’s classic and creative oden.

Classic Menu Items

Just like all oden specialists, most classic pieces of oden and drinking snacks are available. Sliced tomatoes and marinated cucumbers (360 JPY) to start, fried chicken to wash down with beer or sours, and so on.

For oden, the staples are daikon, which staff say is cut extra large, shirataki or konnyaku (both made of the same stiff, jelly-like konjac root in different shapes), hard boiled egg (we substituted it with tamago-yaki oden!), and fish cakes.

Chikuwa and hanpen are some of the most iconic oden pieces. Chikuwa are tubes of fish cake that have a springy bite and mild fish flavor. Hanpen are white pillows of fishcake that are spongey and soak up lots of dashi broth.

Interestingly, a few common Oden ingredients, like atsuage tofu, weren’t on the menu during our visit, but it made for a fantastic reason to try Choi Oden’s unique offerings!

Choi Oden Shinjuku Main Branch

Unique menu items

Agedashi Hamo

Of the many unconventional menu items at Choi Oden, one must-order is a bowl of tempura-fried hamo chunks with dashi poured over it. As a point of comparison, agedashi tofu, an izakaya classic, is made in a similar way. The conger eel offers a great texture and of course, being the base for the soup, takes naturally to the flavor of the dashi.

It’s best to eat the morsels right away, while the tempura batter is still a little crisp before soaking up the soup. Hamo, unlike the more familiar anago and unagi eels, is a bit springy. It has the simple flavor of white fish, allowing the dashi to really shine.

Korokke oden

Going further down the surprising oden rabbit hole, diners will be pleasantly surprised by tasty (if strange) selections such as karaage oden and croquette oden (250 JPY).

The croquette oden, according to Choi Oden staff, follows the simple rule that if it’s soaking in oden broth, then it counts as oden! The dish was inspired by a popular noodle order, korokke udon. This udon features a hot potato croquette laid on top of or soaking in a bowl of noodles. The croquette softens and absorbs the flavorful soup. The Choi Oden team thought, “hey, why not just serve the croquette!” And this surprising dish was born.

Eaten right away, it’s a little like having soft, boiled potatoes in chicken soup. If you allow the croquette to sit and soak up all the dashi, the panko breading softens and the croquette can be enjoyed almost like mashed potatoes. It’s an interesting mix of Japanese and Western comfort foods that is definitely worth a try.

Oden sauce

Of course, most of the classic oden pieces are also available. Order the extra large daikon radish, one of the staff’s recommendations, and top it with an extra helping of blue cheese, genovese-style sauce or spicy mentaiko butter (all 100 JPY). Beneath the menu listings, each topping has its own pairing recommendations, which you probably won’t find anywhere but Choi Oden.

These additional flavors are a good way to add complexity and interest to the simple hamo broth. It’s especially recommended for guests who want to create their own original oden flavor. Mix and match toppings, sauces, and dry spices until you achieve your perfect bowl.

Nankotsu Soki Karaage

A mashup of a dish, nankotsu refers to soft cartilage, soki to an Okinawan specialty of pork spare ribs, simmered bone in a sweet and savory sauce until tender, and finally karaage to the now world-famous Japanese fried food. Imagine the experience of each, the initial crackle of fried batter soaked in teriyaki-esque sauce, followed by melt-in-your mouth pork and finally the soft crunch of cartilage.

The nankotsu soki karaage (280 JPY) has a familiar flavor despite being so original, making it a crowd-pleaser for diners of all ages. These bites pack an intense flavor that actually blend beautifully into the mild oden broth as well. If you still haven’t gotten your fill of oden staff recommend an order of the same pork but soaked in oden soup, instead of fried, called “torotoro nankotsu soki oden.” (380 JPY)

Homemade beverages

Choi Oden makes many of its own original beverages. These range from seasonal flavors, like the winter mikan orange, to one of a kind sips like an elderflower soda with violets floating in the bottle, to their signature: a bottled green tea (460 JPY).

This isn’t just any green tea however. The Choi Oden team specially blended this ryokucha to be the perfect compliment to the glutamine and mineral levels in their hamo dashi. Real researchers looked at the pairing from a chemical level, helping the brand achieve an ideal balance.

The service is also engaging. After ordering your sour or high ball, (ask if non-alcoholic versions are available) staff will pop the cap tableside. They turn the whole bottle upside down and swirl it, aerating the contents for better flavor. It might be a small touch, but it’s the epitome of Japanese omotenashi. Hospitality and thoughtfulness before you even think to ask.

Closing

Choi Oden is a large operation that makes every meal feel like stepping into a family restaurant. At the flagship in Shinjuku, busy working people unwind while enjoying the scent of warm dashi that wafts over the room and families chat over a menu that has a little something for everyone.

With its combination of taste-of-home classics and creative menu items that can only be found here, Choi Oden offers an experience for travelers that is both authentic and fun. Drop in, spend time with the locals who love to stop by after work, and you’ll get a memorable taste of everyday Japan on the streets of Shinjuku.

Choi Oden Shinjuku Main Branch

Disclaimer: All information is accurate at time of publication.

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