Zauo Shinjuku

Zaou Shinjuku is located in the Washington Hotel Main Shinjuku. This place is hands down so much fun. It’s an interactive experience where you have the option to actually catch your own meal! Everything from Sea Bream, Flounder, Tako, Lobster, Shellfish and more.
HOW IT WORKS:
Check out the cheat sheet I took a photo of. You can either have them catch the fish for you but pay more (why do it like that?) Or you can pay the 100 yen for bait and catch your own which is still cheaper. Once you’ve caught your fish or other sea creature you are given the option of how it’s prepared. If you don’t have your menu with you, not to worry, they have a step-​by-​step guide on the back wall outside of the kitchen where you can tell a server what you want. Make sure you know what table number you are so you can tell them as well.
The experience sounds like a gimmick with horrible food but you know what? The food is actually pretty good. I mean it doesn’t get any fresher either right? We ordered a few things since we caught 2 Tai’s and a Flounder. We had our flounder split into deep fried flounder and in Zosui. One of the sea bream’s we caught was sashimi’d and the other was simmered in shoyu. We also ordered a platter of sashimi on top of that. Take a look at my photo’s and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The food was bomb with the simmered shoyu style bream being everyone’s favorite.
Reservations are recommended here because it does get the hotel crowd as well as others from outside the hotel wanting to try the experience. If you’re an English speaker, not to worry, you can find Zaou Shinjuku on Open Table. Go do it, take the family or a date. You’ll have fun.

Zauo is more of a novelty than anything else. Make reservations of possible or go early. Located at the a Washington Hotel on the 1^st floor in Shinjuku.
Here’s the deal, you catch your own fish and you can have it prepared for you in different ways like sashimi or cooked, or both. It is cheaper if you catch your own. While it was fun trying to lure the fish, we found it pretty time consuming so we just hooked a flounder in a tank. Had it prepared sashimi and cooked in soy sauce. We also ordered two rice sets which came with rice, miso soup, and chawanmushi (egg custard).
The fish came out quickly and of course it was one of the freshest sashimi I’ve ever had. The soy cooked flounder was tasty but it seemed to be a bit overcooked as the meat was chewy here and there. It was a decent meal but a bit pricy for what you get, hence novelty.
It was definitely a fun place to check out but I wouldn’t go back should I find myself vacationing in Shinjuku. English menus available but the staff speak very limited English.
PS: some of the fish in the pond had seen better days. Be careful which one you hook!

Zauo is one of those restaurants where one would visit for the overall dining experience more than the food itself.
My friends and I were seated in a private Tatami room because none of the tables near the ‘fishing pond’ were available. The service was a little slow since the room was somewhat isolated, but it was nice that English menus were available and some of the staff were able to speak some English.
You can choose to just order your fish (es), but you can fish your own dinner for cheaper. We all decided to try some fishing since that’s what we came here for. We were being careful not to aim for a flounder (the most expensive fish) because you have to eat and pay what you catch! A friend of mine ended up catching a flounder by accident… Another friend bought some bait (little shrimps) to try and catch a red snapper, but that didn’t work so well. Instead, we all tried to catch a bunch of mackerels, and it took some of us forever to catch just one! After some time, it actually became quite frustrating… The kitchen staff cooks each fish as you catch them, so my friend’s flounder was cooked way before we caught our fishes and it was just sitting at the table in our tatami room (because he didn’t want to eat alone). I highly suggest making a reservation for a table near the ‘fishing pond’ so you can eat and fish at the same time.
Out of all the different ways of cooking the fishes, mackerel sashimi was not bad, but I liked deep-​fried the best, especially the flounder. Although pricey, the flounder seemed to be worth it because some of the mackerels were small… and they were all the same price.
All in all, it was a fun dining experience, but visiting Zauo that one time is enough for me. I don’t think the experience and the food was worth the money I paid for my meal.

REEL & CATCH! Let’s go fishing! This is a restaurant where you can catch and eat your food! It’s so FUN, after awhile it starts to become a competition! It also keeps the kids busy!
FOOD
Bait, reel, catch and prepare. Do not fret pet, the prepare part they do. Sashimi, fry, or broil. SASHIMI PLEASE! Be prepared to pay a hefty price if you catch an expensive fish, so look at the fish guide or ask the staff to make sure. But, if you don’t feel like fishing they do have the usual izakaya items like chicken, noodles, rice, and prepared sushi.
ENVIRONMENT
I love the large boat in the middle of the restaurant! So I was so ecstatic when we got to sit there! You can literally fish from your table! They also have large private rooms located on both sides of the boat and you can fish from some of those rooms also. Located in the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. Take the train and get off the Shinjuku Station South Exit. Open for lunch and dinner.
SERVICE
Great service! They gave us an English speaking waiter so that helped a lot. Very attentive and quick. We came at 5:00pm, so there was no wait. Be prepared I heard it can be a awhile.
CONCLUSION
Definitely a FUN restaurant to try or just check out when you are in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. My family had a great time here! The food flavors are pretty basic which is why I gave it 4 stars, but the experience is sooo worth trying it!

I had such a fun experience here with my traveling partners. We went for lunch around 12:30 and got a seat on the boat. We grabbed 2 rods and some shrimp through we didn’t need them. After 5 or 6 nibbles my brother in law caught a flounder and we had it half sashimi half grilled. The fish was delicious, some of the best I’ve had. For a couple extra dollars we get little sets of soup and rice. We got some fried octopus on the side which was very good, we got 2 other sides which I can’t remember but I know we liked it and finished them. The bill was around $ 60 for 3 and we left stuffed. It was one of the best meals I had while in Japan and I would most certainly come back on my next trip.

It’s been more than 2 weeks since I’ve been staying in Tokyo and I must say this is the worst meal/​experience I’ve had ever since I got here. My boyfriend and I were excited to try Zauo for the first time, we got there at 8:40pm on a Thursday night and after asking for a table for 2, the cashier (I think he was the owner) told us to wait, then showed us a notice of their hours, the last order is a 10pm, closing time 11pm. So that was fine, we still have a good 2 hours to eat. We got a table that was against the walls so I asked the waitress for the empty table next to the water so that I can fish while I eat, she said those were all taken. Throughout the rest of the night, that supposely «taken» table was empty the whole time. I let that one go, since I understand maybe they’re reserving it for bigger parties. Now comes the fun part, fishing! Got our rod and bait, some of the fishes looked dead because they weren’t moving even after accidently hooking them. The geoduck that I caught was dead too. It was about a foot long, asked for it grilled and when it got to our table, there were only ~8 small pieces of it stacked on top of its shell, costed 2,800yen. Ordered the rest of our food by 9:30, I specifically asked for a flounder done half sashimi and half fried, but the waitress put in one whole flounder sashimi and one whole fried costing us 4104yen per fish =8108yen. Ok, I’ll let that one go again because there was a language barrier. When the sashimi came, it wasn’t even flounder, they gave us seabream. What? I pointed to the flounder picture when I placed the order! Wrong order again!!! Then the waitress had it changed for us. Had to ask for water twice from 2 waiters until one of them brought over ONE glass of water, when both of our glasses were empty. Half way through our meal, 10:30pm on the dot the waiter comes over and ask us to pay for the bill first, umm… I find that kinda rude, I’m not done eating and I still have 30mins till you close. On top of their bad customer service, all the cooked/​hot food that we ordered came out cold, not hot or warm, but cold, like it was sitting there for a good half hr before they served it to us. Fish wasn’t fresh because it was probably the dead fishes from the tank, the seafood rice bowl I got didn’t taste good at all. Our bill came out to 16,212yen for 2 people. Overall their food wasn’t good, overpriced, and had bad customer service, the worst restaurant I have dined in Tokyo. I wouldn’t recommended anyone to come.

This is some Bucket List stuff right here: Tsuribune Jaya Zaou is a restaurant located on the first floor of the Washington Hotel in Nishi-​Shinjuku.
This is where you FISH FOR YOUR OWN DINNER. (
)
This sort of stuff would never fly in the U.S. (thanks, Health Department), but it’s free game in Tokyo and we were totally up for it. There’s a huge boat in the middle of the place that’s surrounded by a moat with live fish in it. After you’re seated, and have ordered drinks, you wander over to the fishing poles, pierce a bay shrimp onto the hook, and fish for whatever you want. Whatever you catch, you eat, so aim carefully (some of those fish ain’t cheap)! I loved watching children and adults alike working together to catch their meal.
After you’ve caught something, you inform the waitstaff who sing a little prayer song (of thanks) and prepare it however you like: sashimi, broiled, deep-​fried. Whichever you pick, it’s amazing.
By the time we caught our second fish and finagled a lobster, the first fish (we opted for sashimi:
) was ready and waiting at our table. We ordered the lobster be broiled with garlic (
). We gobbled it all down, smiled, patted our bellies, and left truly happy.