As mentioned in last week's column, Kamozou is the third and latest in the growing stable of specialist sake joints operated by Noriharu Nozaki. Unilke Sakanaya (in Ikebukuro) or the eponymous Nozaki (Shinbashi), Kamozou does not look or feel like an izakaya. On the contrary, it's a stylish contemporary dining bar that perfectly fits its location in upper Kagurazaka.
We had a few drinks there soon after it opened, but last night we went back to linger longer and explore the food menu — as well, of course, as the sake options. The emphasis here is more on meat and chicken dishes (Nozaki's other operations lay greater stress on seafood). There's no mixed sashimi plate, but you can get a platter of meat cuts that are all either raw or rare,
We primed our appetites with a simple warm nikomi of chicken and daikon...
...then set to with a nomi-kurabe tasting set of junmai-ginjo Denshu:
Next up some fine Hokkaido uni...
...backed with another tasting set — this time of Kudokijozu. And the Super really lived up to its name. Really outstanding!
Great tebasaki chicken wings...
...and some equally delicious hatsu (grilled heart), dark and flavourful — and no I don't usually extol this particular organ of barnyard fowl...
By now we were back on Denshu — this time premium limited-edition tobin-dori junmai-daiginjo. Really superb (many thanks to 山本さん, who treated us to this).
Nozaki has plenty of other goodies stashed away in his fridge. Some time toward the end of the evening we began exploring his aged sake, and homed in on this one...
It's from Masuizumi (another junmai-daiginjo), it's won IWC gold medals two years running and you can taste exactly why. Fantastic.
To find Kamozou, just walk up Kagurazaka until you reach the lights at Okubo-dori. Then turn left and it's in the second building on the right, above an Indian restaurant — and immediately identifiable from the large white chochin lantern in the shape of an isshobin sake magnum.
Here's a map link...
