Why you should experience Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori in Tokyo, Japan.
Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori is a polished izakaya where Shinjuku Sanchome's after-work dining culture, contemporary Japanese cooking, low-slung interiors and communal sharing unfold above one of the district's most historically significant culinary addresses.
Set within Shinjuku Nakamuraya Building along Shinjuku-dori near Chuo-dori and just steps from Nakamuraya Salon Museum of Art, the sixth-floor restaurant exchanges the street's commercial intensity for a shoe-free interior organized around white and ivory surfaces, soft flooring and low seating. The name Mollis derives from a word meaning soft or gentle, a concept carried through the subdued physical setting and relaxed posture encouraged across the dining room. Dinner develops through shared plates spanning tofu, fish, beef, chicken and rice, giving the table the breadth of an izakaya meal within a more composed setting. The result is a Shinjuku Sanchome restaurant where Japanese shared dining and a deliberately softened interior provide a calm counterpoint to the movement immediately below.
What you should know about Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori.
Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori is best known for opening on October 29, 2014 as part of the rebirth of the Shinjuku Nakamuraya Building, placing Kichiri inside a site whose culinary history in Shinjuku reaches back more than a century. Nakamuraya began in Hongo in 1901 under Aizo and KokkΕ Soma, moved its principal operation to this Shinjuku address in 1909 and opened a restaurant division in 1927 that introduced pure Indian curry alongside Chinese steamed buns and mooncakes. The former headquarters building closed for reconstruction in 2011, and Nakamuraya commissioned Mitsui Fudosan to manage a redevelopment designed and constructed by Obayashi Corporation. Work began in January 2013 and produced an eight-story, two-basement building containing 6,400 square meters of floor area. Kichiri Mollis debuted on the sixth floor when the completed building opened on October 29, 2014, sharing the new address with Nakamuraya's Manna, Granna and Bonna concepts and the Nakamuraya Salon Museum of Art. The restaurant introduced a markedly different hospitality concept within that redevelopment through a shoe-free, low-seating interior whose Mollis name refers to softness or gentleness. Its arrival joined a new-generation izakaya to an address where Nakamuraya had already spent 105 years connecting food, commerce and culture with Shinjuku.
The meal develops most naturally through contrasts in temperature and texture, beginning with Kyo Tofu Fujino tofu alongside burdock and lotus root before richer plates shift the table toward fish and meat. Bincho tuna arrives in a yukhoe-style carpaccio, giving the soft fish a savory dressing before crisp fried potatoes introduce salt and crunch. Roast beef brings deeper richness, followed by chicken enclosed with truffle-butter sauce so the aromatic fat opens when the parcel reaches the table. Rice then absorbs another register through a kama preparation with Hakata jidori and burdock, drawing the progression back toward Japanese stock and earthy root vegetables. Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori builds its izakaya experience through those measured shifts from cool tofu and tuna into frying, roasted meat, truffle butter and stock-rich rice.
How to fold Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori into your trip.
Kichiri Mollis Shinjuku-dori works as the meal anchor for an afternoon connecting the artistic circle that once gathered at this address with two enduring institutions of Shinjuku performance culture.
Begin at Nakamuraya Salon Museum of Art, created inside the rebuilt Nakamuraya headquarters to preserve the legacy of Aizo and KokkΕ Soma's association with artists including sculptor Morie Ogiwara and the wider cultural circle that became known as the Nakamuraya Salon. Continue to Shinjuku Suehirotei, where rakugo and related yose arts preserve the close performer-audience relationship of traditional comic entertainment within Shinjuku Sanchome. Conclude at Kinokuniya Hall, opened in 1964 inside Kunio Maekawa's Kinokuniya Building and subsequently associated with generations of Japanese theater companies and playwrights. The progression moves from the Soma family's artistic patronage through traditional spoken performance into postwar drama, placing dinner at Kichiri Mollis within Shinjuku's unusually concentrated cultural history.
Where your story begins.
Foresyte Travel reveals places that feel extraordinary long before you arrive.
Experience premium editorial crafted for luxury travelers.
