A “nuisance” on the verge of being discarded becomes an exquisite product! Seafood Rare Cuts”, a great turnaround by a young entrepreneur from a “fisheries family”.

It has been a long time since people started eating fish, but a “seafood rare cutlet” that has appeared in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, is now attracting attention. This new gourmet dish has a crispy outside and a rare, sashimi-like texture inside. The dish makes active use of unused fish, such as “candle mackerel,” which is out of standard. What is the next-generation “sustainable x gourmet” strategy that has transformed a “nuisance of the sea” into a specialty menu item?　Osaka-based gourmet journalist Shigeru Nekota reports.

Do you eat fish?　I am from Hokkaido, so I love salmon, hokke and herring. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, annual per capita consumption of fish and shellfish has dropped from 40 kg in 2001 to 23 kg in 2010, almost halving in 20 years. The vicious cycle of not eating fish = not catching fish = fewer fishermen = less and less fish, leading to the decline of fish as a culinary culture and the decline in the vitality of the local economy.

In the midst of all this, a new restaurant opened in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, a sacred place for inbound travelers, serving mainly “seafood rare cuts”. There is no meat on the menu. It is a restaurant that takes on the challenge of serving all seafood, including “tuna cutlets,” “salmon cutlets,” and “sea bream cutlets. Moreover, it is not just a seafood cutlet, but a “rare cutlet. What does this mean?

Unused fish is transformed into an exquisite cutlet.

The company is operated by “Benners,” a fisheries startup headquartered in Fukuoka. The company is characterized by the fact that it is not just a wholesaler of seafood, but has its own in-house seafood processing function and handles everything from purchasing to processing and sales.

The president of the company, Takeshi Iguchi, spent his high school and college years in the U.S. His father and grandparents were in the fishing industry, and he had doubts about the existence of many “fish that tasted good but could not be sold” in the distribution field.

He says, “Fish that are not of the right size, or not oily enough, are not sold for the right price and are discarded. I wondered if I could add value to these ‘market nuisances,’ so to speak.

Mr. Iguchi, who majored in business administration at university (I didn’t know such a thing existed!) ), Mr. Iguchi launched the seafood processing and wholesaling company “Benners” in 2006. In 2009, he launched a home delivery service of pre-cooked fish dishes called “Fishle! a pre-cooked fish delivery service, in 2009, and in 2012, opened Genkai-don, a seafood bowl specialty restaurant in Kyoto. The company aimed to increase fish consumption through a simple attempt to “increase opportunities to eat fish.

Better than raw!　Medium rare cutlet

Kaisendon is a killer content, but some overseas customers do not like raw food. Since Japanese pork cutlets are rapidly gaining popularity among inbound customers, “Kaisen Rare Katsu” was created with the idea of making cutlets using fish instead of meat. The existing “Genkai-don” Shinsaibashi branch was swapped out for the main axis of rare cuts and relaunched in March ’26.

The signature “Tuna Nakatoro” rare cutlet is deep-fried medium fatty tuna that is fresh enough to be served as sashimi. To be honest, I thought, “Why not just eat it raw? but when I tasted it, I found a new texture. I wondered how they do this technical cooking, deep frying the fish so that it is not completely cooked through.

According to the manager, Mr. Kondo, “We adjusted the frying time in five-second increments to account for the fact that the fish would be cooked by the residual heat. The rule of “touching the fish only after the order is placed” is also strictly enforced; the fish is coated with egg wash and bread crumbs after the order is placed, and deep-fried while it is still fresh.

What surprised me was the beauty of the oil. Every morning, we use an oxidation checker to measure the level of oxidation of the oil, and if it is below the standard, we replace all the oil,” he says. He uses a 1:1 ratio of white strained oil and palm oil to keep the oil crispy and not heavy aftertaste.

Overflowing with salmon roe!　Salmon cutlet

The salmon cutlet is also fried at a different time than the tuna so that the inside is a beautiful orange color. Since the inside is rare, you can also enjoy the fresh aroma and chewy texture of sashimi.

The amazing thing is that the salmon roe is spread all over the sea of tartar sauce!　That’s a lot of salmon roe in this day and age. And since the salmon cutlet set meal is priced at 1,500 yen, I fear that the salmon roe alone will exceed that price.

The Shock of the Troublesome Mackerel x Cheese

Another dish I must mention is the fried mackerel cheese. This dish is made from unused fish called “candle mackerel,” which is too small to be sold in the market.

The mackerel, which is difficult to handle due to its inconsistent quality, has a richer flavor when fried with cheese. It is a strategy of “adding a different oil to a less oily fish. The fried cheese is crispy and crunchy, and brings out a new aspect of rare cuts.

The rare katsu genre is still a rarity, but there are signs that this new direction for the dish is likely to spread as a specialty not only in Osaka, but in Japan as well. Over the next two to three years, the company plans to open several restaurants in Osaka and about 10 nationwide, and they also expect to expand overseas. A rookie, isn’t it? I thought I would buy some stock!

Click here for the official website of Seafood Rare Cuts Genkai Shinsaibashi Branch