Enjoy a special dinner of Seafood Doria! It‘s an impressive yet simple Japanese rice gratin dish loaded with clams, scallops, shrimp, or your choice of seafood over buttery rice and topped with melted cheese.

What’s your favorite comfort dish that comes to mind when the weather is cold outside? Growing up in Japan, one of those dishes for me was Seafood Doria (シーフードドリア).
What is Doria?
Some of you may not have heard of Doria before. Doria (ドリア) is a Japanese rice gratin dish with various ingredients on top. It’s one of the signature Yoshoku (洋食, a western-influenced Japanese dish) menus along with Hambagu, Omurice, and Napolitan spaghetti.

Typical Doria consists of steamed rice, covered with savory ingredients with sauce, and topped with melted cheese. The classic sauce is Bechamel sauce, also known as white sauce. This dish was invented in the 1930s by Swiss chef Saly Weil, the first master chef at Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, Japan.
I love Doria so much that I’ve shared non-white sauce variations of my Doria, Curry Doria, and Meat Doria recipes on my blog. Throughout the years, I received a lot of requests for the classic Seafood Doria recipe, so I am really excited to share the recipe and video tutorial with you today!

4 Components of Seafood Doria
1. Butter Rice
For Doria, you can use regular steamed rice to cut down on calories. However, I highly suggest making butter rice and indulging in the ultimate Seafood Doria experience. You can add garlic and make it garlic butter rice, or add chopped parsley and make parsley butter rice (2 of my favorite).
In today’s recipe, I sautéed onion and mushrooms with butter before adding cooked rice to the pan. It adds more flavors to the dish and it’s so delicious! Feel free to replace butter with olive oil for lighter calories.
2. Seafood & Toppings
This is where you can be creative with the dish and use your favorite choices of seafood. In today’s recipe, I put what you commonly see in Seafood Doria in Japan, shrimp, clams, scallops, and calamari. Feel free to add what you like! Mussels are a good choice too.
If you’re not a seafood fan, you can use chicken (however, beef or pork are not common for Doria) or try different vegetables of your choice.
3. Bechamel Sauce
The sauce I used is also known as white sauce. An equal part of butter and flour (by volume) are cooked together to make a roux, then heated milk is added to the roux and cooked to the right consistency.
It’s good to remember about 1 to 3 tablespoons of butter and flour per cup of milk, depending on the thickness of the sauce you desire. Today my recipe used a middle range of thickness: 2 Tbsp (butter) : 2 Tbsp (flour) : 1 cup (milk) ratio (but I doubled it).
In Japan, Bechamel sauce is used in many Yoshoku dishes, including White Stew (ホワイトシチュー), Cream Croquette (クリームコロッケ), creamy pasta, gratin and doria.
4. Cheese
For gratins and Dorias, I love using flavorful cheese like Gruyère, which is creamy but has a bit of salty taste to it. I sometimes add two types of cheese to add some complexity, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is always a good choice to add some accent.

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Seafood Doria
Video
Ingredients
- ½ Tbsp unsalted butter (for greasing the gratin dishes)
- 1 head broccoli
- ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt (for blanching)
- Gruyere cheese (for topping)
- 2 Tbsp panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) (for topping)
- Italian parsley (for garnish)
For the Butter Rice
- ½ onion
- 4 mushrooms (cremini or button)
- 1½ Tbsp unsalted butter (for salted butter, reduce the amount of salt you add while cooking)
- 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice (about 1 cup or 150 g per serving)
- ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the Seafood and Sauce
- 16 manila clams
- 24 baby scallops
- 12 large and jumbo shrimp
- 4 small calamari
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup white wine (or water)
For the Bechamel Sauce
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour)
- 2 cups warm milk
- freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup reserved seafood sauce (see the instructions below)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. For the cooked rice, please note that 1½ cups (300 g, 2 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 4⅓ cups (660 g) of cooked white rice, enough for 4 servings. See how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cooker, pot over the stove, Instant Pot, or donabe.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Grease the gratin dishes with ½ Tbsp unsalted butter.
- Using the tip of a sharp knife or hands, cut off the smaller stalks of 1 head broccoli from the larger central stalk to remove whole florets, rotating the head of broccoli as you go. Prepare a medium bowl of ice water.
- Bring a small saucepan of water to a rapid boil. Add ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Add the broccoli florets and cook until crisp-tender, 1 to 1½ minutes. Remove with a fine-mesh sieve and plunge immediately into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.
To Make the Butter Rice
- Chop ½ onion finely and cut 4 mushrooms into thin slices.
- In a large frying pan, heat 1½ Tbsp unsalted butter over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until tender.
- Add the mushrooms and sauté until tender. Then add 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice. Break up the big chunks of rice and combine well.
- Season with ⅛ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Divide the rice into 4 portions and transfer the rice to the individual gratin dishes. Cover with aluminum foil and keep warm.
To Make the Seafood Mix
- Clean 16 manila clams and 24 baby scallops, and peel and devein 12 large and jumbo shrimp. (For tips, see my posts on how to clean clams and devein shrimp.) Cut the bodies of 4 small calamari into rings. Finally, cut 2 cloves garlic into thin slices.
- In a large frying pan, heat 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and cook the sliced garlic on medium heat until fragrant. Then, add all the seafood to the pan.
- Stir fry to coat the seafood with oil. Add ½ cup white wine and cover with a lid. Cook until all the clams open up.
- Once all the clam shells are open (dispose of any unopened ones), season with freshly ground black pepper. Then, remove all the seafood to a plate/bowl and cover with aluminum foil. Set aside.
- Simmer the remaining seafood sauce in the frying pan until the sauce is reduced in half, roughly ¼ cup. Keep the sauce in a bowl or measuring cup.
To Make the Bechamel Sauce
- First, make a roux. In a large frying, heat 4 Tbsp unsalted butter on medium-low heat. Once melted, add 4 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour) to the pan.
- Blend the flour and butter until no more lumps. Keep stirring to avoid burning the roux.
- To the roux, gradually add 2 cups warm milk, a tiny bit at a time. Combine the roux and milk well, scraping the bottom of the pan, before adding more milk.
- Once blended well, season with freshly ground black pepper. Add ¼ cup reserved seafood sauce and keep stirring to combine with the béchamel sauce.
- Add 1 tsp soy sauce and mix well to combine. Keep stirring and cook on low heat until the desired consistency.
To Assemble and Broil
- When the sauce consistency thickens and you can draw a line on the bottom of the pan, add the seafood.
- Mix well and add the blanched broccoli.
- Pour the seafood mix and béchamel sauce on the butter rice in gratin dishes. Make sure each one gets all the different ingredients.
- Sprinkle with freshly grated Gruyere cheese and 2 Tbsp panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) for a crispy texture.
- Set the oven to broil (High) and preheat for 5 minutes. Put the gratin dishes in the oven and broil for 2–3 minutes until the cheese has melted and turned a golden color on top. Garnish with Italian parsley and serve warm.
To Store
- Keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for a month.
Could I use pasta (penne or macaroni) instead of rice? Should I cook the pasta according to package first?
Hi Pamela,
Yes, you can. If you use pasta, we recommend cooking 1 minute less than the package’s instruction, so you don’t get soggy pasta. (But it’s up to your preference.😉)
Thank you very much for trying this recipe!
Hi Nami. I love your recipes. I would like to make the strawberry shortcake. However, I noticed that the cake has no gelatin in it. If I pipe rosettes on top of the cake, won’t the whipping cream weep after a while and the rosettes lose their shape? How can I enable it to maintain its shape. Please advise.
Thank you
Hi Kathy, Are you making strawberry shortcake? https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-strawberry-shortcake/ The whipped cream will stay in shape if you whipped well until “stiff peaks”.😉
Thanks for your response. Yes, I am making Strawberry shortcake I am afraid that I might over whip it if I whip it until stiff peaks. How do I know that it has reached that stage? And how long will the whipped cream remain that way for without weeping?
Hi Kathy, When you hold the whipped cream on the whisk and hold it upside down, the whipped cream’s tips will stand straight up and hold their shape. If you see that, the whipped cream is at stiff peaks. It will hold the shape for about 2 days in the refrigerator. We hope this is helpful.
Hi Nami, is there an alternative we can use for white wine?
Hi Tati! You can use water to steam. 🙂
Hello! If I want to use white fish instead of mix seafood how should I cook the fish before adding it to the sauce? I was thinking of deep frying it in batter first. Any advice? Thanks.
Hi Grace! A white fish you are trying to use is flakey kind? I would also recommend battering lightly and fry it so the coating will protect the fish. And the fish must be added to the white sauce last so you don’t need to touch much. 🙂
Hi Nami,
Thank you the many fabulous recipes. I have been trying a couple of recipes and all have turned out well so far! I cooked the Doria tonight and it turned out pretty well. The seafood sauce was beautiful and I think it salvaged the white sauce that turned clumpy after I mixed the butter and flour. Didn’t know what happened. I didn’t use most of the clumpy white sauce, only used the liquid part and luckily it was alright. Does using salted butter affect the white sauce?
Hi Ling! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! Make sure to gradually add the milk to avoid clumps. Add a tiny bit and mix well before adding more milk. 🙂 No, salted butter means just additional salt in the butter and it should not affect. If the dish tastes too salty, then next time don’t add any salt until you check the taste of the dish toward the end as you already have added salt in the butter. 🙂
Hi Nami I am excited to try cooking seafood Doria. Do I use fresh cook rice or overnight rice ?
Hi Grace! Fresh cooked rice is fine (that’s what I always use) but sure, you can use leftover too (nothing is wrong with it). Rice doesn’t have to be separated like fried rice, so you don’t need to use a day old rice. 😉
Hi Nami, I a beginner to cooking. This dish looks yummy. Im just wondering what type of white wine do you recommend using on this dish? Thanks
Hi Nga! I used chardonnay. 🙂 Hope you enjoy this recipe!
Hi Nami,
I just made this last night for Valentine’s Day dinner and my husband and I both loved it! The seafood paired with the béchamel sauce omg! The flavors were so beautiful! I love seafood and this is going to be top on my list! Thank you so much for this recipe! Xoxo~
Hi YH! I’m so happy to hear you and your husband enjoyed this! Thanks so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback. 🙂 Don’t forget to try other doria recipes too! 😉
Made this today: yummy!!!
I took a frozen seafood mix instead of fresh, because I was lazy 😉
So it didn’t look as pretty as yours, but it was very tasty!
Thank you for another great recipe!
Hi Miya! Thanks for trying this recipe! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. 🙂
This looks incredibly delicious! However I am not allowed to consume white wine or other kinds of alcohol because of my religion. Is there any substitute for white wine?
Hi Naya! If you use enough seafood (at least same amount as this recipe), the cooking liquid should have enough flavors. Wine helps to evaporate unwanted smell from seafood and only keeps the good flavors. Since you can’t use it, use either water or broth (chicken or seafood broth) to increase the flavor. Hope this helps! 🙂
Hi Nami,
It’s another rainy here in London and this dish was perfect for dinner tonight. Typically, I’m not a fan of béchamel sauce and find it to be bland/uninteresting but this was definitely not! Seafood Doria will be going into regular rotation.
Thanks!
Hi Janice! AWESOME! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Yeah with all the juice from seafoods… it won’t be a typical bechamel sauce. 😀 Hope you’ll get nice weather soon! Thank you for your kind feedback! xo
I recently discovered your blog and let me just say thank you for doing this! My favorite cuisine of all time is Japanese, but unfortunately I can’t always go out and eat at restaurants since it gets expensive. My family cooks a lot of Italian and Polish food, which can be a little on the heavy side. I found a Japanese supply store near my house and have been making a lot of your recipes ever since. Each recipe is easy to make and very delicious (my favorites are vegetarian ramen, tomagoyaki and kitsune udon) I was just sick the other day and found your udon recipe, it truly did warm me up and feel better. I will definitely try this seafood doria next!
Hi Klara! Welcome to my blog! I’m so happy to hear that you are here and already tried many of my recipes! Hope you will like Seafood Doria! Thank you for trying my recipes! 🙂
I remember that you told me about this seafood doria and also the common variation of using Bechamel sauce a while ago. This looks very impressive and exciting to try out! I’ll be doing this for next week before I’m away for 5 weeks (without cooking much unfortunately, except for every Saturday) and I’ll let you know of the outcome 🙂
The only difference would be though the type of seafood I might use. I can’t really say that I have tasted any good clams or squid in the UK (probably because of the dish). I’ll see in my store what seafood variations they have available but at the moment I feel tempted using king prawns and salmon.
Hi Leo! Right, I do remember having the conversation. 🙂 Seafood is really optional and you can even use other proteins like chicken too. Prawns are used commonly and we say Ebi Doria (Prawn Doria). 🙂
Just wanted to get back to the Doria as I recently posted an image on Facebook of the outcome: Like the other two Doria’s I really loved it! The creamy texture of the Bechamel sauce, which I’m familiar with from my Spinach Rolls (only slightly differently), and the seafood (I did decide to use only Prawn for Ebi Doria at the time) had a delicious and harmonious taste to it, if I have to phrase it to a good word “musically” 😉
I have become a big fan of Doria thanks to you. I will think at this point what else for sauces could be made for a Doria, along with other food experiments I want to do. There is just not always enough time for everything though!
Best of luck and fun with making your first video with audio recording! In that post please let us know what audio recording equipment you used as I’m interested to hear about that! 🙂
Hi Leo! I’m so excited to hear that you enjoyed Ebi Doria! You can definitely play around with other ingredients.
So happy to hear you enjoy Doria recipes! The majority of the doria sauce is either white sauce or tomato base sauce. Anything sauce would work, but you have to put cheese on top, so the sauce should match with cheese. Here is doria images that you might enjoy… 😀
https://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%83%89%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQjbqP953LAhUT2GMKHRD3A8kQ_AUIBygB&biw=1502&bih=1082
I’ll link the equipment in the description box under the video on YouTube (if I forget, please remind me). 🙂
Thanks for the google link – I was already captured by seeing your Doria recipes, but seeing that many at once is nearly overwhelming! 😉 And thank you for the tip to Doria!
If this tastes as good as it looks….DIVINE!!!!! I would love to make this for my girlfriend’s birthday dinner….:)
Hi Lyn! Thank you so much! Hope your GF will enjoy this dish on her special day! 🙂
I’m so excited to see this recipe because I’ve been waiting for it ! It looks so scrumptious! I don’t have gratin dishes, though…I do have ramekins, but it’s probably smaller and have a higher side than your dishes. Or could I use a casserole pan instead of individual dishes?
Hi Plumeria! Aww thank you so much!! I’ve received a quite number of requests for this recipe, but I always have some other recipes that I want to share so it took me a while to publish this recipe. Thank you for waiting! Regarding the grain dishes, you can use a casserole pan (instead of ramekins). If you really enjoy doria and gratins, I personally love serving individual dishes. It’s best to eat from the hot gratin dish… 🙂
So beautiful dish! I´m looking forward to make a vegan “seafood” doria, here where we live in the northern cold weather, gratins are very common food, but I have to admit I don’t enjoy such dishes so much… It becomes too much of everything, it feels somehow too heavy… And I’m very suprised by the fact att even japanese kitchen has some cheese gratins, it seems a little bit unusual? I see japanese dishes more with sauces separately, and not so mixed before servin, is that right? As I understand, there are no gratins or cheese (melt cheese) dishes in the washoku kitchen?
Genus, you’re missing the whole Yoshoku dishes in Japan. We use lots of cheese (we call “melting cheese”) on many dishes, and gratins, dorias, pastas, pizzas… we definitely have those western style meals.
Google “yoshoku” or “洋食” and you’ll see lots of Japanese style western meals. Young generation eats more Yoshoku than Washoku. In recent years, we try to bring back washoku to our lives more. 🙂
So interesting! I thought, I have a lot to learn about the traditional japanese kitchen, but now I understand there is an other huge part of the japanese food culture! I see forward to learn more about it! I’m really courious about if there are some countries that have influenced the yoshoku kitchen more than other and also about the attitudes japanese people have to traditional va international cusine. Thank you for this introduction to yoshoku! Have a nice evening!
Mostly European like Dutch, Portugal, and British influence before WW2, then more American influence. In terms of foods, I believe we have more European influence than American influence. 🙂
Hi Nami,
This looks absolutely delicious!!! However, I couldn’t stop from laughing when I read that Gruyere is a mild cheese 🙂 Here in Switzerland it is one of the most stinky types of cheese! If you make a Doria with Swiss Gruyere I’m sure all you neighbours will smell it as well 🙂
Hi Alina! you have more various type of Gruyere (especially aged one!) there, but this one is pretty mild and not as stinky. But in general, it’s flavorful and maybe mild may not be a good word to describe. I already wrote “creamy” and maybe I”ll just stick with creamy. Mild implies that’s subtleness which is not good description for cheese, I think?
Yes thats exactly it! I have no idea what American Gruyere tastes like 🙂 Thanks for the explanation!