Toritama, Yakitori – Shirokane

Excellent and very popular Yakitori restauarant in Shirokane on the main road from Hiroo to Meguro. The restaurant is all wooden and all counter seating with about 20 seats. One point to note is that smoking is still allowed in some Japanese restaurants with no segragation between smokers and non-smokers. This is one such restaurant and it can get quite smoky at times with both the chargrill cooking and cigarette smoke.

Saying that, the food is excellent. Yaki-tori (grilled-chicken) is skewered pieces of chicken chargrilled over hot coals.  Toritama is proud of the extensive choice of chicken parts served with almost all parts of the chicken listed on the menu, a good challenge for an adventurous food eater. Everything is edible from the liver, heart and kidney to the more exotic neck, tail, gristle, diaphragm and ovaries. There are also the more standard chicken parts like breast, thigh and chicken wings. The chickens are fresh daily, delivered from different regions within Japan, with the regional specials written up on a daily blackboard. The choice of cooking is usually salt or soy sauce and I would recommend salt for most skewers to appreciate the full flavour of the chicken meat. The breast meat is served with wasabi and grilled semi-rare, called sasami. If you prefer not to eat raw food then it is best to order chicken thigh which comes with grilled leek slices (negima). One of my favourites at Yakitori restaurants is tebasaki (chicken wings). Also every Yakitori has their own Tsukune (chicken meat balls) skewer and it is said that you can tell the quality of the restaurant by their Tsukune. Tsukune can be eaten plain or served with a raw egg as dipping sauce.

Chicken is the main theme of the restaurant and you can order skewers individually, one skewer per person, not usually shared. There are also additional side dishes from salads (green/ potato/ tomato) to grilled vegetables (shitake/ asparagus/leek), as well as other skewers such as tomato wrapped bacon, quail eggs and small rice and noodle dishes at the end of the meal.

There is a large selection of Shochu (Japanese alcohol made of distilled barley, sweet potato or rice, most similar to Vodka). Potato Shochu has a strong smell and all Shochu has a strong alcohol content approx 25-35%. Shochu can be drunk straight, on the rocks or is often mixed with water, soda, oolong tea or fruit juice.  If you are not a fan of Shochu (which would include myself) there is also a good selection of Sake (Nihon-shu).

The restaurant is very popular and can get busy so bookings are essential. Dinner for 2 including drinks approx JPY 12,000-15,000 total. Japanese menu only. 

Open Monday – Saturday, 5:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Toritama, 6-22-19 Shirokane, Minato-ku, tel. +81 (0) 3 5795 2950

Read more: CNNGo’s Best Eats Tokyo: Tokyo’s best yakitori #2 | CNNGo.com