Yakitori is a type of Japanese cuisine (and restaurant) serving chicken skewers. Sounds trivial? It is not… Yakitori is no-holds-barred: in a real Japanese yakitori you will be served parts of the chicken you have never heard about. Breaking down a chicken to get those parts and preparing them for the grill requires some artistry. Additionally, cooking is not a trivial matter either: yakitori is grilled over charcoal fire and a skilled chef knows how to achieve the best results by varying the level of the heat depending on the type of skewer.
For this culinary adventure I patronized Kitahama Yakitori Ueda in Osaka. I selected this specific venue as it was part of handful venues recommended by the local Michelin Guide (Ueda is a Bib Gourmand, that indicates excellent value in addition to quality of the food offering). As I do not speak Japanese, it was not an easy feat. My first attempt in the summer 2017 failed miserably (they seemed to be fully booked when I showed up). Next time – end of June 2018 – I enlisted the help of a local guide, found through the amazing service of the Osaka good-will guides association (a service pairing visitors with locals willing to act as tour guides at no charge). They do not usually help in restaurant bookings, but I convinced my guide to have a tour in central Osaka and then to go together to this yakitori (I picked up, joyfully, the tab for both).
The visit
I and my guide arrived at around 6pm when the restaurant had just opened. At that time we could see office workers swarming around us rushing to the nearest metro station. Yakitori Ueda is located in the basement of an office building in one of Osaka commercial districts. It is easy to miss, since the entrance is not on the main road, but it is located on a side of the building. Having someone willing to translate made the visit perfect as I could get a lot of details about the food that I would have otherwise missed.
We chose the set menu including 8 skewers and we added a couple of items. What follows is a description of what we got.
The mandatory starter was a small portion of chicken liver pâté. Nothing special, sweet flavor; the pâté resembled a portion of crème brûlée.
Before beginning with the skewers, we got some raw chicken tight with fermented seaweed. This dish was not 100% real chicken sashimi, since it was a bit seared. Having overcome the fear of essentially raw chicken meat, I truly enjoyed the dish. The restaurant, by the way, has a special focus on chicken sashimi. A couple sitting at the counter next to me had a mountain of completely raw chicken. The menu suggested to eat raw chicken within 20 minutes of serving (to avoid contamination) and declined any responsibility in case of sickness.
The other dish we ordered apart from the skewers was chicken skin in ponzu sauce. The skin was soft, not crispy and amalgamated very well with the flavor of the sauce.
The first skewer was made of shirako. Shirako indicates the sperm sac of an animal (it is usually used for fish). Yes, I ate the sperm sac of a bunch of chickens. Actually it was delicious: once you bite and break the skin, the interior seems like melted cheese.
The second skewer involved three pieces of chicken stomach. The chicken is an incredible animal, it does not have any teeth, but part of the stomach actively grinds grains and fiber in smaller particles (this is my source). This part is called gizzard, while the part used for storage is called proventriculus. We got some gizzard. This meat is gummy (probably consequence of its muscular nature); I had tried it elsewhere and I had not liked it. Not this time. The meat had great flavor, like a herb sausage, and I did not mind the texture.
This was a piece of ‘furisode’. According to this source, the “term is used to refer to the shoulder meat of the chicken, which is the intermediate portion of the chicken between the breast and the wing”. It came with some sauce made of fermented beans and miso. A very tasty piece.
The fourth skewer presented a meaty piece of chicken tight cooked medium raw and dipped in vinegar. This was a very juicy bite.
Now that we were midway through our eight dishes, we were offered an “intermission”: some vegetables with miso dipping sauce. Nice to clean the palate.
The fifth skewer was made of a piece of neck. Again a different flavor! This time the meat was tender, a bit chewy and with a hint of flavor coming from fat.
The sixth skewer consisted in a piece of the bum of the chicken. This was a more plain flavor in my opinion.
The seventh skewer was the classic chicken meatball. Apparently every serious yakitori restaurant has its own recipe for this kind of meatball. In this case, it was different from any other skewered chicken meatball I had experienced. What made the difference was the presence of some herbs and some raw meat inside.
The last dish seemed trivial after all of these exotic parts… chicken wings with a speck of lime. The meat was pinkish, revealing a medium raw cooking and the skin soft.
What an incredible meal! Every skewer had its own unique flavor and every bite delivered intense ad superb taste. Certainly the quality of the meat (the chicken are sourced from the nearby Nara) had a part, but the artful cooking was what made the difference in bringing out the flavor in each skewer.
The check
I do not have a picture of the check, but the set menu for two, two additional dishes and a couple of drinks totaled around 12000 yen (around 54 USD per person). Given the quality of the experience, I find it hardly expensive. Sure, you can have a similar number of skewers for half this price if not less, but you will not come even close to this quality in the cooking and in the preparation of the meat. All in all, I was very happy to score this restaurant and I would recommend anyone to try a serious yakitori while in Japan.
Where in Osaka:
2-6-6 Kitahama, Chuo-ku | Crystal Tower B1F, Chuo, Osaka 541-0041
Address in Japanese: 〒541-0041 大阪府大阪市中央区北浜2-6-6 クリスタルタワーB1
Note: menu was only available in Japanese and staff only spoke Japanese. Reservation possible via phone (06-6205-8855). If you do not speak Japanese I strongly encourage you to find a local willing to come with you.
Read this article to learn more about yakitori.