A note on the words: tebasaki are chicken wings, and maboroshi means phantom or elusive — it is the product name for this chain’s signature peppered wings. Kushikatsu are small skewered cutlets, breaded and deep-fried; the Nagoya version is eaten with a sweet-savory sauce built on hatcho miso, a dark soybean miso from Aichi. Waraji katsu means a cutlet the size and shape of a straw sandal. Torikizoku and Yabaton, both mentioned in passing, are a nationwide cheap yakitori chain and a famous Nagoya miso-katsu restaurant. Ameyoko is the open-air market street that runs under the railway in Ueno. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Sekai no Yamachan, Ueno Ameyoko on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too. This is Hangover Meshi. Sekai no Yamachan is one of those chains that needs no introduction. Famous for chicken wings. That much I know. What I had never done, though, is actually go to one! I do not think there was ever one near me. I went to plenty of cheap izakaya — Ikkyu and the like — but somehow our paths never crossed.
Talking about that, we decided we should just go. And there it was, on a side street off Ameyoko in Ueno.
I went in slightly nervous about what a Yamachan would be like, and it is the same as any ordinary izakaya, the sort of thing a Torikizoku is. Cleaner than I expected, if you will forgive me for saying so.
Right, look at the menu and the first thing is the wings. Well, obviously.
It says the maboroshi no tebasaki are dusted with a phantom pepper. Kentucky-style, apparently: a recipe only the founder’s family knows. Which is to say they are phantom wings because they have phantom pepper on them. So the pepper was the point all along.
You can choose no pepper, light, standard or heavy. Well, it is the core of what Yamachan is. Let us go heavy.
Right. First things first.
Is that about fifteen wings?
Going heavy means a serious amount of pepper. They are practically black!
So, let us eat. Snap one apart and in.
Oh! That is good!
Yes, this is delicious. Ordering heavy makes it quite hot. From the pepper.
But that heat is exactly right! The beer goes down. I see, I see, this is good.
Around 120 yen a wing, then. That is a fine thing to drink with, is it not? Like the grilled chicken skin skewers in Fukuoka, it has that feeling of being endlessly eatable. Extremely good. I regret never having come this way before!
This is two servings, I think? Two skewers at 330 yen, times two.
The plan had been to taste the wings and leave straight away, but if we are doing Nagoya food then a little miso katsu would be nice too. I thought that if it were one of those huge waraji cutlets like the ones at Yabaton I would never manage it, but these small skewered cutlets I can eat. I am glad they keep it light! And eating it, the miso on a Nagoya miso katsu is as good as ever.
A sweet-savory sauce built on hatcho miso! Right, thoroughly enjoyed. Satisfied!
So, two or three beers, the wings and the miso kushikatsu, and out again quickly. But the maboroshi no tebasaki really were excellent. This looks like it would work well for an ordinary big group drinking party, too! Torikizoku is great, but wings are a good angle as well. And it does not feel especially high in calories either (or is it, actually?). There was plenty of other Nagoya food on the menu, so I shall go back and try it another time.
Sekai no Yamachan, Ueno Ameyoko (Izakaya / Ueno-okachimachi Station, Ueno-hirokoji Station, Okachimachi Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
