A note on the words: yakiton is grilled pork offal on skewers, the cheap-and-cheerful backbone of Tokyo drinking. Nikomi is offal simmered slowly in miso; the dote version is the sweeter, Nagoya-leaning style. Oden is a pot of things — egg, daikon, hanpen, a light fish cake — kept warm in a clear dashi broth. Yuzu kosho is a hot paste of chili, salt and yuzu peel; karashi is the sharp yellow Japanese mustard. Gari is the sweet pickled ginger served with sushi, and a gari sour is shochu, a distilled spirit, mixed with it. Aosa is a fine green seaweed. Motsu simply means offal. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Miroku, Azabu-juban 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. Azabu-juban is famously a fashionable part of town, but when you want a quick drink, surely what everybody actually wants is yakiton. And so, no exception here, off to Miroku for a swift one. I looked in and by luck the table at the back was free.
Right — let us build this around the grilled offal and order whatever we feel like, one after another!
First, sipping a lemon sour while eating the vinegared offal.
The truth is that yesterday was a heavy drinking session, so this is hair of the dog. Well, at this time of year it cannot be helped. The sourness of the lemon sour bites its way through my stomach. I need the nikomi to bring me back to life as soon as possible.
Dote-nikomi. It is what Miroku is known for! They asked whether I wanted a simmered egg and garlic toast with it, but since we were having egg in the oden, I took it plain. What is good about the Azabu-juban branch of Miroku is that they divide everything up per person before it comes out. This too arrived split into small bowls, one each. Much appreciated! As for the taste, it is a very sweet nikomi. The sweetness comes through ahead of the salt. It is probably pitched for eating on garlic toast. I think I would prefer it a little saltier.
Liver first. This is the good one. Liver with firm, clean edges to it.
It goes perfectly with the mustard. You have to eat liver regularly and top up your iron!
Thick, springy tongue. The savor spreads with the juices — delicious. And the mustard: I am going to run out!
This too came out portioned one by one. Lovely!
With the gentle dashi of the oden and the daikon soaked full of it, I feel the damage from yesterday finally starting to ease.
Deep-fried offal, crisp outside and soft within. The more you chew the more the offal comes through, which makes it just right with a drink.
Around here I switched to a gari sour.
This spring onion and cartilage skewer is the good one. Crunchy cartilage wrapped around spring onion. The bite of the cartilage against the softness of the onion inside. Salt scattered on nicely, meeting the sweetness of the onion — extremely good.
The gari sour was so good that I ordered it over and over and finished off their supply. Sold out, they told me!
Still wanting something with pickled ginger in it, I ordered the pork belly rolled around gari. The staff may well have wondered how much pickled ginger one person can want, but the pork belly and ginger roll is another seriously good one and you should absolutely order it!
Last, the clam and aosa seaweed soup.
The gari sour was finished as well, so I settled my stomach with this and stopped. Thoroughly satisfying!
You can drink here even hungover. That is Miroku, a yakiton place. Having oden was a real strength. In winter there is more to enjoy than the grilled offal alone, so it comes highly recommended. I did not order it this time, but they seem to have motsu hotpot as well, so perhaps next time. It does no harm at all to remember that Miroku is in Azabu-juban!
Miroku, Azabu-juban (Izakaya / Azabu-juban Station, Akabanebashi Station, Roppongi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
