A note on the words: yakitori is chicken grilled on skewers over charcoal, and an omakase course means you leave the choice to the kitchen. Hatsumoto is the base of the heart, sasami the lean tender along the breast. Tsukune is a skewer of ground chicken. Paitan is the cloudy white chicken broth simmered until it emulsifies. Sansho is the Japanese pepper with a citrus note and a faint numbing tingle. Oyakodon — parent-and-child bowl — is chicken and egg simmered together in a sweet dashi called warishita and poured over rice. Annin tofu is the almond-scented dessert. Oni-oroshi is coarsely grated daikon, and shigure-ni means simmered in soy and ginger. Shochu is the Japanese distilled spirit, here drunk with soda. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Yakitori Mikado on AutoReserve (English) — opening hours, the Japanese address and online booking are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too. This is Hangover Meshi. This time, Shinjuku. The talk was of wanting yakitori, so I came to Yakitori Mikado. It is right by Shinjuku-sanchome station. Up to the ninth floor of a multi-tenant building by elevator. Step inside and, quite unlike the atmosphere on the way to the elevator, it is calm. I wanted to talk properly this time so I asked for a private room, and being the ninth floor, the view was rather good.
Mikado omakase course, 10,450 yen
Mikado anniversary course, 13,000 yen
This time I had settled on the omakase course. We sat down, ordered drinks and the course began.
Starting with a beer. A glass of beer here is 770 yen!
The first item is a terrine of fruit and vegetables.
I see — not exactly the appetizer you expect from a yakitori restaurant. The sauce is a balsamic cream.
The stylishness comes through, but it does leave you slightly at a loss.
Three small dishes. Pickles, oni-oroshi and chicken tendon simmered shigure-style, apparently.
The base of the heart, I take it. Well, a chicken only has one heart, so it is a rare cut.
Its character is a distinctive firm springiness, and with every bite the sweetness of the fat spreads slowly out. Little in the way of off-notes, and a rich savor that is nonetheless not heavy. Yes, good.
Roasted ginkgo nuts are lovely. I shall try them at home. A frying pan works, but apparently the oven is better.
Moist, juicy sasami, and delicious. I have heard that with sasami the trick is to thread the skewer so that the pieces run from small at one end to gradually larger, and that is exactly how it is done here.
A paitan soup in between.
Inside it is bursting with juice. The more you chew the more the chicken flavor comes out, and the salt is judged perfectly. The sweetness of the fat meets the scent of the charcoal, and for something so simple it stays with you. Around here I switched from beer to shochu with soda.
I had forgotten there was sansho on the table and tried it sprinkled on.
A slight shame that the sansho had lost some of its heat and aroma.
Oh, here is another thing that hardly says yakitori restaurant.
Sweet fruit tomato with chicken dashi jelly. It works better than you would think. Delicious.
Chicken liver is lovely. Cooked to the point and juicy with it.
So there are vegetable skewers as well. Soft, almost melting.
And that is the end of the skewers.
To finish you choose one dish from oyakodon, egg on rice, salt ramen or soy sauce ramen.
I hesitated, but it had been a while since I had oyakodon, so: oyakodon.
Well now, what a beautiful color to the egg.
Egg cooked to an exquisite point, soft and flowing, with a sweet, dashi-rich warishita against springy chicken — the match is almost too good.
Oyakodon is, among the donburi, one of the more popular ones, or rather one with real potential! I did not try the others, so I cannot say for certain, but choosing the oyakodon was the right call.
Last, annin tofu. Annin tofu with the texture of fresh cream.
I prefer it done this way. We saw it through properly, right to dessert.
The impression is of a yakitori restaurant where the styling wins out. I used it this time for talking at length, so perhaps that suited the concept. I enjoyed the stylish non-yakitori dishes, and the yakitori itself was good, so I am satisfied. If you order the course, I think the oyakodon is the one to pick. (Not that anyone asked.)
Yakitori Mikado (Yakitori / Shinjuku-sanchome Station, Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku-nishiguchi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
