A note on the words: yakitori is chicken grilled on skewers, and otoshi is the small appetizer you are charged for on arrival — it is the cover charge, not a scam. Chawanmushi is a savory egg custard steamed in a cup. Shoniku is the plain thigh meat of the bird with the trimmings taken off; jun-reba is a shop’s name for liver served on its own. Yagen nankotsu is the arrowhead-shaped cartilage from the tip of the breastbone, eaten for its crunch, and sasami is the lean tenderloin strip beside the breast. Kujo negi is a thick green onion of the Kyoto region. Karaage is chicken marinated, floured and deep-fried. Kaki-pi is the Japanese bar snack of chili-glazed rice crackers mixed with peanuts. Sansho is the tingly Japanese pepper, blended here with dried chili.
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Tori Kichi on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. So, my errand wrapped up a little early, which meant it was time to go and have a drink — off to Ogikubo Station! I wondered whether anywhere in Ogikubo lets you start drinking around four in the afternoon, went looking, and there seem to be several. This time I set my sights on Tori Kichi among them and headed out the west exit. I ambled over to the shop, and they told me I could have a seat as long as I was done by six. Lucky! I decided on a quick meal and took them up on it.
Apparently they use chicken that was slaughtered that morning, within 24 hours. Seriously fresh.
Limited: grilled thigh skewer, “shoniku” — 390 yen
Grilled “jun-reba” liver — 760 yen
Chicken and daikon — 590 yen
Liver pâté — 590 yen
An enormous menu, and it all looks good. It was my first visit, and in the opening explanation they said the items boxed off at the top right are the limited ones: the grilled thigh skewer, shoniku, is one per person; the grilled jun-reba liver is one per table; and the chicken and daikon works much the same way. So I decided to order more or less as the mood took me, centered on the limited items.
The standard draft beer!
It’s been getting muggier by the day, and beer season has properly arrived!
An otoshi like a light, refreshing chawanmushi. The chicken broth in it comes through nicely.
The yakitori here isn’t cut up, you know. It’s one whole piece of meat with a single skewer run through it.
Unusual, isn’t it. That said, meat does taste better cooked in one block. Thinking uncut had to be the better way, I took a big bite. Yep, that’s good! Juicy. Maybe because it isn’t cut. Very tender and very juicy. The skin side is crisp, exactly the right balance. If they didn’t limit it to one, I’d just keep ordering these forever.
Hang on — did I order French by mistake? That’s the sort of plate this is.
Chunky pieces of liver in a wine-based sauce, with brightly colored vegetables set beside them, sansho-and-chili powder on the left and wasabi at the top left. The liver is soft and yielding, full of savor, delicious. This is one you absolutely should order.
And then the chicken shop’s karaage, whose secret ingredient is said to be kaki-pi. They’re big chunky pieces, and if you look closely you can see what look like fragments of kaki-pi in there. Take a bite and the juices come flooding out of the chicken, while the crunchy kaki-pi coating on the outside is so good!
Something struck me here — what is it? Maybe it’s because it comes heaped on a plate. 390 yen for this feels cheap to me.
These are far more impressive pieces of yagen nankotsu than you’d get on a skewer. That crunchy, snapping texture is irresistible. I’ve always been in the camp that says it tastes best charred a little over an open flame, but served this way it still gets the yagen-nankotsu quality across properly. Good.
So one thing led to another and I ended up staying a solid two hours, but every dish was delicious, and above all the plating is so careful. Maybe that’s why, but when you look at the prices they feel very cheap. Careful, delicious, cheap, and open for early-evening drinking — that’s about as good as a place gets. Next time I want to start drinking in the early evening around Ogikubo, this is where I’ll head!
Tori Kichi (Yakitori / Ogikubo 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?
