A note on the words: yakitori is chicken grilled on skewers over charcoal, and tare is the sweet soy glaze the skewers are brushed with, as opposed to plain salt. Sasami is the lean, tender fillet that runs along the breastbone; hatsu is the heart. Shishito are small, mild green peppers. Sakura-niku, literally “cherry meat,” is the Japanese word for horse meat. Takikomi gohan is rice cooked in seasoned stock with its other ingredients already in the pot, rather than added afterwards. Amuse is the French kitchen’s word for the one-bite opener that arrives before the course proper.
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Shaji on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. The conversation turned to yakitori, and that reminded me of a place I had been meaning to get to for ages: Shaji in Azabu-juban. It is a yakitori bistro where the skewers and the cooking are built to go with wine, and the whole idea is yakitori crossed with French cooking and wine pairings. Every time I called, the story was the same, fully booked, so I had never managed to go. This time the reservation went through without a fight, which felt like luck (though it may just have been the slightly late start time).
The recommended everything-in course — 8,000 yen
[Special course] — lavish with caviar, foie gras and truffle — 13,000 yen
[Casual course] — a lighter meal — 5,000 yen
I went with the 8,000 yen recommended everything-in course, which looked like the best balance of the three. Looking forward to this.
So, straight in. White wine alongside, and the course begins.
Pate and pickles. Raisins and a lightly salted pate make a really good combination. It goes with the white, too.
The tartare. Very, very plain in a way I think I like.
Barely any salt at all, right on the line of whether it is seasoned. A dish where you taste the meat itself. Hmm. This place is good.
The sasami and the mustard go together enormously well.
Plump, juicy sasami, and the slight acidity and popping texture of the mustard seeds are a perfect match for it.
Skewers built for white wine, so ordering the white first may have been the right call!
The shishito is full of moisture too, and what is on it is balsamic sauce, I think. Also good.
Tender hatsu.
Hang on, was this not a yakitori place? That is how elegant the sauteed lobster is.
The French side of the kitchen is right out in the open here. Extremely smart, and delicious. The tail and the gentle sauce suit each other very well. And this is 8,000 yen. Good value, surely.
Around here I switched to red wine.
The skewer set for red wine, built around tare.
The liver is very smooth as well, with zero of the off smell. The sauce is probably red-wine based too. It goes with red wine beautifully.
The bamboo shoot is good too!
And last, the truffle takikomi rice. It costs extra, but they asked whether I wanted an egg with it, so I said yes.
Eat part of it, then turn the rest into truffle rice with raw egg over it, and it is very good, they said.
What a smell. The fierce scent of truffle rises and fills the whole seat at once.
They serve it into a bowl for you afterwards and bring it back, and by this point expectations are high.
Ohhhhh.
This is seriously good. That huge truffle aroma is still there, undiminished. The salt is judged well, though it may be a slightly sharp kind of salt. That may be exactly what this strong aroma needs. And now, in goes the egg.
It really was true that the extra roundness makes it better.
I wonder how much the addition cost. Add it, is my advice!
So: a shop where wine, French cooking and yakitori all turn up together. That truffle rice at the end really landed. The skewers are good, of course, but a place where you get refined French cooking alongside them, rather than skewers alone, is genuinely rare. No wonder it is busy. For 15,000 yen you can take the wine pairing plus the luxury course, so next time I will go for the pairing.
Shaji (Yakitori (Grilled chicken skewers) / Azabu-juban Station、Roppongi Station、Akabanebashi Station）
Tabelog dinner rating★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
