A note on the words: yakitori are bite-sized pieces of chicken threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over charcoal, ordered one skewer at a time and seasoned either with tare, a sweet soy glaze, or simply with salt. Sankaku — called bonjiri in Tokyo — is the fatty nub of tail meat. Ume is the salt-pickled Japanese plum, sharply sour rather than sweet, and shiso is the frilled green perilla leaf often paired with it. A highball is whisky and soda over ice, the standard izakaya drink. Izakaya means a Japanese pub, where you drink and order small plates as you go.
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Tori Sei Kyoto Tower Sando 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, when I took a taxi in Kyoto I asked the driver whether there was anywhere he’d recommend, and the place he told me about was Tori Sei. Cheap and good, a Kyoto chain, he said — and sure enough, when I looked it up there seem to be branches all over. The one closest to the hotel I was staying at this time was inside Kyoto Tower, so that’s where I went.
It was early evening on a weekday, so we got straight in — but even so, the place felt busy. Popular!
Chicken cartilage buried in scallions: 630 yen
Tori-kara Red: 680 yen
Yakitori: 260 yen
Chicken and scallion: 180 yen
Sankaku: 180 yen
Well, everything really is cheap. A highball is 500 yen.
The most popular item is going on the order no matter what, and beyond that I decided to just order as I went.
A highball first, for the toast.
The first thing I ordered was the chicken cartilage buried in scallions, which was labeled the number one seller.
Right, that’s good. It’s nothing more than perfectly ordinary grilled cartilage with a pile of scallions on it, but it’s exactly right as your “something to start with.” The cartilage is seasoned a little on the strong side, and against the freshness of the scallions it goes down very easily.
One skewer each of chicken-and-scallion and yakitori. Just the right amount of tare glaze on them, and good.
Yakitori really is best straight off the grill. This kind of yakitori, the kind that goes with drinking, is on a completely different axis from what an upmarket yakitori restaurant does, so you can’t compare them directly — but it’s good. And how well a highball goes with it.
The gizzard is good too! And the chicken with ume and shiso is lovely — that sour note is irresistible.
In Tokyo people tend to call this cut bonjiri. Here it’s sankaku, and straight off the grill it’s juicy and good.
It has to be salt, doesn’t it. And the skin is grilled properly crisp too — spot on.
So, I picked at a bit of yakitori and drank some highballs, and between the modest prices and how good the freshly grilled skewers were, I came away thinking this must be a great everyday place. I saw there was a Kyobashi branch and thought, wait, so there IS one in Tokyo! — but it turns out there’s a Kyobashi in Kansai as well… ^^; Anyway, for slipping in quickly, picking at yakitori and having a drink, I thought it was a good spot. And since Kyoto Tower is right by Kyoto Station, dropping in on the very day you arrive as a traveler might be a fine way to use it!
Tori Sei Kyoto Tower Sando (Izakaya / Kyoto Station, Shichijo Station, Gojo Station (Kyoto Municipal Subway))
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?
