焼き鳥
Grilled chicken skewers over binchotan charcoal, from ¥150 a stick to tasting-menu counters.
Yakitori is chicken grilled on skewers over white binchotan charcoal, and good shops use every part of the bird: thigh, skin, cartilage, heart, liver, tail. Street-level yakitori under the train tracks costs ¥150 a skewer; the top Tabelog-ranked counters serve omakase courses of fifteen skewers with wine pairings for ¥10,000. Both are worth doing.
Tokyo yakitori spans the smoky stalls of Omoide Yokocho and the alleys under the Yurakucho tracks to omakase counters in Meguro and Nakameguro with months-long waiting lists. The Tabelog Hyakumeiten for yakitori is Tokyo-heavy and a reliable shortlist for the counters..
Shinjuku · Yurakucho · Nakameguro · Meguro · Ebisu
Fukuoka has more yakitori shops per person than any Japanese city and its own style: pork belly (butabara) skewers alongside chicken, served with a free vinegared cabbage salad. The dense clusters are in Tenjin, Daimyo and around Hakata station, and the best are under ¥3,000 a head..
Tenjin · Daimyo · Hakata · Yakuin
Nagoya's chicken dish is tebasaki, wings fried and glazed in a sweet, peppery sauce, eaten by the plate in Sakae izakaya with beer. The two rival originators are both in Sakae.
Sakae · Nagoya Station · Kanayama
Five Shinjuku hideaway restaurants in back alleys and basements: ¥200 yakitori, clam-broth ramen, a ¥1,280 tendon lunch, aged sushi and weekend-only coffee.
Choose shio (salt) or tare (sweet soy glaze) per skewer. Momo (thigh), negima (thigh and leek), tsukune (meatball) and kawa (skin) are the classics; reba (liver) and hatsu (heart) are the reason regulars come back. Order a few skewers at a time with a beer or highball.
Skewer names are short and consistent across Japan, so a quick glance at a list of ten words covers almost any menu.
A yakitori shop at 3.5 is sourcing named-breed chicken and grilling over charcoal. 3.7 and up are the famous counters with waiting lists.
Choose shio (salt) or tare (sweet soy glaze) per skewer. Momo (thigh), negima (thigh and leek), tsukune (meatball) and kawa (skin) are the classics; reba (liver) and hatsu (heart) are the reason regulars come back. Order a few skewers at a time with a beer or highball.
Lunch: Rarely open at lunch. Dinner: ¥2,500 to ¥5,000 casual, ¥8,000 to ¥15,000 for omakase counters.
A yakitori shop at 3.5 is sourcing named-breed chicken and grilling over charcoal. 3.7 and up are the famous counters with waiting lists.
Omakase yakitori counters require reservations. Casual places are walk-in, though the good ones fill by 19:00.
Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagoya each have a dedicated page. Tokyo: Tokyo yakitori spans the smoky stalls of Omoide Yokocho and the alleys under the Yurakucho tracks to omakase counters in Meguro and Nakameguro with months-long waiting lists.
Open TabeDog, pick yakitori, and see Tabelog's top-rated shops around you with hours, prices and payment methods in English.
Find yakitori on the map