Yakitori Kita

When one visits a sushi restaurant, the first thing to catch one’s eye is the smorgasbord of fish on display: the striking white-striped orange of salmon, the deep red of tuna akami, the cloudy white of bigfin reef squid. To find such a wide variety of fish in a sushi restaurant is to be expected. But to find the same variety of chicken in a yakitori restaurant? Almost unthinkable — unless, of course, you were at Yakitori Kita. This Ikejiri-Ohashi yakitori specialist doesn’t serve just one chicken, but multiple types, sourced from all over Japan. Head chef Yosuke Nakamura chooses only the finest for their skewers and a la carte dishes, ranging from Aomori’s Shamorock breed to the Ogon-Shamo from Nagano Prefecture, to even the famed free-range Kasumi duck from Ibaraki’s Nishizaki Farm. Each fowl has its own distinctive flavor and texture that makes it best suited for a particular dish, and Yakitori Kita invites guests to taste the differences for themselves. Most yakitori purists would argue that no yakitori experience is complete without a drink, and Yakitori Kita also has its visitors covered in that regard. Guests can choose from a huge variety of sake from Chef Nakamura’s personal collection, amassed from his travels to the corners of Japan. Have a glass of Daishinshu from Matsumoto, Kozaemon from Gifu, or Soumura from Yamagata. If you name it, Chef Nakamura probably has it — and he’s only too happy to share.