Yakitori Matsuoka

A quick look through the dozens of five-star reviews for Yakitori Matsuoka on various review sites will reveal something quite unusual: almost every review is personally replied to by the head chef, typically in flawless English. It’s no big deal to Yakitori Matsuoka’s head chef, Hiroki Matsuoka — he did, after all, spend four years working abroad in Canada, New Zealand and Australia in various positions, from a farmhand to a waiter in a steak restaurant, before returning to Japan to train in a Michelin-starred yakitori restaurant. It was a number of positive experiences with foreigners during his time overseas that convinced him that mastery of not just culinary arts, but also English, would be the key to opening many doors in future. Sure enough, his Osaka restaurant draws healthy crowds not simply for having excellent English-speaking service, or for its proximity to the majestic Osaka Castle, but because the proof is in the poultry: Matsuoka simply puts out some of the most delicious chicken skewers in central Osaka. In the same vein of kuroge wagyu beef and kurobuta pork, kuro-o jidori chicken is the third of Kagoshima’s famed meat products, and it is this chicken that is used exclusively in Matsuoka’s kitchen. While other jidori chicken are typically raised for between 80 to 100 days, kuro-o chicken are carefully raised for up to 150 days in a free-range environment, with clean water and air that gives the meat unparalleled flavor and texture. This is compounded by Matsuoka’s exclusive use of top-quality Kishu-binchotan white charcoal to grill the chicken, infusing the meat with a wonderfully smoky taste that fills the mouth when bitten into. With each bird being so painstakingly raised, Chef Matsuoka ensures that no part of the chicken goes to waste. Not that he has to worry about wastage, though — every dish on the menu is in supremely high demand, especially the chicken heart, of which there is only one per bird. Chef Matsuoka’s personally-assembled collection of ultra-rare whiskies and sake draws as many guests as his food does. He is particularly proud of his Juyondai, an ultra-rare sake from Niigata Prefecture, known colloquially as a “phantom sake” for its difficulty to procure. But Juyondai aside, guests can look forward to other rare sake varieties like Isojiman and Nabeshima, as well as elusive Japanese whiskies like vintage Hakushu, Yamazaki, and even Taketsuru.