Toriki

First time trying omakase yakitori, it was really good! You can tell the chef is a master at his craft and everything is cooked perfectly and well seasoned! A little expensive but worth trying for the experience. Customer service is great, everything is explained in English. The restaurant has a nice vibe too!

An absolute delight and a great introductory restaurant to chicken sashimi made from jidori chicken.

A quaint and small restaurant in Sumida, just a short walk from Kinshi park. You'll notice the store right away from the small seat outside and the long thin vertical shutters that hide the front of the shop.

There's been a lot of talk about how the staff is unwelcoming or impatient, but I didn't get ANY of that when I visited.

We had a 5:30PM reservation, they greeted us in, we were the first to be seated, they had one intermediate English-speaking staff who advised us on the menu. We ate amazing food, enjoyed the ambiance, quietly discussed taisho's technique, thanked them for the meal, left cordially.

There's three dishes that I want to point out, the chicken sashimi, the soup, and the chochin skewer.

You would not even known that the chicken sashimi was raw unless you bite each bite in half and looked at the soft pinkness beneath. It just tasted like good clean chicken fat and flesh. The outside of each skewer piece is lightly cooked white and a tender bite is all it takes to rip through the dish.

The chochin skewer, which is not part of the dinner course and must be ordered ala carte, is a must-try while you're here. The bulbs of yolk just pop in your mouth and coats the chicken in yolky goodness. Don't think of your cheap discount eggs, these are yolks that ready to rat straight out of the shell. It's practically an oyakodon on a stick.

The chicken soup is a curse of sorts. It's just good clean chicken dashi, nothing more, but there's a clean and subtle flavor that just seeps through you. I've been going crazy trying to find something even remotely like it here in the states, but they just can't get it even 1% right. It was like I was drinking the soul of the chicken.

Now, excuse me as I monologue about Mad Magazine while staring broodingly out a window.

The set menu was amazing. Eight servings of chicken (thigh, gizzlet, quail egg, breast with wasabi, liver, chicken wing and chicken meatball) coupled with four vegetable dishes. Food, service, ambience and presentation were excellent. We got a front row seat to the head chef working his magic. He was very friendly and even explained each dish to us and the best way to eat it. The restaurant seats about 16 people including about 10 at the bar-style seating.

It was a very intimate atmosphere. Well worth the money, which was a bit on the pricier side but well worth the excellent experience.