Yakitori — grilled chicken skewers — is one of Japan's great food pleasures: simple, smoky, deeply flavored. A yakitori-ya counter with cold beer and a skilled grill chef is a perfect Japan evening. Here's how to order like you know what you're doing.
Tare vs. Shio
Every yakitori is served one of two ways — ask when ordering, or the chef will ask you: Tare: Glazed with sweetened soy-sake sauce that caramelizes on the grill. The classic, more complex flavoring — accumulates depth over the evening as the chef continually bastes the sauce pot. Shio: Salt-seasoned, no glaze. The pure flavor of the chicken and smoke. Best for delicate cuts where you want to taste the meat itself. Many regulars order fatty cuts tare and delicate cuts shio.
Essential Cuts to Order
Negima: Chicken thigh alternating with Japanese leek (negi) — the iconic yakitori, sweet and juicy. Start here. Momo: Chicken thigh only — more meat, excellent. Kawa: Chicken skin — grilled slowly until extremely crispy, full of fat. A yakitori addict's favorite. Order tare. Tsukune: Hand-ground chicken meatball with cartilage mixed in for texture — often finished with raw egg yolk dipping sauce. Reba: Chicken liver — creamy inside, smoky outside. Must be slightly pink inside; properly cooked liver is NOT gray. Sunagimo: Gizzard — dense, chewy, satisfying. Order shio.
Non-Chicken Options
Good yakitori bars also grill: Shishito peppers (green peppers, occasionally hot) · Shiitake mushrooms · Asparagus bacon-maki (asparagus wrapped in pork belly) · Quail egg · Enoki mushroom bacon-maki
Drinking with Yakitori
Classic pairings: cold beer (draft lager — Sapporo, Kirin, Asahi), umeshu (plum wine, sweet) on ice, highball (Suntory whisky + soda), or cold nihonshu (sake). The slight sweetness of tare glaze pairs well with both beer and highball.
Yakitori Streets & Neighborhoods
Yurakucho Under the Tracks (Tokyo): Hundreds of yakitori bars in old Showa-era storefronts built under the elevated train tracks — the most atmospheric yakitori district in Japan. Evening crowds spill onto the street. Omoide Yokocho (Shinjuku): "Memory Lane" — tiny yakitori stalls from the 1950s, smoky and character-filled. Kyoto's Pontocho: Some of the best small yakitori bars in Japan, in the canal-side alley.