Yakitori Kitchen

Yakitori Kitchen is a new restaurant located at Burgos Circle, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.  Their concept is so unique that I kept raving about it to my friends after trying it out.  In fact, I liked it too much that I’m finding it hard to start this blog post.

Where do I begin? Obviously, Yakitori Kitchen is a Japanese restaurant; the latest offering from a restaurateur who has been opening solely Japanese-themed places. Ramen Bar was his first venture and it was a great success. So it must be pretty understandable that I approached Yakoti Kitchen with high expectations.

The term yakitori comes from 2 root words: Yaki (grilled) and Tori (chicken).  Japanese usually hang out at Yakitori places to drink sake.  The grilled chicken which are usually skewered serves as their snack (‘pulutan’ in tagalog).

If you don’t like chicken, you don’t have to worry as Yakitori Kitchen also serves a lot more skewered food.  And I must say, I liked most of the ones we tried out during our visit last month.  I was actually surprised when I saw the prices in the menu because I thought they would be expensive.

The skewered food items available in Yakitori Kitchen are either cooked with salt (Shio) or with tare (a grilling sauce made from chicken bones, mirin, sake & soy sauce).  The meat used are of export quality.

Without further ado, let me share with you the dishes that our group tried out.  Believe it or not, we had so much food that I almost couldn’t breathe anymore.  It’s quite ironic considering the food that we ate looked light but boy, it definitely filled up my stomach space and more, hahaha!

Appetizer

Present in any Japanese restaurant is my all-time favorite Japanese snack! 😀

• Edamame (Php 120)

Edamame is a vegetable that is boiled green soybeans.  We eat just the beans by popping it out from its pod.  Sooo good!  I’ll never get tired eating this Japanese snack!

Yakitori Chicken & Specials

Before I start with my long list of Yakitori dishes that we savored, let me share first the two condiments we can use with it.  The seven spices (left on photo below) gave a great kick to the overall taste of the grilled dish while the pink salt (right on photo below) gave a distinct salty taste.  We all enjoyed adding seven spices to the skewered dishes but it’ll depend on your taste.  In all honesty, even without those two, the yakitori will taste good as they are cooked with flavorful ingredients already.  We are just given an option to add more spice to the already well-cooked dishes.

Each order has two sticks of Yakitori goodness.  Ohhh la la!  I somehow felt that I don’t need to describe each food item one by one as the pictures speak for themselves.  I have to apologize though because my photography skills failed me that night.  So don’t get fooled, do try out Yakitori Kitchen!  I get restaurant suggestion requests each time as you, my friends, want to try out something new.  Well, here’s my newest discovery and a unique one at that!

• Uzura (Php 95)/Asubei (Php 140)

Uzura is quail eggs.  I remember when I was still in college, I would eat like 5 pieces of it each day.  I was warned by friends that I have to stop doing that as a routine since quail eggs contain lots of cholesterol.  I followed their advice but eating quail eggs doesn’t hurt every now and then.  So it was quite a good reunion for me and my old favorite quail eggs at Yakitori Kitchen:P

Asubei is asparagus wrapped in bacon.  I usually get this over and over when I dine at a restaurant that serves Japanese buffet.  Vegetable and bacon is such a good combination right?  Who dare say that healthy and sinful food can’t mix well?

• Corn (Php 85)

As much as I love corn, I wasn’t able to try out this one.  I guess I was too shy to bite into it as I might have corn all over my teeth hahaha!  But grilled corn especially with Shio (salt), do we even have to judge its taste?  It should be good!

• Kamaboko (Php 95)/Shishito (Php 60)

The crab cake (kamaboko) was my ultimate favorite among all the food that we had in Yakitori Kitchen.  It was so tasty!  I loved how the sauce was absorbed by the crab cake during the grilling process.  First time I have tasted crab cake grilled (I usually had it fried) and it was an ultimate success!  I highly recommend this dish.  Do not miss ordering Kamaboko at Yakitori Kitchen! 🙂

Green pepper (shishito) was a great buffer with all the meats that we have savored that night.

• Shitake (Php 150)/Chikubei (Php 120)

Shitake mushrooms – I’m sure will be a hit for mushroom lovers.  I’m not fond of mushrooms but I tried a stick anyway.  It was as flavorful as the other yakitori dishes we’ve tried out.  I somehow have a new kind of fondness over dishes that are grilled.

Chikuwa is a Japanese browned fish cake with a hole on the middle.  Basically, it’s made from  fish surimi, salt, sugar, starch, monosodium glutamate and egg white.  I believe Chikuwa is good as it is but with bacon, it was much better!  Another favorite among the Yakitori dishes in Yakitori Kitchen.

• Ninniku (Php 50)/Hatsu (Php 70)

Afraid of cholesterol?  then Garlic (niniku) is a good food item to eat!  Do you know that garlic is actually considered as one of the healthiest food you can eat?  Yakitori Kitchen has it in their menu so order one just to give it your meal a bit of a balance 🙂

When I learned that Hatsu is chicken heart, I was a bit hesitant trying it.  I mean it looked scary, hahaha! Who would want to eat chicken heart?  But since it’s already right there in front of me, I decided to give it a try.  Hatsu was chewy but definitely flavorful considering the sauce that was put when it was cooked.  Not too scary as I thought 😛

• Jagabei (Php 140)/Bonchili (Php 150)

Have you ever tried potato wrapped in bacon?  We certainly did and it was a huge hit!  I knew that I shouldn’t be eating a lot of those as it can easily make me full.  However, I didn’t care!  Imagine having two of my favorite food items in one.  It was like hitting a jackpot or shall we say, hitting two birds in one stone 😛

Chicken tail (bonchili), the tastiest and yummiest part of a chicken.  Yeah, some people might argue that it has the most cholesterol.  But who could resist such a delicious treat?  The meat was tender, it has the right amount of fat and most of all, it was just too flavorful.  I would never say no to bonchili.

• Lever (Php 70)/Tsukune (Php 120)

Sorry, I just dislike chicken liver (lever) and will never even try it.  It’s a personal choice and not because of any food establishment.  Anything liver, I will never eat.  Of course, my friends ate it and finished it.

A lot of people loves meatballs and Yakitori Kitchen has just that and it’s called tsukune.  Of course, they used chicken meat instead of the usual pork meat.  Was it good?  Of course!  Especially with the special grill sauce that the restaurant is using.

• Boneless Tebasaki (Php 120)/Yagen (Php 140)

I’ll call Tebasaki a dish for the lazy ones.  You know why?  Because tebasaki is boneless middle chicken wing meat!  We don’t have to exert any energy in taking out meat from the bony chicken wing anymore.  Yakitori Kitchen has taken care of that!  All we have is honest to goodness, chicken wing meat!  Whoo! 🙂

Another unique Yakitori dish that I tried out that night is Yagen.  It was chicken keel bone which can be found near the breast part.  The bone was actually cartilage so it’s soft and edible.

• Tebasaki (Php 120)

I shared boneless tebasaki earlier.  Some people might want to eat the original version of chicken wing which is actually full of bones and must be enjoyed by eating it with your hands, sucking the meat out of the bones and truly savoring the taste of the chicken.

• Momo (Php 100)/Seseri (Php 150)

Momo is Yakitori Kitchen’s signature dish.  It’s basically chicken leg meat and really what Yakitori is all about.  Don’t forget to drink sake with this one!

If I’m not mistaken, it’s the first time that I’ve eaten purely chicken neck meat (seseri).  I love that Yakitori Kitchen serves a whole variety of chicken skewers and a number of unique ones at that.  Another great offering that diners can try out.

Beverages

While people usually order sodas, for Japanese people, it’s always the sake, an alcoholic beverage.

• Gekkeikan Sake – 120mL (Php 200/serving)

My friends who are with me are just casual drinkers while I, myself, don’t drink alcohol at all.  But Yakitori Kitchen, being a drinking place, it’s gonna be such a waste if we don’t order any of their Japanese drinks.  So we had Gekkeikan sake..  Sake is a Japanese alcoholic drink made from fermented rice.

According to tradition, it’s being served warm.  However, for pinoys like us, we just enjoy drinking ice-cold alcohol.

Rice Toppings

I’m totally a rice person and I’m just glad that in spite of the awesome concept of the restaurant, they still offered rice toppings.  I guess Yakitori Kitchen understands that some people might have such a big appetite that they tend to look for rice (like me!).

I was lucky enough to be able to try all three offerings from Yakitori Kitchen.  All three had distinct taste but of course, there was one that I liked the most.

• Yakitori don (Php 150)

I wasn’t surprised when I saw yakitori rice topping as obviously, mono (chicken leg meat) is Yakitori Kitchen’s signature dish.  The special grilling sauce really made this dish such a hit!

• Curry Chahan (Php 180)

I’m not fond of curry but this rice dish was too flavorful and too tasty that I couldn’t help getting more spoonfuls than I’m used to!  Curry Chahan is curry fried rice with meat, curry powder, garlic chips and leeks as garnish.  A must-order if you want to have rice together with your yakitori orders.

• Chasyudon (Php 150)

Chasyudon is a rice topping that has chasyu (pork belly) and nori (seaweed).  Another unique creation in my book.  I distinctly remember that a Korean friend of mine always put seaweed in her rice.  I guess it really works and look, a restaurant serving rice with seaweed! 🙂

Suffice to say, we ate much more than 4 people can actually take hahaha!   Look at the number of sticks that was in the bin provided on our table.  Can you count how many skewers we finished?

We are definitely impressed with Yakitori Kitchen and I’m glad that we were able to try it out.  I can’t remember how many times I actually recommended Yakitori Kitchen to friends.  It has such a unique concept that I wouldn’t miss mentioning it to friends whenever there’s a chance.

Considering authentic Japanese restaurants having a high price point on their dishes, Yakitori Kitchen is a nice welcome to the increasing number of Japanese establishments in Metro Manila.  Guess what? their dishes are actually affordable!

If you’re craving for skewers then Yakitori Kitchen is the place to go to!

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Yakitori Kitchen
Forbes Town Center, Burgos Circle, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines