Torihiro

The savoury smoke draws you through the noren curtain, where the aroma of tare sauce rising from the grill whets the appetite. Tucked into a backstreet in Aoto, Torihiro is a casual izakaya with affordable grilled skewers and a well-stocked drinks list—a place to unwind at the end of the day.

Tender, softly cooked liver and a wide range of skewers

The menu ranges from familiar skewers such as negima (chicken and spring onion), tsukune (chicken meatballs) and chicken skin to cuts including sori and furisode. A favourite is the liver, cooked with particular care until it has a meltingly tender texture; it can be ordered with either tare sauce or salt. There is plenty beyond the skewers, too: sesame-salt liver, gently flavoured miso-simmered offal and freshly fried, crisp chicken-skin gyoza all make tempting drinking snacks.

A striking shochu selection, with plenty to pair

Another standout is the breadth of the drinks list, unusually extensive for a yakitori restaurant. The shochu selection spans sweet-potato bottles such as Tomino Hozan, Sato and Kiroku, as well as barley, rice and brown-sugar shochu, awamori and Dabada Hifuri, a chestnut shochu. For something lighter, there are downtown-izakaya favourites such as Baisu sours, fresh-lemon sours and Hoppy. They make easy companions to richly sauced skewers or refreshing chicken tataki.

For a final dish, there is a satisfying range to choose from: a yakitori rice bowl or oyakodon, with sweet-and-savoury sauce soaking into the rice, as well as chicken seiro soba with flavourful broth and sara udon. Seating ranges from a counter where solo diners can settle in comfortably to tables for groups, making the place well suited to an after-work drink or a relaxed gathering with friends.