Yakitori Alley, Yurakucho

Yakitori (焼き鳥) actually literally means 'burnt bird' so might seem a strange place to be looking for vegetarian food, but since it essentially consists of things grilled on skewers there are lots of options! (some may not technically be yakitori but rather kushiyaki, but yakitori seems to be used quite generally).

On guidebook recommendation we decided to head to the Yurakucho 'yakitori alley', easily identified once nearby due to the smoke produced by the cooking. To ge there we walked alongside/underneath the Yamanote line from Yurakucho station towards Shimbashi. There were lots of other small restaurants on the way there. In the alley itself there are a few different places, not buildings as such but covered enough by the railway arches and plastic tarpaulin to avoid being completely exposed to the elements. Not sure what the one we chose was called but it was not too difficult to look at menus and found a suitable place. We seemed to be the only non-locals amongst plenty of happily drunk people, but menus in English were available.



We ordered quite a few skewers: shitake mushrooms, auburgine, green peppers and leek. We also had some sides of edamame, fried tofu and potato salad. The shitake was so good that we had to order more!

We didn't get drunk like other fellow diners (some even broke some dishes behind us!), but we did try some of the alcoholic drinks on the menu. We normally quite like the shochu sours when we go to Japanese restaurants, so we got one green tea shochu and one lime shochu. As much as we like most things green tea flavoured, don't think green tea and shochu made a good combo, even though it looked kinda cool. It had a rather strange bitter taste, so don't really recommend this.



Each order (2 skewers) were under ¥200, so the meal was very yummy and cheap! It's not fancy eating, but definitely a great authentic local experience. There was obviously a bit of a smell of grilled meat at times but wasn't really off putting for us; I think the close proximity of tobacco smoke was more troublesome as we are used to smoke free restaurants in London! Think we read it somewhere that the stalls don't open during the day, so come for an evening meal or some late night drinking and yummy grilled things on sticks.


Yurakcuho Yakitori Alley
Under JR train line near Hibiya station, 2-1-10 Yurakucho, Chioyda-ku Tokyo