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Yakitori Grill - Akira In Nakameguro

Any visit to Tokyo should include a meal at a yakitori grill (yakitori-ya in Japanese) style izakaya.

Small, tasty morsels of grilled chicken and vegetables served on tiny skewers accompanied by ice-cold beer and lashings of chilled sake make for a wonderful night out.

Cook your chosen dishes at your own pace on the special grill provided at your table. It's a very traditional, social and relaxing way to eat dinner with friends and family.

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Akira in Nakameguro

If you'd like to experience a yakitori-ya during your Tokyo stay, Nakameguro's Akira is a great choice. Click for Akira Nakameguro directions.

When we arrived, the prized tables on the raised tatami area by the windows overlooking the river were already taken. We were politely offered the choice of a table on the central wood-floored dining area or a counter seat before the open kitchen. Always curious, and aware that counter seats offer added entertainment, we opted for the latter.

The kitchen itself, although not particularly large, was a hive of activity with no less than five or six chefs busy preparing food at any one time. The air was filled with the low bubble of conversation and quiet jazz.

Akira's interior is as well considered as the facade. Dark wood walls, dimmed lighting, tatami mats and wooden lattices along with a small, balcony-like second floor over looking the main dining area. The far wall is adorned with neat rows of sake and shochu bottles proudly displaying their colourful labels.

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Choosing What To Eat

Politely noting that this was our first visit to Akira, a rather handsome waiter clad in a white jimbei with a navy blue bandana wrapped around his head explained the menu in detail. He offered his suggestions and recommended we try the moriawase (assortment) of grilled dishes so we could try a little bit of all the various tastes available on the yakitori grill menu.

We happily agreed to the moriawase and were asked to choose between various cuts of chicken, or a combination of both chicken and pork. Hungry, and keen for a little variety, we chose the mix along with several more dishes from the good selection of thoroughly tempting dishes on offer.

To accompany our first drink, a beer, a large o-toshi (appetizer) of raw cabbage and rich red tara-miso for dipping was served on a delicate bamboo basket. The cabbage was perfectly fresh and crunchy, the tara-miso spicy.

Nibbling my cabbage and quaffing cold beer I was surprised by the arrival of a large wooden box containing a heavy stone brazier filled with glowing coals with a metal grill placed on top. This was our yakitori grill. The heat from the coals, with their orange glow and ashen crust, added to the cosy atmosphere of the place.

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Dinner Is Served!

The first dish to arrive was asazume corn, four chilled portions of raw corn-on-the-cob lightly dusted with salt to make them "sweat". A first for me, this sweet tasting dish may have looked rather plain but was surprisingly good and a great way to start our yakitori grill dinner.

The corn was quickly followed by a bowl of momo no tataki. This is a kind of chicken-sashimi salad made up of slices of raw chicken meat off the thigh mixed with tamanegi (onion), spring onion, myoga (Japanese ginger), daikon oroshi (grated daikon), sesame seeds and yuzu ponzu (citrus juice). This was simply delicious. I know the thought of raw chicken may be off-putting but it is well worth trying if you're feeling adventurous.

From our vantage point at the counter I was able to watch the chefs and also the master of the house, Akira-san, preparing sumptuous trays of assorted chicken-sashimi, slicing the meat with perilously sharp knives and tenderly arranging the slices upon the salad arrangement. The care and attention being paid to preparation helped to settle my own nerves about eating raw chicken!

By 7.30pm a steady stream of customers were arriving obviously ready for their regular yakitori grill dinner. Many were greeted personally by the tall shaven-headed Akira-san. The crowd was mainly made up of middle-aged patrons with a smattering of young couples. The younger couples seemed to have mostly booked tables by the window. Obviously these were the tables necessary to make a good impression on a date.

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Moriawase Without Skewers

The next item to arrive was our main yakitori grill dish, the moriawase. Although Akira is a yakitori grill, the meat arrived laid out on a large plate in the same way as yakiniku, without a skewer in sight. Actually, considering the brazier we used to cook the meat, the whole style of this yakitori-ya was more like a yakiniku restaurant.

The plate of meats was well presented, consisting of four or five pieces each of tori-hatsu (chicken heart), tori-nankotsu (chicken cartilage), tori-momo (chicken-thigh), tori kawa (chicken skin), buta kata-rosu (shoulder pork), buta bara (pork belly) and some tiny little chicken tsukune (chicken mince) wrapped in green shiso leaves (perilla).

An array of condiments was provided and explained in detail by the waiter. Soy sauce, ponzu, mashed garlic, pepper and a narrow oblong dish containing salt, lemon salt, and shichimi (seven spices).

Throughout the rest of our yakitori grill meal we busied ourselves with cooking the meat at intervals between other dishes from the menu and sampling some of the different kinds of sake available on the drinks list.

We were lucky to be seated at the counter as one of the chefs took it upon himself to be our host-guide for the evening instructing us on the best way to cook each cut of meat and the condiments that most suited them. The chicken was excellent dipped in the lemon salt, and the pork went well with shichimi.

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Sake Investigations

A fan of sake, I decided the subtle tastes of chicken deserved something more refined than my heavy glass of chilled draught beer. I asked the waiter to recommend a nomiyasui (drinkable), karakuchi (dry) sake. The result was a tall glass of pale-yellow Sabaki set in a red stained wooden masu.

It was smooth and light to the taste and went down very easily with the food. As the sake haze took hold, I watched in silent awe as the younger chefs would on occasion stop whatever they were doing to watch Akira-san or another high-ranking chef prepare a certain dish. They gathered round, as silent as I, staring intently at every knife stroke or gentle prod of a vegetable.

I decided to return to the raw chicken, this time in the form of the maroboshi no reba (raw chicken liver) served on a piled bed of daikon, shiso, myoga and cress with the pieces of liver sprinkled with sesame seeds. Plucking a slice of the soft, orangey liver from its resting place it was then dipped in a thick, rich tasting goma abura (sesame oil). Fantastic. So tender that it melted in the mouth. This was easily some of the best chicken liver sashimi I've tasted.

It was so good in fact that I decided to celebrate the occasion with a glass of Nokomi, a sake somewhat stronger tasting than the Sabaki. Perhaps not as smooth, the Nokomi had a richer taste and the same pale yellow hue. This time the glass was filled to overflow into the masu, filling it almost to the brim.

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Flaming Chicken

Still eager to sample a little more from the menu we ordered the hone-tsuki jidori momo sumibi-yaki, a large chicken thigh flamed by the chef and served sizzling on a hot stone plate with most of the meat having been cut from the bone. While it was great fun to watch the flames leaping into the air as the chef cooked it, I must admit that the charred taste of this particular dish was a little overpowering.

That said, the meat off the bone was tasty, and a dainty little covering of tinfoil wrapped around the bone saved us from getting all greasy as we ate. Washing this down with another glass of Nokomi, we thanked the waiter for his excellent service and the chefs for the truly delicious meal we'd eaten.

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Time Limits and Cost

A two-hour limitation for izakaya bookings is a weekend norm in Tokyo but the Akira yakitori grill follows this rule even on a Tuesday night. Most places you go during the week will allow you to stay as long as you like but, with the high volume of eager customers waiting to get in, Akira clearly needs to do this during the week as well to keep everyone happy.

All in all, Akira is an excellent yakitori style izakaya with pleasant surroundings, polite knowledgeable service and wonderful food. Prices are reasonable. Our meal cost around ¥6,000 per person. Akira is clearly popular and without booking in advance you might run the risk of finding no room at the inn. Highly recommended. Click here for Akira Nakameguro directions.