WITH some dishes, less is definitely more. Take for instance the offerings of Hirafu yakitori restaurant and bar, Yosaku.
It’s the unpretentious nature of the yakitori food style – essentially meat (or really, chicken) and vegetables on a skewer – that charms and delights every time I dine here.
Upon entering the smoky, cavernous little hole in the wall in the Middle Village, just off the 343 on Momiji-Zaka Street, you are embraced by its very “local yakitoriya” persona – from a boisterous ‘irrashaimasse’ upon entry, to the customary, wooden izakaya bar overlooking the kitchen’s steamy grill.
Eschewing the trappings of more up-market eateries, you even get a glance at the latest skiing videos on a big screen TV to get you amped for your next session up the mountain.
Back to the food, yakitori as a food style comprises mainly bite-sized pieces of meat and vegetables served on a skewer. Yosaku serves their selection accompanied by a range of salts and sauces. I usually go salt with vegetable skewers, and teriyaki sauce with most of the meats, but don’t listen to me – mix it up, because at Yosaku, that’s the name of the game!
Some of the best meat skewer dishes off Yosaku’s grill are the tori (chicken), buta (pork), ramu (lamb) and sagari (beef). My pick of a delectable bunch is the tsukune (minced chicken).
For vegetarians, or just to balance up a meaty meal, you can’t go past the shiitake mushrooms or the eringi (trumpet mushrooms). For a mix of meat and veggies, you’d be hard-pressed finding better than the shimeji mushroom bacon skewers, or the nikuzume (shiitake mushrooms with minced meat). Asparagus the size of your finger wrapped snugly in a bacon blanket also goes down well.
For the more adventurous there is a host of interesting, off-centre Japanese alternatives including kawa (chicken skin), ponpochi (chicken flank), nekku (you guessed it, chicken neck), riba (liver), hatsu (heart), sunagimo (innards), nankotsu (cartilage) and delightfully named tontoro (pork neck).
When ordering, I suggest just piling a plate with a mixture of different skewers and sharing them around the table. It’s the Japanese way, and the best option for sampling all that the menu has to offer. All skewers are reasonably priced too (by Hirafu pricing standards) ranging from ¥180 to ¥300.
An izakaya would not be an izakaya without a comprehensive beverage menu. And Yosaku happily obliges. From draft Sapporo Classic to sours, cocktails to hard liquor, red and white wine to wines of the plum variety, there is a suitable poison for everyone.
Finally, Yosaku is open from 6pm till late – usually until around 2am! So you’ve got no excuse for not making it down for a session while you’re here.