鳥貴族 烏丸店

【Foodholic Nako @ Kyoto, Japan】

Torikizoku is a yakitori restaurant that many Taiwanese people visit when coming to Japan, and it has now opened in Taipei as well, conveniently near my home. However, I heard that reservations are fully booked (?), so I haven't tried the Taiwanese branch.

The last time I ate at Torikizoku in Japan was eight years ago. I remember it being quite good—affordable, and it felt great to eat meat and drink beer heartily. I didn't plan to eat there this time, but since the restaurants we wanted to visit were closed, we decided to go spontaneously.

The "Torikizoku Karasuma Branch" is located in the bustling Karasuma-Oike area in Kyoto, on the basement level. There are many Torikizoku branches nearby, so we thought we could just pick any of them without having to wait in line. However, we ended up waiting for over an hour... (There were only four groups in front of us when we drew the number, so there must have been reserved customers), and because we were lining up on the stairs, it was really tiring.

P.S. When you arrive, go straight inside to draw a number before queuing. Don’t foolishly just line up directly.

This time, I ended up ordering a lot of food by accident, over ten dishes, and we ended up spending ¥4810 for two. Yet, by the end, we were nearly too full to eat anymore... because each portion comes with two skewers. I would recommend ordering about eight portions for two people.

My takeaways from this meal are:

1. It’s still delicious, but many items are quite greasy, especially the grilled chicken skin, which was excessively oily.
2. Chicken thigh meat is much tastier than chicken breast, so I recommend ordering thigh meat.
3. Both the sauce and salt flavors are good; you can order some of each to mix up the flavors.
4. The fried items are impressive; I personally highly recommend the Nanban chicken.
5. Since it’s self-service with a tablet for ordering, it’s advisable to order a few dishes first and then re-order if needed, rather than going all out at once, which can lead to a chaotic situation.

It seems that every seat in this branch is like a private booth, even for two people, which is a nice touch.