Yakitori Imai

Cuisine Japanese
Price $$$$ (51-100)
Rating 6/10
Last Visit May 30, 2025
Location Japan: Tokyo
General Notes

Came here for the omakase yakitori experience. You can also make a reservation to order a la carte but that was not obvious from the online portal for foreigners (you can book online). The omakase experience came with salad, ten-ish types of yakitori (mostly chicken, including a few vegetable skewers), and a finishing dish where you can choose between ramen and a rice bowl. The yakitori was really, really good. My favorites were probably the chicken liver, the chicken testes (this wasn't part of the omakase, but I ordered it a la carte), and the quail eggs (they were still soft inside!). It wasn't _quite_ as good as I was expecting, but still very good. The charcoal flavor is executed well, the skin is crisped well, and the chicken flavor shines through. In my opinion most of the dishes could use a touch more salt, maybe that's what it was missing.

Dishes Tasted
  • ★★★☆ ground chicken / egg / rice bowl -- tastes very comforting, I feel like I've had some dish in my childhood that tastes very similar.
  • ★★★★ chicken testes -- remarkably delicious; kind of has a flavor half way between chicken liver and uni.
  • ★★★★ tomato -- the way I ended up describing it is "well marbled" -- the tomato is extremely juicy but not watery, and that juice is well distributed throughout the entire tomato.
  • ★★★☆ chicken skin
  • ★★☆☆ tsukune -- definitely one of the better tsukunes that I've had, still not my favorite though
  • ★★★☆ chicken wing -- skin is crisped well, but it's a bit difficult to eat
  • ★★★★ quail egg -- perfectly soft-cooked, I have no idea how they managed to pull that off while still imbuing a smoky flavor on it.
  • ★★★☆ chicken heart -- very interesting texture
  • ★★☆☆ mushroom
  • ★★★☆ chicken thigh
  • ★★☆☆ okra
  • ★★★☆ chicken neck
  • ★★★★ chicken liver -- so creamy + flavorful, one of my favorites