Torigoya — Restaurant in Mishima

I gave one star only for the ambience and politeness shown. Overall, I really do not recommend this place for a tourist or local looking for a worth-it dinner/ drinks night-out. Frankly, the atmosphere was great - sets the expectations for a good night. Service was polite toward foreigners, albeit I can say understandably cold as I know English or other languages isn't part of the main service. No help was attempted even after we tried asking, but that didn't sway us and we did our best with Google translator. We ordered a meat and seasonal veg grill set of three, two marinated skewers of pork, and two fruit wine sodas to start off first so we can gauge what to order next. This is where things started going downhill, after waiting for some time, drinks came along with what we sincerely thought was a complementary small dish of cucumber and jellyfish salad (about the size of one large tablespoon). The waitress set it on the table and told us to enjoy (though we're not fluent in Japanese, we've been to other restaurants that have used the same sentences "Dozo") hence, we tucked in for a literal bite. After waiting for a good half an hour, our six small skewers appeared and it definitely is 100% not worth the price. Quarters of thin asparagus (x3), thin leeks (x3), two cherry tomatoes wrapped in the thinnest slice of pork on skewers, plus two bite-sized pieces of pork belly on a skewer were pitiful. We quickly finished it as we knew it'd be best that we filled our bellies elsewhere. Now the cherry on top, the bill that came out was a lovely shock where it was basically an arm and a leg for tiny bites and small drinks. Turns out the bite of salad given to us was also charged on us with a hefty price that was not mentioned in the beginning. We tried to ask for clarification to understand what we were paying for but the language barrier was present and in the end, the bill was still paid. Truly, it wouldn't have been an issue if this was told to us in the beginning. The waiters could have tried to let us know, we really would have did our best and also use our translators, but nothing. Never again will we come back to this restaurant if we're visiting Mishima again. It was a disappointing experience which I wouldn't like anyone...

We stepped in off the street and after fumbling conveying it was just the two of us for a bit staff asked us two take seats at the bar. The bar is maybe 8 stools behind which the food was prepped in a stoic but confident manner by two younger guys. The restaurant also has some small tables and maybe the one more private room style table farther back.

The even younger assistant staff member helped us to get onto the right QR code which let us access an online menu which was how we ordered 12 or so skewers in three flights, waters, beer etc.

Once you send an order you hear a chime and your drinks would appear instantly while the food would begin it's process of transforming into piping hot offerings of chicken and pork.

Fave food item: Negi chicken, best sauce and big chunk of grilled green onion btwn chicken chunks. Could have just eaten these all night.

Tips: water is under service, you'll get it if and when you ask for it. Beer is 700 jpy, canned highballs similar. Not a great place to do a lot of drinking id say.

All in all a basic Yakkitori experience that gave us what we had gone looking for despite our complete lack of Japanese language talents and fed us well with no judgements which was appreciated.

Ideal for: smartphone savvy foreigners will find this easy and painless. There were reasonable set items that would have made feeding a larger group frictionless. While the menu did not have an EN version google page translate will get you 90% of the way there. Not for: deal hunters or people who dislike tech reducing...

They have set courses or you can choose as you like. A group of seven of us (with a reservation) enjoyed a huge feast and we each paid less than 3000 yen. They have a good range of drinks and an excellent assortment of...