炭火焼鳥 一兆 日本橋本店 — Restaurant in Osaka

A small, hole in the wall, restaurant. Not literally of course, but walk a bit too fast and a bit too far and you’ll miss it. It is very inconspicuous and situated away from the main streets where most people would go to look for food. It’s the only restaurant in the area, and is situated inside a building that most likely houses residential units. So unless you can read the sign outside the restaurant, you’d most likely will miss it and walk past by it.

The restaurant most likely serves the local folks in the area and less outsiders, again since it’s pretty far away from where most tourist would go looking for food and more for folks who are just done with work and want to grab dinner, either by themselves or with a couple of coworkers or friends.

This is most obvious in the ambience of the place. One can say the restaurant is very old and not styled to attract tourists, but more for the locals who don’t really care for how good a place looks but more of how good the food is and their relationship with the owners of the restaurant. This is a family owned and operated restaurant, and it feels like we’ve walked into their home and they’re preparing dinner for us. While of course it’s ultimately still a restaurant and there are some decorations here and there to make you feel it’s a restaurant, for the most part, it feels more like a home.

The place is small but I would say just big enough to serve the neighborhood. Single or couple guests will always sit by the counter, where there are about 7-8 seats. Then there is a angular L-shaped table directly behind the counter seats that can hold maybe 4-5 people, and finally a small semi private room where you sit on the tatami floor around a table and can maybe also fit another 4-5 people.

The restaurant is operated by 4 people, each in their own stations. A young lady is the server and takes your orders and serves your orders to you if you sit on the table or in the room. An older gentleman preps only the drinks Nd another older gentleman mans the grills and cooks the food. An older lady runs the ship and all orders go through her. She informs the two older gentlemen what the orders are, either drinks or food, and they get to work. She also preps anything that’s not already previously prepped to be cooked, and also serves the guests seated on the counter.

Food selection is decently big, enough to satisfy your cravings for yakitori. Most servings come in 3 sticks, which I think is more than enough per person. When shared with a partner unfortunately that means it’s 1.5 servings each. Not really a problem since you’ll be ordering plates of multiple different dishes to share anyways. If you’re with a bigger party, I recommend to order multiple plates of the same dish at once since the dishes come out one by one. If there’s 4-5 of you and only a single plate of 3 sticks comes to your table, someone will remain hungry for a bit longer than the others.

Overall, a fun little place to go to for dinner and enjoy a more “mom and pop” kinda restaurant off the beaten path. Ambience is quaint, service is good and friendly, and food is more than decent. But don’t go in expecting some mind blowing chef’s kiss kind of food, and then leaving a bad review here because it didn’t meet your unrealistic...

Absolutely wonderful experience at a cozy yakitori spot. Cute and unpretentious space inside, kind of in the middle of nowhere but still very near Namba/Tennoji. Groups smaller than 4 must sit at the counter. No English menu, but they do have a photo menu, and even better, they seem happy to just do "omakase" and just grill up things that they feel like making.

Their specialties are the negima (chicken thigh with scallion) and kimo (chicken liver) skewers, but we tried almost everything. Everything was great, but the negima is the most popular skewer for a reason: it's the best negima I've ever had at any yakitori shop, and I eat at MANY yakitori shops in Osaka.

The heart was delicious, a close runner-up. The liver was sold out (by around 8pm on a Wednesday!), so we didn't get to try it.

The proprietor was behind the grill turning enormous skewers the whole time, offering us tastes of things on the house (minced beef which was raw inside was strangely amazing). Yakitori are ordered 2-3 at a time, at around 130 JPY each. 2 large vases ("nigo") of hot sake, plus enough yakitori to fill up 3 hungry people, totaled 7500 JPY. Absolutely will go back again just for the negima and to try the...

This yakitori place is a hidden gem for sure. Located five blocks from the main Nippombashi area street (Sakai-Suji), is the best yakitori I have ever had. The temperature, the texture, and marination of each piece of meat is phenomenal. I’m a very picky eater when eating out, but this restaurant just exceeded all of my expectation. Savour these dishes with Japanese beers or sakes only enhance the experience and taste.

On top of everything, the service here is even better. We don’t speak any Japanese but the server, the shu chef, and the main chef were very kind and helpful with our order needs (we sat at the bar close to where they grilled the meats). We had a good time mingle with all of them.

A few notes: No English menu, but they do have a picture menu of all the dishes they have to choose from. Or use Google Translate. The server’s English was pretty good, the young lad was very helpful. Do try out the chicken cartilage. Superb.

Will return when back in Osaka. Thank you for an...