Otonari

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This was an accidental discovery two blocks away from our residence in Kyoto. A tiny little izakaya specializing in yakitori, which is grilling chicken of all parts on a skewer. All I gotta say is that the chef has the magic touch. Every skewer was seasoned just right and grilled to perfection.
Our favorite chicken parts were the thigh wings, neck, tail, skin, hearts, and gizzard. Most of them were seasoned with salt or tare (sauce — 90% sweet soy). The other non-​chicken items we loved were the bacon wrapped tomatoes, shitake mushrooms, shishito peppers, emperor mushroom, bacon wrapped asparagus. To be completely honest, I pretty much named everything we had that night. There really wasn’t any skewer that we wouldn’t have ordered a second time. It was that good.
I’m not sure when I will be back in Kyoto again, but even if it’s out of the way from where we stay next time, I will not hesitate to make this a destination restaurant. There is so many other menu items that I have not tried beyond yakitori that I may very well just point and shoot. With the knowledge of flavor and the control of fire that this chef has, I doubt anything that he makes can taste less than somewhat delicious. I’ll be back !!!

Husband and I ate here last night and we loved it. The address was really hard to find as we don’t speak Japanese so we just look for the closest metro station Kiyomizu Gojo and asked the taxi driver to take us there. From there it is just a couple blocks walk. We really enjoyed at least 6 different yokitori in the menu. The price was fair and very reasonable. I will definitely come back when in Kyoto.

I’ve since found out that the correct english name for this lovely place is Otonari, which translates as «next door.» Sorry for any confusion and I hope Unilocal updates but not seeing the link to edit business information at the moment.