Perfect for a rewarding lunch! Yakitori bowl at long-established yakitori restaurant Isehiro

Upscale for dinner, but reasonably priced for lunch.

I am irresistibly drawn to such stores.

In my third year of working, I have been working reasonably well and saving steadily, but I want to avoid big expenditures, but I still want to eat good food… Sometimes I treat myself to a petit luxury lunch as a reward to myself.

Just a few days before this lunch, I had finished a project that I had spent several months preparing. I want to eat meat with gusto as a way of giving myself a break!

I chose Isehiro, a long-established yakitori restaurant established in 1921 in Kyobashi, which I had wanted to visit for a long time.

They have a “yakitori donburi” for lunch that is relatively inexpensive.

I went out with great enthusiasm to have a sumptuous lunch.

Arriving in front of the restaurant just after noon on a weekday, many people were waiting in line.

I’m guessing about 6 groups? How long will this line be…? I thought, but joined the line.

After about 20 minutes of waiting in line, we went inside the restaurant.

The first floor of the restaurant seems to be used completely as a waiting area during lunch time, and although the line was long, the wait was less stressful due to the familiar handling of the wait staff.

From the counter, one can watch the artisans at the grill skillfully turning over the yakitori and dipping them in the sauce.

The smoke looks hot…and I worry about it on my own.

After waiting for 20 minutes for a seat, the long-awaited bowl of rice arrived.

I ordered a five-piece bowl, 2,800 yen.

As the name suggests, five pieces of yakitori are placed on top.

Top is leek roll, left to right: white meat, dumpling, thigh, and skin.

The white meat has a light but full-bodied flavor.

The dumplings have none of the heaviness that is typical of meat dumplings, and are light enough to make you wonder if they were molded while including air. The dumplings are so light that you may wonder if they were molded with air.

The thigh meat has the right amount of elasticity, and you feel like you’re eating meat! I’m eating meat!

The skin is thick and not too much like skin, in a good way, and the texture is enjoyable. The sauce soaks into the skin and goes well with rice.

And the outstanding thing is the rice hidden under the yakitori.

Coated with just the right amount of yakitori sauce, this rice alone is enough to keep the chopsticks going.

It was finished in no time.

Since I usually work from home, I usually just eat whatever I have left over from yesterday or natto (fermented soybeans) and rice, so this lunch was a great way to energize my stomach.