Torishin

Summary

For this special outing, Yakitori Torishin has been on my list ever since I moved to New York City. I finally had a chance to try this for the girlfriend’s birthday.

We wanted the regular yakitori experience as opposed to the select counter experience. The reason is that I just couldn’t imagine the value from yakitori at literally double the cost of a regular omakase. They brought us into the back room, and we were still seated in front of the chefs.

You can see the Michelin plaques sitting on a ledge. This restaurant used to have 1 Michelin Star, but now it just has Michelin Plate. I can understand partially why this is the case, but I’ll get more to that later. Onward to the omakase…

They started with a small amuse bouche kind of dish that was just pickled cucumber radish. Nothing super exciting or different. The cucumber and radish were crispy and fresh, a starting palette cleanser sort of.

We also ordered a carafe of sake. We mentioned to the host that we did not like overly dry or too sugary, so she recommended this wonderful Katsuyama Ken. According to the sake menu, it features a gentle, clean nose and smooth drinkability with a superb balance of acidity. It also won the Sake Competition in 2015. To put it bluntly, it was definitely very clean, smooth, and obviously balance. We thoroughly enjoyed this.

The first seasonal dish or starter was basically (right to left) black cod with miso, fried chicken drumstick, and asparagus wrapped with smoked salmon in some yellow sauce. The black cod with miso has always been a favorite of mine, and this restaurant does it just as well as other restaurants. The cod has a nice char to it, and the miso adds a nice additive flavor as well. The fried chicken drumstick was nothing out of the ordinary, but it was good. The same with the asparagus and smoked salmon. Everything tasted fresh but also very straight forward.

This is an additional side order of the grilled mentaiko or spicy cod roe. The spicy cod roe is pretty salty, so they gave you some radish on the side to counter. As far as spicy is concerned, it was nonexistent to my tongue.

Back to the omakase, this is the chicken thigh. The charcoal that they use to cook is pretty good. The chicken thigh was very tender and juicy with that nice smoky charcoal flavor.

We also did not shy from organs or innards. This is the chicken artery. The artery was lathered with some type of soy glaze on it probably to mask any organ flavors. Nonetheless, it was good, though I wish there was less glaze.

They gave us grated daikon saying it would help with digestion. This was simply daikon with maybe some soy sauce in it.

The shiitake mushroom was next, and I took a bite and thought it was pretty plump and not overly spongy. I then gave it away to my partner because I know she likes mushrooms infinitely more than I do.

We also ordered an additional side of chawanmushi. The chawanmushi here is pretty different than other omakases. This one is definitely on the blander side from a seasoning perspective, but you can definitely taste the chicken flavors.

Next is the chicken liver. This one was not bad, but chicken liver always has this minerally aftertaste which I am not crazy about. For obvious reasons, this one had a lot of glaze on it.

The chicken heart was actually very delicious. If you have never had it, the texture is very plump almost like eating a mushroom but without the mushroom flavor. Instead it tasted of blood, i.e. that mineral aftertaste, but not too much of it.

This was a seasonal dish which was basically smoked radish. It’s really no different than the radish soups you’d get at Korean BBQ except the soup was probably made with chicken instead of beef.

This is the grilled baby onion. It tastes like a sweet baby onion. It had a nice balance of crisp and softness to it. It wasn’t overly mushy nor overly raw.

The chicken oyster is really their best yakitori in my opinion. The oyster is a round piece of dark meat on the back of poultry. You only get 2 of them per chicken. The outer parts were firm but slightly crispy, and the inner was very juicy, tender, and explosive of chicken flavors.

The last skewer on the omakase was this chicken and duck meatball. This was pretty good as the meat was very densely packed, juicy, and tender.

We ordered an additional side of chicken gizzard to share. The gizzard had a nice crunch to it and was quite tasty.

We also ordered a skewer of chicken wings to share. This came with 2, and the chicken was cooked perfectly. Again, the charcoal really brings out the flavor.

For our rice dishes, my partner ordered 1 variation, and I ordered the other. She ordered the oyako don, which is basically chicken and egg mash with rice in a light chicken broth. The broth was not as sweet as other Japanese restaurants. Texturally, it’s very much similar to porridge.

I ordered the katsu don, which is basically a fried chicken and egg mash instead. It was also very good too.

They also gave us chicken broth as a closer. Think of it as an alternative to tea. The chicken broth had some subtle ginger and other seasonings in it, but it was pretty good and refreshing.

For dessert, we ordered the three creme brulee for an additional charge. The trio (from left to right) included black sesame, roasted brown tea, and green tea. Keep in mind that the holes used to have birthday candles, so they don’t come like that. My favorite in order was the black sesame, followed by the green tea, then the brown tea. They all were very good though, and I would not complain about any of them.

We also ordered the shiso sorbet. If you love shiso as much as me, you will love this. It’s a great palette cleanser, and it was delicious. I’d want to order this everytime.

The service was pretty good, but let’s back to the Michelin Star aspect. I think the food itself is pretty straight forward, so from a flavor perspective, what you see is what you get. There wasn’t really much inventing going on here despite having some seasonal dishes. I think overall it’s a pretty good bang for the buck. This omakase + carafe of sake + some additional sides amounted to about $300 for the 2 of us. That is the cost (if even) of 1 person going to a very nice restaurant.

I can see why it lost its star a few years ago, as there are other yakitori places around that probably give you similar food quality. However, this place definitely felt nicer and less crowded. They can check in their coat, and the hospitality was great. With an open mind, I think you can enjoy the only former Michelin starred yakitori place in America.

Final Verdict

This is an excellent yakitori place for a date night or a special occasion. You can get the Select omakase, but I think there is a lot of value in the regular omakases. I would advise that you don’t come here looking to feast.

Yelp Jabs

Chef’s omakase is also not worth it, the taste wasn’t that great either. Lastly, we weren’t even full after spending $70 each on our meal, which is the worst part.

$70 for a sushi omakase or for a yakitori omakase? I’d take the yakitori omakase easy. I believe this elitist was looking for something of lesser value. Newsflash for folks: you don’t go to this type of restaurant to gorge on food.

The only reason I am giving them a four star is that skewers in the omakase menu are not available for a la carte. Also, the whole party needs to get a prix fixe menu if one of them wants to do so. This restriction significantly limits how I can play with my ordering.

This is a common practice in most places. It’s difficult to time plating if 1 person gets an omakase and others don’t. In most cases, many don’t want to be the only person(s) eating at the table while others are still waiting for the food.