May 30, 2018

One block away from our hotel is Torishige (鳥茂), a famous eatery that despite its name actually specializes in pork skewer grilled over binchōtan. Helmed by the third-generation owner Yuji Sakamaki (酒卷祐史), this place is packed every night and a favourite among several high-profile chefs in town. We walked in at 8:30 and were told to come back half an hour later. Although our table was available only at 9:20, the bustling restaurant had plenty going on to keep my occupied, including drunk white-collar workers, aging hipsters who wear sunglasses at night, a Haruki Murakami doppelgänger, and a team of constantly hustling servers.

We were seated on the second floor on a bar table at a corner on the opposite end of the open kitchen, an impossible location to flag one of the twenty servers who were spread out thin and wide over the 100 seats across two floors.

By the time the first item of our ¥5,000 set dinner arrived, it was already 9:45. Although the staff highly recommended the pig offal sashimi platter, which contained heart, tongue, uterus, liver and brain, we couldn’t muster up the courage to go that far. Our liver skewer, while obviously not raw, was only around 60% cooked, which tasted better than it sounded due to its freshness. Thankfully it was free from any strange odor, but I thought the seasoning was too heavy-handed and reminded me of ika no shiokara.

A classic izakaya meat stew, but true to its brand an offal in the form of a pig stomach took centre stage here. The whole appeal of this ingredient is its crunchiness and the one here fits the bill. The flavour was a little similar to the beef on a gyudon with a slight kick from hot pepper.

Don’t let the offal parade stop. Pig intestine is definitely a feast or famine type of ingredient; nothing is more revolting than finding bits of swine feces in your mouth. No such issue here. Decadently filled with fat, the slightly grilled intestine was soft like melted cheese and immediately dissolved upon contact.

Finally some greens, however small in quantity they might be. Like its chicken counterpart, the pork and negi skewer was all about the sweet, sweet scallion.

A contrasting mix of texture and flavour, the stuffed green pepper was my favourite skewer of the night. The stuffing was a mixture of minced pork, beef and chicken. I especially enjoyed the vegetal note after devouring so much greasy food.

A slightly more tender version of the stuffing of the previous dish, this meatball of three varieties of minced was very similar to a typical tsukune (chicken meatball) in terms of taste and texture. Scalp that — it was better than 98% of tsukune I have had.

After arriving at a steady 5-minute clip, the pace fell off a cliff and our last two dishes took double the time to show up. I wasn’t expecting this deeply succulent beef sirloin — this was like seeing a 100-mile fastball after five consecutive sliders.

We concluded with another appearance of intestine, this time grilled to a crisp. Despite a different texture and being salty instead of sweet, it still quickly dissolved in the mouth.

Not a surprise given the number of seats and overall volume, the service was inconsistent at best. The flow of the dinner involved lots of long gaps and abruptly ended without anyone telling us all of our food had arrived. Paying our bill required flagging down three separate servers. That said, the service wasn’t enough to dampen an overall enjoyable meal, even as someone who isn’t a big offal fan. If you have the stomach for the offal sashimi platter, Torishige could even be one of your most memorable dining experiences in Tokyo.

Deliciousness: 7.5/10
Value: 5/10
Recommendation: 7.5/10
Address: 2-6-5 Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo
Opening hours: 17:00 – 1:00 am, Monday – Saturday