WHERE TO EAT The best Tsukune yakitori in the world (according to food experts)

"I ordered everything they had: chicken meatballs dusted with yuzu citrus zest amog others. One by one, the skewers arrived, the brightness and subtle complexity of those chicken and yuzu balls bowled me over."

"The tsukune – here served with spicy mustard (but commonly served with a small egg yolk) was excellent."

"To finalize your Yakitori order, you will almost always have to decide the flavor of your skewer: a sweet soy sauce-based marinade called tare, or the salt option called shio. It depends on what you order and if you like your meat purer or more flavored. The minced meat on a skewer tastes fantastic with some tare coating. Just try it for yourself!"

"The menu features an anatomical chart depicting all the edible parts of the chicken available on the day—generally between 30 and 40 cuts. At dinner on a recent evening, crunchy bits of cartilage gave tsukune meatballs a pleasant bite."

"In Kyoto, head to Tarokichi, a mainstay of the historic Gion district, where warm lighting and a wall of premium sake await. For maximum effect, sit with the locals at the well-patinaed wooden bar and watch the chef helm the sizzling binchotan grill. Or, for a more intimate experience, ask for a table in the back, preferably one overlooking the restaurant’s adjacent outdoor garden. Whichever you opt for, do try the shiso-wrapped tsukune."

"The ground chicken skewer (made into a sort of ‘corn dog’ shape) was smothered in a sweet sauce which, when being cooked over an open flame, slightly caramelized and gave it a smoky, burnt sugar kind of taste. Delicious."

"Salted tsukune had crunchy texture, It was delicious and I wanted to eat more."

"And then the chicken wing. This was nice!"

"The first was the Tsukune (chicken meatloaf), it was flavorful and perfectly cooked. I have read that the chef uses a chicken breed called Nagoya Cochin and roasts it over binchōtan, charcoal that’s thinner than what’s regularly used at other yakitori places. The guy knows what he is doing."

"Meatballs had a wonderfully gritty, rustic texture due to the incorporation of what I believe was cartilage, while the green onion mixed in gave the dish a nice zippiness."