Yakitori Guide: Every Cut Explained and How to Order at a Yakitori Restaurant

A yakitori (yaki = grilled, tori = bird) restaurant in Japan is one of the most satisfying dining experiences in Japanese food culture — and one of the most confusing for first-timers. The menu is a list of Japanese words for specific chicken parts, the ordering is done by count (how many of each skewer you want), and the staff moves fast.

This guide explains every cut you're likely to see, the two seasoning options, and how to eat a complete yakitori meal.

The Two Seasonings: Tare and Shio

Before the specific cuts, the first choice at any yakitori restaurant is seasoning. For most skewers, you'll be asked:

Tare (タレ): A sweet soy-based basting sauce — soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar reduced to a glaze. It is applied during cooking by dipping or brushing the skewer in the tare pot; the heat caramelizes the sugars onto the chicken. Richer, sweeter, more complex. The classic yakitori flavor.

Shio (塩, salt): Seasoned with just salt (often with some yuzu or citrus spritz). Shio emphasizes the pure flavor of the chicken and fat; it is often preferred for fattier cuts where the rendered fat is the point, and the tare would mask it.

Which to choose: There's a general tendency to use tare on leaner cuts (where the sauce adds flavor and moisture) and shio on fattier cuts (where the fat provides enough richness and the salt brings it out). Many yakitori veterans mix both across an order. If you're unsure, shio first — you're tasting the ingredient; tare second — you're tasting the combination.

The Essential Cuts

Negima (ねぎま) — Thigh and Green Onion

The most classic yakitori skewer. Alternating pieces of chicken thigh (momo, 腿肉) and white part of Japanese green onion (negi, 葱). The thigh pieces provide rich, fatty chicken; the negi chars slightly on the outside and steams-soft on the inside, becoming sweet. The original interpretation of "yakitori" at traditional restaurants. Available in both tare and shio, though tare is traditional.

Momo (もも) — Chicken Thigh

Thigh only, no negi — pure chicken thigh on a skewer. The most flavorful cut; the thigh has more fat than breast, making it more suitable for high-heat charcoal grilling without drying out. The fat renders onto the surface and caramelizes. A good baseline order to assess the quality of a restaurant's chicken.

Tsukune (つくね) — Chicken Meatball

Ground chicken (often mixed with various parts — neck, skin, cartilage) seasoned and formed around a skewer, grilled over charcoal. Surface chars while interior stays moist. The classic tsukune accompaniment: a raw egg yolk (tamago) for dipping, providing richness. Tsukune texture varies significantly by restaurant — some serve a softer, more paste-like ball; others a firmer, more textured meatball incorporating cartilage for crunch.

Kawa (かわ) — Chicken Skin

A challenging skewer for first-timers: multiple layers of chicken skin folded and compressed onto the skewer, then grilled until the exterior is crispy and the interior fat has rendered to a gelatinous texture. Very fatty; the rendered chicken fat is the point. Best in shio — tare can overwhelm the delicate fat flavor. At a good yakitori restaurant, properly rendered kawa has a potato-chip-like crunch on the exterior.

Tebasaki (手羽先) — Chicken Wings

Whole or half wings, grilled over charcoal. The wing combines skin, cartilage, and very small amounts of meat — the eating is partly structural, picking around the bone. Nagoya-style tebasaki (a different preparation — fried, coated in sweet soy sauce and sesame) is regional; yakitori tebasaki is simply grilled.

Sasami (ささみ) — Chicken Tenderloin

The strip of very lean white meat running alongside the breastbone. Grilled at lower heat to prevent drying; often served with wasabi and ponzu sauce. The leanest, most delicate yakitori item — frequently recommended for people who find the fattier cuts too rich.

Bonjiri (ぼんじり) — Tail

The fatty tail piece (bonjiri or bishop's nose) — small triangular piece from the tail end, extremely high in fat, very small. Typically grilled until the exterior caramelizes and the fat renders. Highly prized by yakitori enthusiasts; challenging for those averse to very fatty preparations.

Reba (レバー) — Liver

Chicken liver on a skewer; grilled so the exterior is cooked but the interior remains pink-to-medium (fully cooked liver in yakitori loses the creamy texture that makes it good). Quality yakitori restaurants use fresh same-day liver; this is one of the places where sourcing matters most. Served with shichimi (seven-spice) often; ginger or mustard as condiments.

Safety note: Traditional yakitori practice in Japan includes serving liver and some other offal cuts semi-raw (medium-rare interior). Japanese food safety regulations have tightened significantly after an E. coli outbreak in 2011; legitimate yakitori restaurants have adapted their handling accordingly. Outside Japan, fully cook all poultry offal.

Hatsu (ハツ) — Heart

Chicken heart, halved and skewered; the densest, most muscle-like of the offal cuts — firm, with a distinct slightly-iron flavor. Often served in shio. Those new to chicken offal often find heart more approachable than liver — the flavor is less pronounced, the texture more reminiscent of regular meat.

Sunagimo (砂肝) — Gizzard

The muscular stomach of the chicken, with a distinctive crunchy-chewy texture completely unlike any other meat preparation. Sliced and skewered; grilled in shio to highlight the clean mineral flavor. The texture is the point: firm, slightly squeaky against the teeth, with no fat. The Japanese word for gizzard (sunagimo, 砂肝 — literally "sand liver") reflects that gizzards contain small stones birds swallow to grind food.

Nankotsu (なんこつ) — Cartilage

Chicken cartilage — from the breastbone (mune nankotsu) or keel — threaded on a skewer and grilled. The cartilage softens partially in the heat but retains its characteristic crunch. A textural experience as much as a flavor one. Often served with shio and a spritz of lemon.

Other Common Yakitori Items

Enoki bacon maki (えのき): Enoki mushrooms wrapped in thin-sliced pork belly; not technically yakitori (not chicken) but common at yakitori restaurants.

Shishito (ししとう): Small green peppers grilled whole; most are mild, approximately 1 in 10 is significantly spicy — the randomness is part of the experience.

Asparagus maki (アスパラ): Asparagus wrapped in thin bacon; common at izakaya-style yakitori restaurants.

Gyu tanku (牛タン): Beef tongue; at some yakitori restaurants that expand beyond chicken.

Binchotan Charcoal: Why It Matters

The best yakitori restaurants grill over binchotan (備長炭) — Japanese white charcoal made from oak branches, which burns at very high heat (approximately 700–1000°C surface temperature), produces almost no smoke or flame, and provides far-infrared radiant heat that cooks chicken quickly and evenly without drying the exterior.

Binchotan heat is different from ordinary charcoal or gas: it radiates deeply, the surface-to-center temperature differential is smaller, and the high heat creates the Maillard crust and fat rendering that makes quality yakitori distinctive. Gas grill versions are faster and more consistent; binchotan is harder to manage but produces the caramelization that defines the experience.

How to Order a Yakitori Meal

Format: Most yakitori restaurants operate as izakaya — you sit, order skewers incrementally as you eat, and the meal builds over time rather than arriving at once. The staff will ask how many of each skewer.

Suggested progression:

Start with shio — negima, momo, tebasaki — to taste the chicken
Move to tare versions — tsukune in tare with raw egg yolk
Explore offal — sunagimo, hatsu, reba in order from least to most challenging
End with kawa or bonjiri — the fattiest cuts benefit from later in the meal when palate is engaged

The kitchen sequence: Skewers typically arrive from the grill one or two at a time — this is correct. Don't wait for everything to be served at once; eat skewers as they arrive.

What to drink: Yakitori pairs naturally with:

Cold beer (nama biru, 生ビール — draft): the classic
Lemon sour (remon sawa, レモンサワー): shochu + carbonated water + lemon; lighter than beer
Highball (whisky soda): specifically popular with tare-seasoned skewers
Cold sake (junmai or tokubetsu junmai)

The measure of a yakitori restaurant is the chicken — its sourcing, its freshness, and how the chef manages the grill. Beyond the ingredients, the skill is temperature management: the same cut can be overcooked in 30 seconds on high heat. Watching an experienced yakitori chef manage 15 skewers on a narrow binchotan grill is one of the better live cooking shows in Japanese food culture.

The full recipes live in the book.

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