When talking about Yakitori in Singapore, Japanese restaurants such as Nanbantei, FUKUDA, Sumire, JiBiru, Yakitori Yatagarasu, Omotenashi Dining Gosso, Shin Kushiya, Mikawa, Bincho at Hua Bee and Amazing Hokkaido may come to mind. (Well, TORI-Q aside.)
Shirokane Tori-Tama 白金酉玉 シンガポール located at Robertson Walk has the honours to be the only yakitori restaurant in Singapore with a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
This is an outpost of the Tokyo-based Toritama group.
Therefore, it is always recommended to get a reservation, especially during Fridays and Saturdays. (It is closed during Sundays.)
Yakitori 焼き鳥 is a style of Japanese dining which involves skewered chicken grilled over charcoal fire, in which the meats are seasoned with tare sauce or salt.
Many izakaya do serve it as part of their bigger menu.
However for Yakitori buffs, they could delight over the variety of their skewered meats and internal organs over at Shirokane Tori-Tama.
They even have a chicken anatomy diagram to help customers better appreciate the cuisine.
The restaurant specialises in using almost every part of the chicken for their Yakitori and the rest in side dishes such as soups and salads.
The meats served include kawa (skin), soroban (neck meat), yagen (cartilage), engawa (midriff), kubikawa (neck skin), aburatsubo (lower back), bon jiri (tail), Kashiwa (thigh), obi (a part of the thigh), tsukune (chicken ball), emon (breast meat), tebasaki (middle wing), tebamoto (drum stick), sasami no mitsubamaki (chicken fillet roll with mitsuba), sori-resu (special thigh).
And that moves on to the internal organs of maruhatsu (whole heart), teppou (gullet), Gatsu (stomach), chigimo (liver), hatsu (heart), saezuri (windpipe), Azuki (spleen), sunagimo (gizzard), kanmuri (cockscomb), ginkawa (edge of the gizzard), Kokoro-nokori (a special part of the heart), and otafuku (along the neck meat).
Overwhelmed with the choices?
Start with seven sticks for $27.00, or 10 sticks at $39. If chicken is not your thing, they have a few pork options such as US Black Pork Neck ($5), Kagoshima Kurobuta Shoulder ($10), and Pork Belly ($6) to round up the list.
Due to the live grilling and that takes time, be prepared to wait.
There are quite many online reviews which feedback about the long waiting time, say an hour or more for sticks. So that may deter customers from ordering their second or third rounds of sticks.
I think perhaps there could be other ways to ‘appease’ customers, from expanding repertoire of other side dishes to keeping them updated.
While I didn’t meet with any “arrogant” service, I won’t say that service was exceptional (no big smiles, irasshaimase! type of welcomes) and I was pretty much left alone. (I got my food after half an hour, on a non-peak day.)
Objectively saying, the sticks were a couple of hits and misses.
They looked paler than what I had expected, but there was some pretty-amazing light crisp on a couple matched with tender meat.
Obviously not heavily dependent on the tare sauce to season, but to appreciate natural flavours of the chicken.
Shirokane Tori-Tama
Robertson Walk, #01-02, 11 Unity St, Singapore 237995
Tel: +65 6836 5680
Opening Hours: 6pm – 11pm (Mon – Sat), Closed Sun
Other Related Entries
Amazing Hokkaido (Robertson Quay)
Omotenashi Dining Gosso (Boat Quay)
Bincho at Hua Bee (Tiong Bahru)
Yakiniku Like (Paya Lebar Quarter)
CHICHI Dining (Amoy Street)
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