Eating Japanese Yakitori on Tokyo's Memory Lane (Piss Alley)

Memory Lane (or Piss Alley as it's commonly known), is one of the most famous old skool places in Tokyo to eat yakitori. Get all the details here:

Along with sushi and sashimi, yakitori is one of the most famous foods to eat in Japan. Now although this normally refers to skewers of chicken chicken, these days it can pretty much refer to any kind of meat that's served on a skewer and grilled. Skewers of yakitori are very common to eat at Japanese izakayas, or local pubs. They go particularly well with a beer or sake.

When I was in Tokyo, I actually didn't even have plans to visit Memory Lane (Piss Alley) - but I just happened to be walking around the Shinjuku area of Tokyo during the evening, and actually just bumped into the small alley. It wasn't until later when I researched, that I realized where I had gone. So this small street is really famous, and you can probably guess by its former name or nickname, that it used to be a place where many people would drink a few too many beverages, and have to relieve themselves right in the middle of the lane. That is however not so much the case anymore, at least I didn't see anyone!

But anyway, there are a bunch of different bars to choose from when you go to Tokyo's Memory Lane. There are some really famous places, that serve unique delicacies, but I just chose one that looked pretty friendly, and the restaurant had two open seats for us - if you go in the evening it can actually be tough to even find a place to sit down - so you might just want to grab seats if you see them. The place I chose was located pretty close to the main Shinjuku side of the entrance of the street, but I'm not sure what the name was as it was only in Japanese.

You can either order your yakitori skewers one by one, or they also had a tasting menu where you got a mix of five different skewers of yakitori, and then you can choose either the sauce version or the dry version. We could not decide so we decided to get one of each. Our five skewers of yakitori, included a couple of different types of chicken and a couple skewers of pork as well. The skewers on my plate included: tsukune (つくね) - chicken meatballs, tebasaki (手羽先) - chicken wing, toriniku - all white meat on skewer, leek wrapped in slices of bacon, and pork belly with leek.

All of these skewers were grilled over a hot fire, with a little bit of a flame, so the meat had a slight charred outside giving it a nice smokey flavor. The best part about eating yakitori in Japan, is that they never overcook the meat. These skewers were cooked just so they were done, but so they were still extremely juicy on the inside and delicious. Sauce version, included the sticks of yakitori smothered in light sweet teriyaki like sauce. The dry version was just lightly seasoned with salt and little else. I have to say that the sauce version was definitely my choice, hit the spot.

In Japanese it's also known as Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane) -- Tokyo.
How to get there: This yakitori lane is right next to Shinjuku station in Tokyo, which happens to be the largest in the city, so you can't miss it, but it can be a bit confusing. Take Shinjuku West Exit and then look for the lane which is marked by a green sign.

Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network
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