SMILEMonzennakacho

We were staying near the Monzen-nakacho station, and went out to have something Japanese for dinner. The area, especially south of the station, is full of restaurants and pubs, and there were many people, even on a Sunday night. Our first restaurant of choice was already full with reservations, and ...so we kept on walking to find a place that was sufficiently crowded. Being a bit hungry, we decided on a yakitori restaurant a block from where we initially wanted to go. Sumire seems to be a chain restaurant, with many branches, mostly around Tokyo. However, the restaurant is not a typical chain restaurant, as it inherits the basic styles of a traditional yakitori restaurant, and is more like an izakaya (pub restaurant), but with the majority of the dishes based on chicken. Orders are made using tablets, which was relatively easy to place. The response from the staff was very fast, and my additional order of beer arrived in 30 seconds. The staff were also very polite and helpful. The dishes were actually very good. I especially liked the levaccio (carpaccio type chicken liver), with excellent seasoning and sesame oil. The coriander salad went well with the yakitori, and we were able to enjoy a great meal. I am not sure if they have an English version of the tablet menu, but it seems like they are preparing their websites in English, Hangul and Chinese, and so you might find one.

Visited August 2017