So following a visit to Yakitori Fukuchan, we had Japanese meat skewers on the brain. We decided to vanquish this craving at Toriyasu in Zhongsan Park. I had read some good stuff about it and was dying to give it a try.
One thing that Shanghai does right is Japanese food. Sure, you can find shitty places here and there, but its pretty easy to find spot-on sushi and yakitori. Toriyasu is one of those places you go to when you want to take a mini-trip to Japan. Situated next to a giant shopping mall, you enter Toriyasu by ducking through a half-sized door in a wall of wood slats. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, and you’re welcomed with the glow of paper lanterns and the grill chefs shouting greetings. Sugoi!
The menu is in either Japanese or Chinese, so if you don’t read either, best to bring a friend that does. Or you make like us and whip out your handy Qingwen iPhone app and string together animal words!
Had dinner with these fools.
We started off with this fantastic salad – a Japanese twist on the classic ceasar. The fresh romaine covered in parmesan was a really nice refresher in between bites of skewered meat. Plus, this salad was topped off with pieces of melt-in-your-mouth pork belly.. extremely fatty and tender. That’s the only way you can get me to order a salad. Well done, Toriyasu!
My personal favorite, chicken skin. Definitely beats out Fukuchan – nice sizable pieces of chicken skin marinated and grilled to crispy perfection.
Tsukune! Ok, this is one thing that Fukuchan does better – I like them over Toriyasu’s because they are coated in a sticky sweet sauce when they hit the grill. But these were also quite tasty.
So you can’t live in Asia and not learn to eat offal. These chicken hearts were perfectly cooked and super tasty. Another thing you HAVE TO try at Toriyasu is their pork liver. (Ju Gan as Qingwen taught us). Pork liver and chicken hearts can be really tough and gross when overcooked, but at Toriyasu, they do it just right. The pork liver is grilled perfectly on the outside, and still slightly creamy on the inside. Yeah, I just said creamy pork liver.
Toriyasu scallops. Good, a little overcooked though and quite chewy. Not really missing anything if you don’t get them.
The damage came to about $150RMB a head including sake and beeeer. A little more than Fukuchan, but definitely worth it. Go with good friends and an empty belly!
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Yakitori Toriyasu
890 Changning Lu at Huichuan Lu
+86 5241 1677
(The entrance is on Huichan lu – walk north til you see a wooden slat wall on your right)
