There are a lot of good restaurants in the Palisades and Santa Monica, and some wonderful sushi havens. But no Yakitori! When I was in Japan last month, we enjoyed sitting in front of an expert Yakitori chef and savoring his delicious sticks one at a time. (Yakitori means grilled chicken on skewers).
Upon returning home we decided to see if we could find the same thing here. First, we tried Nanbankan, which means "House of the Southern Barbarian" a well-known historical theme in Japanese history. But we couldn’t figure out how to make a reservation online and they never answered the telephone. When I stopped by to make a reservation the maître’d’ was not very friendly and said they were fully booked up and I would need to call. So, I gave up on eating there.
Then our little family group went to Yakitoriya on Sawtelle. There were just 4 seats available at the bar, so it was perfect. The chef was very busy but still had time to joke around with my son Spencer in Japanese. I have no idea what they were talking about but there was a lot of laughing.
We ordered hot sake, cold sake, and beer, and a lot of different sticks and other dishes. The best stick to my taste was the chicken with a slice of truffle on top. I’m usually not a big fan of black truffle, but this one was perfect with the juicy chicken stick. My sister ordered a fried chicken breast which was cooked to perfection with a delicious crust and a salad on the side.
Another great dish was the sliced duck breast, unusually lean and flavorful. Sticks of various kinds kept flowing under the window onto our plates, including various vegetables and bacon wrapped scallops.
This was so much fun and so delicious that we decided to do it once a week. The Sawtelle area is now one of the busiest places in Los Angeles for dinners. There is a wonderful Korean restaurant that serves very spicy tofu soup that I love, and a new Chinese restaurant recently opened serving all kinds of dim sum. And of course, there is Jonathon Golds’ favorite noodle shop on the corner, but it’s quite a wait to get in. The same is true of the sushi bar across the street that has the sushi on a rotating moving belt. My grandchildren love that place, but it too has become so popular that it’s a wait to get in.
In the two or three blocks filled with restaurants there are wonderful choices, but for us the Yakitoriya was the star.
Merv Hecht, like many Harvard Law School graduates, went into the wine business after law. In 1988, he began writing restaurant reviews and books. His latest book "The Instant Wine Connoisseur, 3d edition" is available on Amazon. He currently works for several companies that source and distribute food and wine products internationally.
