Ro's Recz

Since I have been pretty busy recently, I have not had as much time to write new blog posts. While I am still constantly finding new things I love to recommend, I wanted to share some of my previous favorite recommendations. Over the course of this blog, I have now written over a year’s worth of posts (371 and counting), so you may have missed some of these along the way!

Address: 〒106-0032 Tokyo, Minato City, Roppongi, 7 Chome−4−5 六本木稲垣ビル B1F

Hachibei is my favorite yakitori restaurant in Japan. Hachibei is most well-known for its butabara, or pork belly, yakitori. This is my personal favorite dish that they have, although others such as the chicken wing and Hakata chicken rice are great as well. Tsukune (chicken meatball) is also a classic yakitori dish, and there is no way you can go to Hachibei without trying it once!

Hachibei’s butabara is definitely worth the hype, and no other type of pork belly I have had compares to it. It is both juicy and flavorful. All dishes are made to order, so the yakitori comes fresh off of the fire, which makes them even better. Hachibei’s fire also seems to have a unique flavor, which makes the meat taste more smokey (in a good way) and fresh.

The location is a bit hard to find, and it used to be really busy at most times. The last time I was in Japan, it was sad to see the restaurant be only half-full because of the coronavirus. I have not been to Tokyo for the past year though, so I am not even sure if Hachibei is open right now (it was closed down temporarily when I last left).

I have also been to the Michelin-star yakitori restaurant Bird-Land, which I thought was pretty good. Bird-Land is one of the most popular yakitori restaurants in Japan. Still, I think Hachibei is significantly better, even though it does not have a Michelin-star (can’t get everything right I guess!).