Unbelievable flavor！Japanese chicken thigh sashimi has a subtle sweetness

Text and photos byAhmon

Restaurant name: Kuchi Hachicho (あべのキュ0?亥骏Ε蟮戛
Phone: 06-6644-0211
Address: 1-6-1 Abeno-suji, Abeno-ku, Osaka City
Price: ¥380 and up
Website:Click here
Dining date: September 2014

After coming down from the Abeno Harukas 300 observation deck, I was almost faint with hunger. Although I had just eaten a bowl of Tenkaippin ramen, I still felt a bit peckish. Honestly, most of the shops around were already closed, so my friend suggested we find an izakaya instead. We wandered around the area near the Marriott Miyako Hotel for a while—there were barely any izakayas open—and it was pouring rain. Just as we were about to grab something quick at a FamilyMart convenience store, we spotted what looked like an izakaya or yakitori shop not far from the store. As we got closer, we realized it was actually a grilled chicken skewer shop. Without hesitation, my friend dashed in. Ahhh… neither of us could read Japanese… how on earth were we supposed to order anything? We were totally lost.

The prices seemed mid-range—slightly higher than Torikizoku but not by much.

The interior lighting was quite dim, and the air was filled with the aroma of meat. There were quite a few customers, with both larger (4-person) and smaller (2-person) tables. The innermost area housed the kitchen and grill. I only took a quick candid shot of the environment—after all, privacy is taken pretty seriously in Japan, so it’s better to keep a low profile, haha.

After we were seated, the waitress brought over the menu. Just as expected, there was no English menu—the two-page menu was entirely in Japanese. Although there were some kanji characters, they might as well have been hieroglyphics to us. The only things we could understand were the numbers ==. One was the pre-tax price, and the other was the tax-included price. I could only give my friend a sour look.

Since I saw words like "sake," "raw," and "grilled sake," I figured this was the drink menu. This was the page with the most kanji in the entire menu, XDDDD

Edamame
It seemed to be complimentary, served right after we sat down. It wasn’t listed on the receipt, but it was pretty good—not dry at all.

Since we couldn’t read the menu, we ended up communicating with the waitress mostly through gestures and broken English. She probably didn’t know how to explain the menu either, then suddenly yelled in English, “I don’t speak English~~~!” and ran back to the kitchen, leaving us standing there dumbfounded. In the end, the restaurant owner came out to take our order. His English was quite fluent, so he quickly helped us place our order. He was really nice. We started with two large glasses of draft beer. I think this was my first beer in Japan during this trip—my friend really got me into it =_=. But Japanese draft beer is really delicious. The beer glass even had the restaurant’s name on it, and the logo design was actually pretty cool. Back at the hotel, I looked it up and found out that this is actually a chain store and somewhat well-known.

● 《ETtoday East News Cloud》 reminds you: Don’t drink and drive, and don’t drive after drinking.

Lettuce salad
I think this was also a complimentary side dish, but it was the one we were least satisfied with that day. The cabbage was so hard =_=. Even though it was dressed with vinegar sauce, it was just too tough and dry to eat. All we could taste was the raw vegetable flavor, haha.

Chicken thigh sashimi
Since my friend ordered all the dishes that day, I honestly don’t remember the prices. If you can read Japanese, feel free to check the menu yourself. This restaurant offers chicken sashimi from several parts of the chicken, and we chose the thigh. It was tender, fragrant, and sweet. It was my first time eating raw chicken in Japan—turns out raw chicken can be this delicious. You can’t get this in Taiwan, Q_Q. It really had a sweet flavor, cool and soft, and paired nicely with either grated ginger or chopped green onions. Highly recommended.

Close-up
The portion wasn’t very big—about three bites per person—but it was really tasty, just enough to satisfy a craving.

Salt-grilled chicken thigh skewer
I think this one was grilled with salt, though there might have been a soy sauce option too. It had a bit of fat, so it shimmered slightly. One bite in—oh my god—it was so tender!! So tender!! So tender!! I have to say it three times because it was that good. It was way better than Torikizoku!! This was real Japanese-style yakitori!! Because it was salt-grilled, the tenderness and aroma of the chicken were fully preserved. You could tell it was amazing just by tasting it.

Soy sauce-grilled chicken thigh skewer
The one above was salt-grilled, and this one is soy sauce-grilled. The sauce on this one wasn’t very strong, but it could get a bit cloying if you ate too much. Between the two, I’d recommend the salt-grilled one, but it really depends on your personal preference.

Grilled Pork Belly with Salt
Although this place is known as a specialty chicken skewer shop, they do sell pork too, though there are very few options. This grilled pork belly was a bit over-charred, but that actually helped prevent it from being too greasy. Overall, it was just okay.

Soy-Glazed Chicken and Scallion Skewers
Since our English vocabulary is quite limited and we don’t eat offal, we only know words like breast, thigh, wing, and heart. So most of the dishes are made with the same ingredients but prepared differently. These are chicken thighs skewered with scallions, which adds more texture and makes them tastier than the soy-glazed chicken thighs.

Grilled Pork Belly with Salt and Green Chili
I think it was green chili—please correct me if I’m wrong. This dish was something my friend insisted on ordering because they wanted to try an unusual combination. I had no choice but to join in. Although it’s called green chili, it wasn’t very spicy at all. The main flavor was the pork fat aroma. The texture is kind of hard to describe—not crispy, not hard, not soft either. You’ll have to try it yourselves, haha.

Grilled Chicken Wings
The menu lists 手羽 (shouyu), which means chicken wings. One serving comes with two wings. The wings here only have two sections. They’re also grilled with salt, and you can taste the umami of the chicken, but it felt a bit oily—so I’ll deduct a small point for that.

Grilled Asparagus with Pork Belly
The outer layer is sliced pork belly wrapped around asparagus. The presentation is quite fun. When you bite into it, the asparagus releases juice, which helps cut through the richness of the pork belly. It’s a nice combination.

Overall
Except for the salad, I thought everything was pretty good, especially the chicken sashimi—I fell in love with it after just one bite. V, if you guys are interested in these types of places, you can check out their Google Maps reviews. There are lots of photos and comments, and the food quality seems pretty good based on those. This is just my personal review.

Ahmon’s Taiwan Adventures – Food, Travel, Photography, Outings
Wandering around with a camera—snapping photos here and there—unexpected feelings.