Yakitori Totto

Finding the entrance usually requires looking up – Yakitori Totto sits on the second floor of a nondescript building on West 55th, a layout that is standard in Tokyo but easy to miss in Midtown. You walk up a flight of stairs and step directly into a room that is tight, loud, and permanently scented with charcoal smoke. Since opening in 2003, this spot has operated with the frantic energy of a genuine izakaya, where the open kitchen is less of a showpiece and more of a furnace driving the room’s rhythm. The menu is built around the entire chicken. Whole birds are broken down in-house, meaning the kitchen serves parts many Western menus ignore, including hearts, tails, soft bone, and skin. The latter was famously endorsed by Anthony Bourdain and tends to sell out before the dinner rush ends. Chefs season skewers with salt or a house-made tare – a soy glaze prepped daily – and hand them over the counter the second they leave the grill. There are no reservations here. The wait for a table often spills down the stairwell, so arriving early is the only way to avoid a long delay. Once seated, you order in bursts, adding bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms, grilled smelt, or rice bowls like the Kalbi Don as you go. It is a place for fast drinking and eating, often ending with a matcha affogato before you head back down to the street.