Kintori Yakitori

Since I had such a great time at the tastings at other Kinka Family restaurants, I was happy to be invited to Kintori Yakitori. I mean… who doesn’t love food on a stick?!
It is located above Kinton Ramen, just east of Christie Station on Bloor. It’s got lots of seating in booths or at the bar that overlooks the kitchen. The bathroom is kind of hidden, you just push on the wall until you find the door. Heehee. Luckily, if you have any accessibility issues, you can order Kintori Yakitori food from the ramen place on the main floor! And if you get a ramen craving while upstairs enjoying yakitori, you can order there as well. Win!
The skewers and charcoal are imported from Japan and you can absolutely taste the difference. It has a menu with lots of variety, for those adventurous or not. There were some foods at this tasting I had never had, but I tried everything!
We started with Chicken Original Soup and Oshinko Moriawase. A delightful chicken broth soup with scallions. It was perfect for a cold day. The spoons they gave us were so cool, I wish I’d got a photo. The second appetizer were assorted homemade Japanese pickles. There were 2 varieties and they were crisp and delicious. The cucumber pickles were sweet and the other were more… ummm…for the lack of a better word… branch-​y. I’m not sure what veg they were, but I ate them all!
Next up was our first foods on a stick. Negima (chicken thigh & tokyo scallions) and Zuri (chicken gizzard). The chicken thigh was tender, juicy and let the charcoal flavours shine. I will order this when I come back. Yum! Ok, so now for the chicken gizzard. It was a little chewier than I’d like, similar to steak grizzle, but not quite that tough. Other people there loved it though. They made me feel like a newbie!
The Nikumiso Kyabetsu (cabbage salad) and Tebasaki (chicken wing) arrived. The salad came as cabbage leaves with housemade chicken miso dip, it was a nice light course. We needed one like this, there’s a lot to go! Then it came… the best chicken wing I have EVER eaten. If you order anything when you’re here you ABSOLUTELY MUST order this. It’s crisp, juicy, flavourful and the charcoal strikes again. I cannot say enough good things about this chicken wing. All you could here was Mmmmmmmm collectively over the whole crowd.
Back to food on a stick with Uzura Kuchi Age (panko breaded quail eggs) and Premium Gyu-​Tongue (beef tongue). Some more new things for me to try. The deep fried eggs were really good! A little greasy and not too eggy. The panko breading was perfect. The beef tongue tasted beefy and was slightly chewy, just chewy enough to let you know it’s not regular beef. It was quite tasty.
Still more to come, we were given Tsukune (chicken meatballs) and Hatsu (chicken hearts). The meatballs were great, nice seasoning and that charcoal flavouring just makes everything even better. Chicken hearts were not what I expected. They were meatier than I thought they would be. Had the chicken texture, but didn’t taste fully chickeny. It’s hard to describe. Again, everyone loved them!
Time for Reba (chicken liver) and Asparagus (deep fried, panko breaded wrapped in bacon on a stick). I’ve had beef liver before, so that’s what I expected it to be like. The flavour was quite similar to beef liver, but the texture threw me. It wasn’t as firm, not mushy though. The asparagus was a little greasy and I didn’t really notice the bacon. The panko gave good flavour and the asparagus was cut in perfect, bite-​size pieces. You really CAN put anything on a stick!
From here, we received Negi Shio Gyu (beef with scallion sauce) and Dashi Maki (Japanese omelette). The beef was tender and juicy. The scallions gave it a great flavour and they did not hold back on them. The egg was ok. Not special after all of the other dishes we tried. At this point we were so full and we still had dessert coming. Oh my stretchy pants!
For dessert, we had Yaki Onigiri (rice ball with plum) and Houki Cha Brulee (green tea crème brulee). The rice ball was too heavy a dessert after that tasting. I could only eat a few bites. The plum was sour and the rice was crunchy. Never had a dessert like this before. The crème brulee was perfect. Usually, the custard only has a hint of its flavouring, but this tasted just like green tea. The great finish.
The staff here, and all Kinka Family locations, are friendly, welcoming and provide great service. They’re happy to answer any questions about the food. I will be back to this location to get more chicken wings and taste more of their menu.

«Sitting down, we paid a bit more attention to the bar area overlooking the grill. The kitchen bar decoration included a few pieces of stacked charcoal and dark slates used as plates.»
«The plum wine reminded us of sherry — maple nose, a bit strong and alcoholic, slightly sour and perfect to lighten and soothe the warm atmosphere, especially as it came served on the rocks.»:”
«We really enjoyed our evening of skewer adventures. It was impressive that we had almost every part of an animal on a stick — heart, liver, tongue, gizzard, wings, you name it — a tad disturbing and at the same time rather sustainable. «
Just a few bites of our full review.

I wish Unilocal allows half stars as this joint deserves a little more than 3. I’d give it 3.5 stars. Been here twice specifically for Yakitori, which is located on the second floor of Kinton. I’ll average my reviews based on the two visits. I do have to say if go on a Friday night, quality of service might be impacted since they tend to be understaffed. Once we were able to get someone’s attention, the food didn’t take long to arrive.
Their menu isn’t as extensive, but will still have the yakitori staples such as chicken balls, gizzard, wings, beef tongues, etc. I find their seasonings, albeit flavourful, to be too salty for my liking. My personal favourites are the chicken skin, chicken heart, chicken wings, premium beef tongue, and takoyaki.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here, but it’s perfect on days where I feel peckish and want some variety. And, I would say Yakitori Kintori is an accurate description of an Izakaya where the food comes second, only as accompaniment to drinks.

What a cool little place! It has a modern Japanese décor throughout. The bathroom even had a secret door built into the wall. I got a kick out of that!
I was able to try a number of new things here, including chicken gizzards and chicken liver (not my thing), and chicken hearts and beef tongue (surprisingly delicious!). I could eat the chicken wings, chicken meatballs and beef with scallion sauce all night long! The meats were char grilled to perfection.
For dessert I had green tea crème brûlée which was devine!
The only let downs for me (besides the organ meats which was no fault of the restaurant, just personal taste), were the plum filled rice ball (it was quite bitter) and the Japanese omelette (it was fluffy but bland — the spices on the table helped save it a bit though). If you stick to meats you enjoy, you can’t go wrong here.
All in all, great experience!

Perhaps it is unfair for me to put kintori up against yakitori I had in Japan but lack of yakitori shops in the city and my yearning for that simple yet smoky and balanced taste of chicken pieces I once had back it tiny hole in the wall yakitori shops in Japan forced me into kintori.
First I think $$ sign by Unilocal is quite miss leading. I’m a small eater yet for me to get full in this place with a pint of beer will easily cost me $ 30 – 40.
This is by far the most fancy schpancy yakitori place I’ve ever been to yet the highly priced items are not quite living up to its expected quality. Wings probably were my favourite but the inclusion of wing tip was bit of a disappointment and big part of the skin being very soft and mushy was not impressive. Separate order of chicken skin was crispy but had undesirable chicken smell to it. Pork belly was little to dry considering how succulent it can be when cooked right, which isn’t at the level of rocket science and same as chicken thigh. Tacowasa was good though but being in a yakitori place, I expected to be semi {at the very least} blown away by yakitori but I left the place, once again defeated with disappointment that led me to get online, and order me a electric yakitori grill straight from Japan.
I think when it comes to yakitori, Ju Izakaya by j-​town up in Steeles and woodbine still holds its own. Little pricey but I still can’t forget the wings I had there. Simply amazing.
I wouldn’t recommend kintori for anyone with slightly higher than average expectation from having had yakitori in Japan or at some decent places in major cities of North America. But if you must try, don’t go here to get full, but may be in half empty stomach.
Counting down the day I get my grill. Woot!

Hmm… delicious meat on a stick and cold sake… there isn’t much to not like about this place! You can definitely get carried away ordering $ 3 skewers but oh man are they tasty. We like to order the vegetable sampler plus a half dozen meats… that plus a bottle of Junmai sake makes for a great dinner. A few our favorites are: negima; chicken hearts; wagyu beef; pork belly; momo.
It gets super busy on the weekends, try and make a rez or you’ll end up at the counter

Kintori is the Yakitori joint of the Kinka group (which also owns JaBistro, Guu (now Kinka) Izakaya and Kinton Ramen). Kintori is located on the second floor of the building. Their specialty is yakitori, japanese meat skewers. We ordered a combination skewers and tapas. Nothing really stood out to me and thus overall it is an OK. The bill came out to be around $ 30 per person.

The noodle bar is on the first floor but the Yakitori is on the 2^nd up the stairs.
I like this place and as far as yakitori goes I am a fan of these types of servings and choices. The menu breakdown is by skewers, fuller dishes, other small plates and what makes it fun is you can mix it up and try different things without going all out committed on one type of food.
While I didn’t have beef this time around I did go with a couple kinds of skewered chicken, a pork belly bun and a basket of boneless spicy fried chicken (kaarage).
Even though we split our bills if some of the orders happened to be in common they’d put them all on one plate even though one would be mine and another somebody else’s at the table. We’d find ourselves asking what some of the things were so we’d know we’d be taking our own orders as well.
Things were moving and plates kept coming so we were having to keep up with our orders and we had 6 at our table.
A couple things about the upstairs, if you sit at the bar you can see the chefs working right in front of you mind you there is a glass partition. The washroom is through a «secret» door at the back that looks like a wall LOL… You can tell where to push because the handplate is there. It is however for reasons of the law marked as an «EXIT» as well… you know through the door you can’t tell is really there.
Next time I think I’ll do a variety of skewers and maybe indulge in some Wagyu beef too. The Karaage was ok, but I’ve had better. I liked the pork bun a lot.
I like this place and I will come back here…

I really like the whole package that Kintori offers. It is about how inexpensive or expensive it can be, based on what you order. There are options of inexpensive ($ 2) and expensive snacks (approx $ 10). The rice and noodle, meal entrees that fill you up, are generally inexpensive.
I came to Kintori with a big group. While I only had one premium tapa ($ 9) and one yakitori don ($ 7), other people ordered many things. From what I could see, they looked well made. The fried chicken wings looked so deliciously saucy. The beef sashimi on salad looked healthy. The presentation of every dish was pretty. The two items I had were fresh and tasty.
The restaurant is nicely decorated. I enjoyed my experience of sitting here with a group. The waitress didn’t bother us. I think Kintori is a good place for a reasonably priced casual date.
Food alone: 3.5 stars. Overall 4 stars.

Service is good like traditional authentic Japanese restaurants. That earn a star.
Yakitori is a bit disappointing because of the taste of most of them. I tried the eel, it tasted weird. The chicken oyster was ok. Chicken wings are by far the best, but you can do a outdoor picnic and grill as many as you like, it’s good but it’s normally good anyways. Chicken liver is ok, the 2 we ordered were different because one was overcooked the other was the opposite. Pork belly was ok. Lamb chop was not as good as grilling at home. Overall the BBQ taste was not strong as expected. When you order a lot then it adds up to be quite expensive.
Original pork ramen has so much fat in it, I’m not the only one who cannot stand the ramen.
The vibe is nice though. Having a sake or beer and ordering yaki whenever you like. Good for eating and chatting with friends here.

Not a bad restaurant. Everything came really fast (literally dish after dish), but then again, they’re just skewers so that may be why. The food was delicious, especially the ox tongue! They specialize in skewers (yakitori) but they also have other dishes like udon. We were there early so it was quite quiet and empty, but it filled up fast. Reservations is highly recommended!

Kintori!!! Oh yes, it must be read with the three exclamation marks behind it. It’s part of the Kinka Family chain group, you see; another sister restaurant to the raucous Guu Izakayas. Like, a darker & cooler Guu sister that smokes… meat on a grill.
Yakitori in its literal translation is meat, but Kintori has veggies and other proteins on charcoal-​flame licked skewers too. The most surprising veggie standout for me was the Tokyo scallion, where the milder tastes comes to life through the charred, black grill lines.
The meats still make up the major part of my meal though, since there’s a much bigger meats menu. They’re all good, expertly and carefully watched over and turned over with precision.
A couple of things to watch out for if you’re a somewhat squeamish eater: the reba/​Mennonite chicken liver is served rare on the inside, so don’t order it if the idea makes you wanna toss cookies. If you like it though, it’s pretty awesome, especially when it’s cooled down and takes on a silky texture.
Second, the bonjiri. What’s up? Chicken butt. No, for realsies, it’s the tip of the chicken tail slash literal chicken butt. It has a sort of rubbery texture that only chewing on pure fat will give you. I’m fine with it, but if you’re used to a low-​calorie diet, it may groce you out.
Last tip: You may want to sprinkle some of the sea salt served on the side on some of the skewers.
The only thing that deters me from giving Kintori 5 stars is the price. I wish it were just a little less than the $ 2 – 3 per skewer range, considering the price of meats in Canada are not that high (in comparison to Tokyo anyway). That said, you can literally see the hard work in the boiling hot kitchen though, so I consider it mostly payment for the service which is the case for eating out anyhow. This won’t stop me from coming back though. See you there?

Had a nice dinner here on Saturday night. It’s on the second floor above a Kinton Ramen location. Reservations can be made online either through Unilocal or their website. We had an early dinner at five, but at 6:30 when we left, it was getting busy.
The space is small with table or bar seating options. Décor wise, it’s minimalistic — black walls and floors, it’s a lot quieter than other izakaya’s in Toronto.
The menu is not too large, but they have a good selection of yakitori. I also ordered other items including a rice bowl, karaage, grilled squid and dessert. With our second order of karaage, I asked for the jalapeño sauce. The fried chicken is already flavourful so save your $ 0.50 and don’t order it. As for the meat skewers, I really liked the tsukune and negi Shio Gyu (love the scallion on it). To finish out meal, we ordered the Hojicha Crème brûlée and gobo brownie; skip the latter as all I could taste was the gobo (isn’t dessert supposed to sweet?). The yakitori is a little on the higher side so it can easily add up though.
Kintori Yakitori is certainly not a cheap eat, but a great place to try some Japanese tapas and enjoy some Japanese draft beer.
Good for: dinner, tapas, Japanese, groups

3.5 Star
$ 5 for a Stein of Sapporo Draft beer?! This might be the best deal in town if you are into Sapporo beer.
Here at Kintori Yakitori, not only you get the beer special but you can drink and eat some delicious skewers.
Sitting right at the open kitchen area and watching how the kitchen prepares the food is kind of fun. Here might not be the real Izakaya experience (quiet and zen) but it is great just to catch up with your friends.
Sake Sample ($ 14) is decent with good pour and of course I really enjoyed my Sapporo
In general: I found most of the «meat» skewer lack flavour but the braising sauce match much better with their seafood and vegetables
Momo (Chicken Thigh)
Shimofiri Gyu-​Tongue Kushi
Kawa (Chicken Skin)
Hizanankotsu (Knee Cartilage)
Ton Toro (Pork Cheek)
Ebi (Shrimp)
Shlirake (mushroom)
Eringi (mushroom)
Houji Cha Crème Brulee (Roasted Green Tea)
Yuzu Sorbet
Service is polite and since it was not busy there on a Sunday evening, we can really take our time and placed order slowly.
Will I be back to have some more beers?! For sure! And of course some more of those little sticks of happiness!

My bf and I ordered pork belly yakitori along with bacon with enoki mushrooms and beef with scallion sauce to share. My boyfriend ordered Yakitori Don, grilled chicken skewers on rice, and I ordered Karage Tamago Toji Don, deep fried chicken with egg on rice. The pork belly and bacon with enoki yakitori tasted pretty good. The beef with scallion sauce was really tough and hard to chew through. My boyfriend said his Yakitori Don tasted alright, nothing special.
Everything came out on time except for my rice dish. I patiently waited until 30 minutes had passed (30 min after everything else came out). I asked our waitress when my rice would be coming out and she said shortly. Finally after 1 hour of waiting, my rice was served. My boyfriend had already finished eating and so I was eating by myself. On top of the wait, my food was so bland I had to ask for some soy sauce to give it flavour. We were extremely disappointed by the long wait and bland flavours.

The 1 star reviews are plain ignorant and moronic. If you don’t understand how a yakitori japaense restaurant works… you probably should leave your opinion out of a review. Yes, they are small dishes… that is the point. Have you hear of «tapas» or «appetizers» either? Anyways, this Yakitori is located right above the delicious Kinton Ramen (which you can also order from here), and is delicious. Everything we ordered was quite flavorful and extremely satisfying.

This place is the parody of a real restaurant. When the dishes come out, it feels like being on a prank show. I am unsure if this restaurant was intended for human customers because the portions are so freakishly small.
Perhaps this is a restaurants for hamsters.
By skewer they mean a toothpick with 2 or 3 slivers of meat. It just makes no sense to serve food in this manner. I ended the night with hundreds of tooth picks around me.
Maybe it would be worth the hassle if the food was awesome, but it isn’t. It is boring… At least I think it is… Each skewer was so tiny you can barely appreciate the taste.
Five stars if you are a hamster. One star if you are a human.

Notes: Reservations are highly recommended; MUST get the dekitate tofu, sake cheese fondue and kitsune udon.
The space barely has more than 50 seats. We reserved a table at 5pm because we had plans in the evening and were laughing at how silly that seemed… Who even eats dinner this early? But upon arrival we noticed that every. single. table. was reserved and suddenly we were very glad that we had decided to book. While we were eating, we noticed many groups being turned away because reservations took up the restaurant — even bar seats were reserved!
As their logo is a chicken (while Kinton’s is a pig for pork!), their main skewers consisted of chicken parts. Now, I say chicken parts because there is really no limit to what they skewer from the chicken. Rare finds include: chicken tail, chicken oyster (ie. chicken testicles), chicken gizzard and chicken neck. Most chicken and pork skewers range from $ 1.30 — $ 2 but the beef skewers range all the way up to $ 9 for a Wagyu beef skewer
Yakitori Kintori grills their skewers using Binchotan technique which is a traditional Japanese charcoal that burns at a very low temperature for a longer period. This results in less smoke from the charcoal which is perfect (and much more preferred) for indoor restaurants.
ON TO OUR FAVOURITE DISHES OF THE NIGHT:
— KITSUNE UDON ($ 7 for 3) deep fried tofu & udon noodle in dashi broth
This was one of the most unique dishes of the night! We were really confused when the dish came because we ordered this expected a bowl of soup udon. Imagine our surprise when we realized the udon is actually wrapped in the deep fried tofu and served in a delicious dashi broth. Adored the presentation of it all and it was really odd biting into a tofu and getting a mouthful of noodles instead.
— CHICKEN KAARAGE ($ 6) skewered deep fried chicken
Guu’s karaage never fails to impress and this karaage fell nothing short of our expectations of Guu’s.
— DEKITATE TOFU ($ 7) tofu prepared at your table
This is a MUST ORDER. We were really excited to try this dish because the tofu is prepared fresh tableside. Not only is the dish fun because they prepare it table side but holy cow, this tofu is the softest tofu I have ever eaten. It is served with a white salt and a smoked salt, which was absolutely HEAVEN. Give the tofu 10 minutes to cook, then scoop it into your bowls. A really nice break from meat and fish.
— NONKOTSU KAARAGE ($ 5.5) deep fried knee cartilage
This is another of our family favourites — we LOVE chicken knee cartilage. While this was really good, we were missing the distinct crunch from the cartilage. But we would order this again in a second. In fact, we were going to if we weren’t so full!
— HOUJI CHA CREME BRULEE ($ 5) Green tea crème brûlée
A definite recommend! The tea-​flavoured is unreal and does not taste like the artificial tea you typically taste in supermarket green tea ice cream. It really, really tastes like a cup of tea. Very enjoyable and ended our meal on a very sweet note.
— BEER SORBET ($ 5) Sapporo beer sorbet
For beer fanatics, this is your saviour. It is a very strong taste of beer with the same bitterness. Very refreshing and enjoyable but it is not for everyone. If you’re not the type of person to drink beer, you probably won’t enjoy this.
There were some hits and misses but we will definitely be stopping by Yakitori Kintori again. Service is on point but it is more of an eat and go restaurant rather than a long lengthy dinner like JaBistro. This is NOT the place for a bunch of hungry men. Like Guu, while each plate is cheap on its own, it is very easy to rack up the bill. I actually overheard a party of 2 saying they were eating at YK for a light snack before heading to Kinton Ramen downstairs for their ramen!

The newest one of the kintori restaurants, came here when they first opened and came back with some friends after a Sunday funday around downtown, was lucky to get a table right away, and a nice table at that, perhaps it’s cuz I got the bench side of the table any not one of the «chairs» (how do you even call it a chair) it’s good to come if u want to have a drink or two have some food to snack on, not really a place you go if ur super hungry. The workers are super friendly and really Japanese (as they are at all the kinton family of restaurants)
Place is small but it works for now, very nice décor and nice lighting. The selection is good and they have a special daily menu.

Mmm chicken! @yakitorikintori
A couple of things I love about this place.
1) Head to Tail chicken (and some pork and beef) including fun things like knee cartilage, gizzard, and tail (aka butt)
2) Service was excellent. Seems like they have improved based on reviews from when they first opened. Each order came at a really good pace just as we finished the previous one, Deep Fried things took a little longer
3) can make reservations! For both the tables or bar.
4) somehow with all the bbqing in such a small space the ventilation was amazing. Couldn’t smell a thing unlike some places I walk in and it’s a wonderful charcoal smell but get stuffy and hot.
Prices are good. At around $ 1 – 2 about skewer it wasn’t heartbreaking to just order more whenever we wanted. Best is one skewer per type for every two people. More sharing makes the experience not very fun.
All the skewers we got were just with salt, although good the charcoal flavour didn’t really come through (supposed to?). Nonetheless, all really good.
We also got the Karaage. It was wonderfully juicy chicken piece doused in the perfect amount of batter. We actually got it twice because she mixed up my nonkotsu karaage with this one. We didn’t resolve it because it was quite good.
They also have specials with larger plated $ 5 – 8. Got a grilled whole squid. Highly recommended. They also had my favourite fried kimchi udon from Guu. Yum.
For dessert there is a roasted green tea brulee $ 5 which was everything you would imagine it would be. And ice cream including a sake vanilla (get this!), beer sorbet (tastes like beer slushie), black sesame. (also favourite) and match green tea. Ice cream come in two scoops. It was my friends birthday and they gave us a great dessert platter for $ 12 which had the crème brûlée and one scoop of each flavour.
It quiet (compared to guu) in here but lively enough to have a nice vibe. For our meal 4 people we spent about 20 – 30 per person and was full up.