Choji

One of the first things to catch the eye at Choji is the menu’s morning-slaughtered local chicken sashimi, alongside the yakitori. One diner singled out the chicken-liver sashimi, recalling that it had no unpleasant smell and came with a variety of condiments. They also enjoyed the liver skewers lightly cooked, and neck and cartilage grilled on skewers. The same diner said the chicken tenderloin skewer with grated daikon and ponzu was cooked medium, offering a different option from the liver and neck cuts.

You can choose individual skewers to sample particular cuts, or pick a portion size from the three omakase yakitori courses: 10, 16 or 20 skewers. A diner who ordered the 10-skewer selection and then added more said the egg-and-oviduct skewer and the wing-bone skewer stood out. Duck and the house-special tsukune chicken meatballs are also on the skewer menu, so you need not stick to familiar chicken cuts.

Between skewers, chicken rice porridge makes a warming finish. One diner praised its piping-hot dashi broth and saltiness. Individual hot pots include yudofu, local chicken nabe, and harigane-style hot pots with pork or duck, making them another option for a meal on your own. For a non-skewer dish, there is tofu steak described as made with yam and tofu, as well as steamed pork listed as arriving direct from Tsuruhashi.

Some diners have enjoyed Japanese sake and shochu here. The menu also lists the sweet-potato shochu Kurokirishima and Kuroshiranami, and the barley shochu Iichiko and Nikaido. Choji is in Kamikamitonecho, Kita Ward, Kyoto, and is listed as open from 17:30. Payment is cash only.