Sumiyaki Sousai Toriya Hitomi

Friendly staff speak some English, and they have English menus. Full of tourists. I had a great fried tofu I’ve never had before. I believe the chef does a very good job preparing and presenting food. Yet I have mixed feelings about this yakitori place. We ordered Dassai 45 sake, but they served something different. I know how the Dassai 45 tastes and asked what that was. The waitress went back to the kitchen and came back with apologies. The chef said they didn’t charge for us whatever they served and brought “correct” Dassai 45. I hope they didn’t do it intentionally. Most tourists will not know what the sake they ordered tastes like. There was one more missed order during the visit.

English menu available! Amazing food and even more conforting hospitality from the staff and chef! A warm and cozy place for a rewarding dinner and a few drinks after experiencing the beauty of Kyoto city.

This was hands down the most delicious yakitori place, possibly in the entire world. Everyone was really welcoming and super nice, and the master chef was so humble and kind! They only accept cash so that’s one thing to keep in mind, and if you come here with your stomach empty, you’ll surely need a lot of cash. However, I do promise the meal and sake here worth every yen. I sincerely want everyone to visit this place!!!

One of our best dining experiences ever. Staff were so nice, food was incredible, sake was delicious. It was great to sit at the bar and see all the action up front. We ordered so much that chef had to cut and prep new skewers during service after running out. That's when you know they care about your experience. We would love to be back one day to see Mr Hitomi and enjoy his yakitori. An unforgettable night. Kanpai for Scotland!!

I’ve heard so much good things about the place! It was definitely very very tasty. The chef is very friendly, and the staff as well. I didn’t have a reservation and they had one seat for me which was great. The only upsetting thing is that I asked for the Omakase option thinking that way the chef would choose for me the best and most special parts of the chicken, but in the end it was quite regular choices - 3 types of thigh, chicken breast, chicken fillet. Meatball which was amazing and chicken wings. Considering they had very special options in the menu it was kind of annoying.

10/10 food and experience, completely live up to its hype! Chef and the team was super nice and friendly toward us as a foreigner, and hands down the best yakitori I’ve had. Would recommend their innards - gizzard / heart, my partner not usually fond of these but she finds them tasty!

An absolutely incredible dining experience - one of my favourite in Japan. We had front row seats to the chef-owner on the grill cooking up the tastiest chicken. Every bite was delicious, the service was attentive and we loved every second. Heads up it’s cash only.

Saw that this place has a Michelin star, so walked in one night and made a booking for late the next day as they were full at the time. Arrived on the day of the booking was greeted warmly by the staff and head chef/owner. They put us upstairs which was very nice and got a whole area to ourselves. We got some multiple meatball, chicken thigh with salt, chicken thigh with green onion, gizzard, chicken skin skewers, one of each rice bowl and the Kyoto homebred chicken and the fried chicken. They also gave us the thigh with perilla for 'free' apparently it's for paying the cover charge. The concept of a cover charge is to meet a minimum spend which makes sense if you have limited seating, but usually when you spend over a certain amount you shouldn't need to pay it. For example if I pay $9 at a restaurant and the cover charge is $10 I would need to make up the $1. However this was added to the bill on top. So definitely left a bad taste as we well exceeded the cover charge. Some of the food was outstanding and some of it was exceptionally bad. For example the chicken with perilla skewer was incredible, an absolute flavour explosion, but the Kyoto Homeland chicken and thigh skewers were incredibly bad, it was actually tasteless with zero flavour. Some of it was just ok, like convenience store level food. But overall, we tried a lot of different things on the menu and I left unsatisfied in terms of food. I wouldn't go again as to just have one skewer that is particularly delicious just isn't worth it. Michelin stars seem to be kind of a scam in Japan at the lower price level. The service and staff were super nice and the chef was very amicable so overall maybe worth it if you get a few select items and don't mind paying a lot for going to a Michelin star restaurant, but don't go there expecting all of the food will be good because it just isn't.

Like everyone else, I read an older (but as of a month ago most recent) NYT 36 Hours in Kyoto article. I am so glad I didn't dismiss it as outdated and make the slight trek north of Gion to this little side street. We actually came around 7 and as expected, they were full. They even had a sign out front that said they were full for the night unless we'd made reservations. I popped my persistent butt in there to ask anyway, or at least to see how I could make reservations. One of the servers asked in the back (I assume the boss man) and said we could come back at 9:45. That's a pretty late dinner but wow was it worth the wait! We took our time walking around Potoncho, having a couple drinks before coming back for dinner. The place has largely cleared out but a couple came in after us too. We got the pleasure of sitting right at the chef's counter, watching chef work his magic on the grill. We basically ordered a smattering - probably half - of the dishes on the menu. It was all soooo good. Standouts to me outside the yakitori were the duck and grilled rice balls (they take time - and you'll want more than 1!) but you seriously can't go wrong. Food + service + ambiance were perfection. Our servers were the sweetest, even with limited English. They kept apologizing for seating us late and we kept apologizing for coming in late. We actually tried to tip which is not the custom here and they refused. I hope we didn't embarrass them, or that it was rude. We just really appreciated their service! I think it was cash only, which we didn't anticipate, but were glad it was such an affordable dinner even after ordering half the menu and multiple drinks.

Sumiyakisosaitoriya hitomi finds a way to serve you chicken in many different and delicious ways. My favorites were the skin, chicken oyster, sot-l'y'laisse, and thigh meat However, I also really enjoyed the duck, mushroom, creamy mashed potato salad, fried chicken topped with onion, ginger, & soy sauce, thigh meat with green onions, breast cartilage, wings, grilled rice ball, and gizzards The items I probably wouldn't order if I came back are the seared thigh meat (good but nothing special. Also much larger than the other items too), thigh meat rolled in perilla (perilla isn't for me), and the fried tofu (too large) -Come early and you might get a front row seat to the chef at work; it's a real joy to watch the chef -Unlimited salad (I think. We only ate one round of it) -Very cheap for a michelin restaurant

Another NYT find, we wandered into Hitomi at 5:30p on a Tuesday hoping to get a seat. We were quickly given 2 golden ticket seats at the counter, and were entranced by the chef/grill master for 2 hours. The sake flowed like water, and all the chicken was cooked to perfection. It was our favorite meal of our 8-day trip, and I don't even really like chicken, but it was that good. We also had the best salad in all of Japan. Highly recommend, but try to make a reservation as we saw quite a few people turned away.

We were able to get a late dinner reservation at Hitomi while we were visiting and we jumped at the chance. Yakitori is a favorite of mine and I'll tell you, I've never really had yakitori till I had it at hitomi. The wafting smoke is ridiculous there and the moment you walk in your mouth just waters. Sitting at the counter, I got to watch the chef rotate each skewer and work his magic over the pit. Each skewer was moist, smokey and I'm closing my eyes just remembering how delicious it was. Truly memorable - the only sad part was that because we had a late reservation, many of their special dishes were sold out. The kind chef however pitied us after all of his nos and gave us a bottle of sake to thank us for our patronage. Wonderfully memorable experience and a must try.

We went here based on NYTimes article and had our favorite meal in Japan. The dishes were nuanced, unusual, and inimitably tasty. A true highlight of our trip.