Why Come Here? Best tongue in the city, tasty Japanese tapas
Right Amount for 2? 2-3 yakitori plus four larger dishes
For those unfamiliar, yakitori is kind of like Japanese BBQ. Skewers of meat (primarily chicken – and all parts of it!) are cooked over little pits of charcoal. Yakitori Tora cooks theirs over coals flown in from Japan for that extra bit of authenticity. They also charge a high price for the privilege, making it a better place for a snack and a drink than a full-on meal (it’s open until midnight).
Tora sort of resembles a ramen shop, occupying a narrow space with a large counter and only a few tables up front. The decor is similarly limited with one wall of brick, one of wood and one of glass (the fourth is out of sight). We sat at the counter, which is a low bench that is reasonably comfortable should you choose to linger.
The menu begins with yakitori offering up all parts of the chicken from the heart to the gizzard on a stick for your enjoyment. There are also some meatballs of pork, duck and pickled plum that looked good but I was unable to try due to an egg allergy. While the meat has an interesting smokey flavor from the charcoal, it runs up the tab pretty quickly with small amounts of meat starting at $5.
So I recommend focusing on the rest of the menu where the best dishes of the night were found, particularly among those using beef tongue. This part of the menu should be viewed as tapas style and also ordered liberally. Options include some hard to find Japanese snacks like Takowasa and an uni rice bowls well as some grilled and simmered meats, salads and rice balls. These are generally priced in the $10-15 range which is reasonable for the quality. There’s also a premium sake list which has many options that will pair well with your food.
Here’s what we tried:
Charcoal Grilled Beef Tongue 
I always felt tongue was meant to help with eating, not being eaten. But this was a game changer. Thinly sliced and a little salty and a little spicy, it’s an amazing dish. This is destined to be the one these guys are known for.
Simmered Beef Tongue 
Extremely tender and slightly sweet from the miso, this is another winner. I don’t know who’s where these tongues are coming from, but let’s just say there are some lucky bulls there…
Raw Octopus This a popular snack in Japan but rarely seen here. It’s not hard to understand why if you Google “Takowasa” (the Japanese name) and see the ugly mess most places are serving. This one looks pretty on the plate though. But if feels…sticky. The raw octopus, the seaweed on top of it, the okra…all require chopstick mastery to pry apart. But eat it safely folded in the grilled seaweed and you end up with some pretty interesting bites.
Washu Beef Rice Ball 
As you can see, this thing is about 98% rice. So you’re gonna need to remove the small sliver of beef and eat is separately to taste it. It does tastes good, but there’s no where near $8 worth of it.
Grilled Skewers of Chicken Tender w/ wasabi and Chicken Thigh Grilled chicken is hard to get too excited about, even when cooked over Japanese coals. These were no exception.
Yakitori Tora
72 Kenmare Street (Mulberry & Mott)
New York, NY
