Yakitori Torys

If you can’t make it over to Yakitori Totto in Midtown West, there’s Torys in Midtown East. Well, there WAS Torys. It’s now Hide-​chan Ramen:
I remember the yakitori being just as good as Totto here, but have only been once. Another friend claims that the menu here was too limited. I didn’t pay attention, but it doesn’t matter now that they are concentrating on ramen here.
Hide-​chan (same Hide as Hideki, yay) is the sister ramen shop of Totto Ramen:
Hide-​chan focusses on Kyushu-​style tonkotsu (pork stock), specifically the Hakata region of Fukuoka. It is named after their chef, Hideto Kawahara. Read more about it on GrubStreet:

closed… *sigh*
My friend told me a new ramen place «Hide-​chan Ramen» is opening in its place.
I will miss my crispy kawa and my hand-​squeezed grapefruit shochus, but am definitely excited to try their ramen! :D

Update: Sadly, Yakitori Torys (despite being wildly popular and busy every night) shut its doors last week and has become reinvented as a ramen shop — Hide-​Chan. Will report back soon;)

My recent impression was Torys has become extremely lazy and complacent. On my last visit to Torys on Thursday evening, by 9:30pm half the menu was sold out. How is it possible for a restaurant that’s open late after midnight? Even grilled rice balls were sold out. How is that possible? Even if you go early in the evening there are always some items on the menu that’s not available. I wonder what’s left to eat if you show up at midnight.
It still serves tasty yakitori, but this constant unavailable menu items has become such a turn off. They clearly do not care about serving its customers, as it is literally not serving. They have also been cutting the menu items so much since it opened, and most of my favorite items are no longer on the menu. Just sad. I wonder the restaurant management expanded too many restaurants and is falling apart? I suspect they plan to close this place and send the customers to their other locations.

«I would only recommend Yakitori Totto and Sakagura to you»
I am usually late. And although I just needed 24h to run to Sakagura, 5 months have been necessary to finally reach Yakitory Torys after the previous advice from one of the Unilocalers I most trust. Ok, technically I haven’t follow exactly his directions but you should know that people from Totto, Torys and Aburiya Kinnosuke are in fact the same. I already knew Aburiya and that night, after being stress out stuck at work until 11pm and dress in casual, Yakitory and sake sounded perfect but unlike Totto, Torys was closer and its open late. Its located upstairs and I was the only Caucasian by that time and for a moment I forget I was in NY. In between, don’t get confuse with next door’s local at the same location; «a kind of gentlemen club» as the nice Japanese bouncer announce while block me at the door when I was insistently trying to get into it. I still don’t have clear what is that about, I can’t remember the name and I haven’t even been able to find out on line. After all I am a girl. And Guys, keep focus. This is about Torys.
In short, everything is cute. You can breath cleanness, simpleness and although we were seating in the bar close to the charcoal grill you will leave as clean as you enter as I could confirm after The hair test. The menu is easy to follow if you are familiar, not necessarily an expert, in Japanese cuisine. Regular Izayaka dishes and Yakitoris but executed at exceptional level. Yakitory Torys serves street and comfort food as you can deduce from the name and as I mention its open late but don’t expect same craziness as in East village’s Yakitory Taisho or Village Yokocho. The place was pretty quiet at that time. The private rooms was busy, but you will know it only if you look at it as you will not hear anything. I can picture intimate dinners with close friends, just a friend or your special one. Don’t expect as well food like in the East Village destinations as Torys will brought to you bites of heaven. And for bites I mean literally. We are talking about tapas. And for heaven take it seriously as well. The menu also include some other items including seafood, meat, ramen, noodle and rice dishes that I will love to explore in the future.
Our orders was quite standard and I loved everything but let me point out a couple of things. Takowasa or Raw octopus marinated in mildly spicy wasabi sauce. I love when the octopus is raw in this dish not precook as is served in other places, like Taisho for instance. For a few seconds I thought the pieces would start to move like at Silk Gaek, but no worries it didn’t move at all. Maybe the spontaneous movements of live food just chopped was killed for the wasabi. Its funny that is described as mildly, since to enjoy this dish you must tolerate and like wasabi a lot. Like myself. Love Love Love. Cold tofu in a bamboo basket was next. 2 large pieces of homemade tofu, creamy, firm and delicious that I could eat alone, with the tuna flakes, with the soy sauce, with the pepper and scallions with all this things together or mixed with the octopus. I finally enjoyed it mostly alone as the flavor and texture was amazing. Finally, lets talk about their Hotate: 4 scallops, like a coat bottom, small in size but large in flavor. Grilled in soy sauce resulting in soft and super-​tasty pieces of fresh seafood.
The drinks menu include beer, shochu, shochu cocktail and a few other offers like Japanese and Western wine but Sake is was I was looking for that night and the menu is enough large to find a few that you will want to order. We wanted hot sake in particular and although there was just one indicated in the menu you can order any of them and they will make it hot for you. We decided to drink a carafe of Daishichi. It was delicate in flavor, a bit dry, smooth in the beginning and very strong as final note.
Yakitory didn’t cure my stress but it was an awesome parenthesis that brought me peace that day. Except for the confusion with the gentlemen club (again guys, keep focus) all was easy and pleasant. Because, I haven’t mention it yet but the servers were friendly. Smiles and kindness is what you will receive from all of them. Sakagura is more creative and their sake menu, as many of you know, is unbeatable. The taste at Sakagura just makes you stop breathing trying to discern the flavors and textures at your mouth. And not, this is not after the sake exposure but will happen to you before. Aburiya Kinnosuke is the place for a full meal. Happily satisfied with high quality ingredients in a traditional Japanese way, where you better go with someone expert to enjoy it completely.
Torys however, is where you can refuge with a drink and where food will not become the main character of the night, but you will notice how exceptional it is. And hey, whatever I say, Torys belongs to Aburiya kinnosuke and Yakitory Totto. And that, that can’t be ignored as well.

after being a bit skeptical of yakitori restaurants – because, really, how can 3 – 5 lil pieces of meat be worth $ 5-​$ 7? It is!
Or, the entire experience is.
Con: $ 20/​person minimum
Pro: authentic Japanese yakitori and other delish menu items
The food lowdown:
Skirt steak w/​onions: perfectly marinated
Pork with scallions: good but minor fat trimmings
Asparagus: love! better portion size than Hondaya in Tustin and tastier than O’Taisho on St. Mark’s Place
Ramen: best I’ve ever had~ (preferred over Ajisen, Ippudo, Donburiya, and other locations on the Lower East Side)
Knee-​bone: okay, you chew on bone and I guess others like it because it’s high in calcium?
Chicken meatball: tender
Beef tongue: too tongue textured for me but tasty
Kalbi: boneless, good
Quail egg: okay
Mushroom w/​soy sauce: large and seemed to have a slight Shitake flavor, not really my thing
Desserts served with tiny spoons:
Green tea ice cream: good, love the green tea powder
Sweet apricot tofu: BEST (!) I’ve ever had– it is listed as apricot but it is really an almond gelatin dessert, the softest, silkiest tofu which melts in your mouth topped with a blueberry; the only thing I didn’t like about it was the blueberry which hadn’t had sufficient time to defrost. Their desserts beat Kyotofu.
The staff is polite and very attentive, and food is served promptly. It’s nice to sit at the bar and watch your food grilled by Japanese chefs right in front of you.

Oh yes, this place makes the Yakitori experience just right!
The place is almost a specular copy of the fantastic Yakitori Totto, in the West side. Food is delicious. The skewers are delicious and there is a variety of choice for other Japanese dishes as well. Food is meticulously prepared by the chef in a very Japanese style.
The décor is great and almost make you think you are in some restaurant in Japan.
Highly recommended if you love yakitori!

I had a lot of fun here! It was expensive, they didn’t have anything on their limited menu for a 7.30 reservation, but I still had a blast. I knew going in that the service was going to be slow, so we ordered a massive amount of skewers and appetizers, but I did leave hungry. Perhaps not eating all day wasn’t a good idea? Next time, I’ll know better.
I thought the chicken meatball was the best of the bunch, and that pepper…

Love this place! I could eat here once a week. Their tsukune (chicken meatballs) are the best I’ve had in the city. I also highly recommend getting the rice ball yakitori. It is an interesting take on the rice ball.
Finally, even though they are known for their yakitori, I highly recommend the ramen. It is fantastic and is definitely a hidden gem in this city.

I’ve heard so much about Totto’s that I decided to try Torys because I can actually get a reservation. Since its affiliated, I figured it’ll be very similar. Unfortunately, the place did not live up to the expectations.
The chicken with scallion was amazing. It was juicy with crispy skin. It was perfect. However, the experience went downhill from then on. The quail eggs, rice balls, and radish meatball were average. The grilled squid was fishy. The rice for one of the chicken dish was not cooked well enough. The whole meal was decent, but it should have been a lot better for the price paid.

If you are entertaining a client or bringing a date, I would suggest to come here. Why? Well, it’s romantic, small (mm.cozy) It’s a bit more upscale than the sister restaurant on 55^th, but there are some really good menu items there that are not available here.
If you’re hungry, beware. The food comes one at a time, and there is a 5 or 10 minute wait in between each. The Udon soup was okay– a bit flavorless. For 12 bucks I really expected a bigger amount of noodles, more chicken, or something. It didn’t really fill me up.
The chicken asparagus is delicious. Delicious. The lamb chop and the skirt steak are unbeatable. Definitely get the sauce rather than the salt. It tastes salty and dry if you get the salt version. (they’ll ask)
I think we were there for 1.5 hrs. Too long for dinner.
The staff is really nice.

The best thing about this branch is that it accepts reservations. I would recommend sitting by the bar if your party is small, just because it’s fun to watch them grill up the foods, and also, it lets you have a sneak peek at what’s available.
Their skewers are all generally very tasty and juicy — chicken oysters, chicken thigh, skirt steak and boneless short rib are all safe bets. The chicken meatball (tsukune) was very juicy and tasty. Their specialties are the interesting, non-​main-​stream cuts of meats like chicken soft bone etc, which apparently are so popular that they frequently sell out well before 7.30pm. I didn’t try any of the specialty meats except the beef tongue, which was a bit too rubbery.
Other dishes from the menu that I tried were the chicken nanban (not good here, definitely have tasted better versions elsewhere) and the yudofu (great choice if you’re looking for something light, it has a superbly creamy texture which is perfectly balanced by the clean taste of tofu). The chicken negidon (rice bowl with chicken and an egg) was not that great either, but is an ok choice if you want some carbs.
I would recommend coming here for a cozy dinner with a good friend, and stick with the yakitori in general.
Overall, Service is attentive but slow. The foods tend to be served up very slowly.

I don’t know what is up with all these reviews complaining about bad/​slow/​racist service. We are both white and sat there for 3 hours and had amazing service all night. I had just gotten off a plane and was pretty dehydrated, but literally as soon as I emptied the water glass they filled it up again.
The food came out very quickly, probably within 10 – 15 minutes of us ordering. We had various kinds of beef, pork, and chicken dishes which were all great. We especially liked the beef short ribs and we tried it both ways (salty/​saucy). They also have a very nice sake and shochu menu.
I’m sure I will be back to this place. I’m a night owl and this may be one of my new go-​to places since the kitchen is open until 3:30am.

For me (and I can see that I am not totally off the wall), service can really stop a great night. I had driven by this place many times with my boyfriend and he is a huge fan of Yakatori (we had went to the one on St Marks this summer), he was pleased that this was going to be the same food. Upon entering, I loved it! I liked that it was upstairs and that it didn’t feel as cramped like the one downtown. It was actually a nice place but the service. They were very attentive to my boyfriend and I felt that I had to fend for myself! As I looked around, I saw servers everywhere; however, it was hard for me to get refills of my drinks. It really brought the evening to a low point as I was super pissed.
I told my boyfriend that I would go on Unilocal to see what the general consensus was (as of last night I was not about going). Honestly, I thought that their oblivious behaviour was almost borderline racist simply because I was the only African American there and my boyfriend is white (most of the patrons were of Asian descent and after my frustration I truly thought that that was it). But after reflecting and reading, I think that the service is just bad universally and the staff is ok with being clueless (I would take a small Yakitori place like the one on St Marks who happens to have excellent service). They did forget some of my boyfriends skewers; however, they weren’t quick to rush us. A large table next to ours received their bill and even after paying they stayed an additional 40 mins.
I have to say that I loved my Ramen soup — it was amazing and they seemed apologetic that they had forgotten my boyfriend’s chicken livers. Now that I know that they’re not on the ball, it makes it easier for me to go back but it won’t be somewhere that I will want to go a lot as I don’t like having to make such an effort to be serviced!

This was my second yakitori experience and I’m afraid it wasn’t a good one.
Reservations were made for 11 people and they only provided enough seating for 10. We had to squeeze the last person in which forced us to move all tables to one side leaving only one way out for those seated against the wall If you had to pee then too bad! Groups of 11 or more are NOT recommended.
Some of the food was actually tasty. I enjoyed the Paitan udon (noodle in pork broth), Yakinasu (eggplant), Kuro Buta Negi Pon (Organic pork w/​scallion & ponzu), Grilled Squid, and especially the Mochi Ice Cream. I ordered the Hatsu (chicken heart) just to try it and it’s certainly not for everyone. The Nagaimo (sticky yam) had a very strange crunchy and gooey texture with little taste. Other dishes I didn’t like too much were the Sunagimo (chicken gizzard) and Kobe Beef Gyutan (tongue).
So why the 2 stars? Service was almost absent. My wife and I ordered 7 dishes. There was nearly an hour gap in between the serving of our 3^rd and 4^th dishes. I complained about this to the waiter and his response was that the dishes take time to prepare. Gee, thanks captain obvious! I think I recall the menu stating the longest time for one of their dishes to be prepared was 35 minutes. The only positive I recall is that they constantly refilled our teas.
I’m certainly up for some more yakitori. Just not here.

Food: 4 Décor:3 Service:2 Price:3
Although I like the food at Yakitori Totto (on the west side) better, the food at Yakitori Torys didn’t fall far behind, especially the yakitoris (the meat on skewers). They were cooked just right, retaining the original flavor of the meat or veggies. But yakitoris here are a tad pricier (compared to those in the St Marks area), and it kind of adds up when you have to order a bunch, just to satisfy your stomach. Other choices on the menu was nothing to write home about.
The décor inside is of a typical izzakaya in new york, but the area just outside will make u wonder if you are at the right area.
I think the biggest falling of Yakitori Torys is the service. They lose reservations without even a decent apologies. They lose orders all the time. I have had in occasion flag a person three times for a glass of water… which is unacceptable, esp when the place is not crowded. I tend to expect better service from a more higher priced joint, and this place doesn’t really deliver.
The food is better than the joints in the St Marks area, but I would go to St Marks because overall, the value you get for your money is better there.

This was my first time at this restaurant and I do not have much experience with Japanese food outside of sushi. I thought the food was OK. Some of it was good (the chicken meatball) was really good.
I would give it a 3 star but the I thought it was pretty expensive for the amount of food we actually got. I dropped about $ 50 and wanted to get pizza on my walk home.

What a disappointment. The waitstaff was confused, disorganized, and lacking in common sense. We started off with chilled nigori saki which was actually quite good. As for the food, it left much to be desired. Most of the items that we had were from the yakitori menu. The octopus, grilled cod, enoki in bacon, and beef that we ordered were very tender and juicy, yet the beef tongue was tough and lacked flavor. The hijiki (seaweed salad) was awful. I’m a big fan of seaweed salad and what we had did not look or taste like seaweed. The agedashi tofu was average. For dessert we tried the pumpkin flan and panna cotta. I personally thought that both were awful and would have preferred to go elsewhere. Another thing that bothered me was that the chefs were not even Japanese; they were Indian. I’m not saying that Indians cannot cook Japanese food, but it just makes the place feel less authentic.
My suggestion is to skip this place and head to Yakitori Taisho if you are in the mood for Japanese BBQ. It’s worth the cab ride.

I had lunch with my friend today (Thursday). From out side I didn’t realize the entrance door leads straight up to the second floor. Nicely lit lights stairs and little detail like mountains of salts on the side of entrance to protect from negative force were nice touch.
My friend had grilled chicken plate and came with miso soup and salad ($ 12). The meat was juicy, tender and very flavorful. It was delicious! I had Oyako-​don (chicken and egg on rice). The smoky flavor from the chicken didn’t work with this dish at all unfortunately but I would go back and try other lunch specials because they looked delicious!

I’ve been back here twice just to be sure, but it’s finally time to admit– Torys is better than the original Yakitori Totto.
Torys is an extention of the Yakitori Tottos on the west side (by my doorstep) and at first I was reluctant to make the trek out east to try it. However, after becoming fed up with the long lines (Tottos only takes reservations from 5 – 7 and rarely has room for day-of’s) and the diminishing quality of the scallion pork, I decided to give Torys a try.
I was immediately impressed with the spaciousness of the restaurant and its classy décor. The menu also had more variety (although Tottos has since adopted the same menu). The staff was curteous and there wasn’t a «$ 20/​person min» like there was at Totto’s. Much of the skewers here were of higher quality than that of Totto’s, including the many chicken choices– skin, wing, gizzard, thighs and of course the meatball!- and scallion pork. Portions were also a bit more generous. Walk-​ins are accepted and you’re almost always gauranteed a seat by the bar… though how long this will last– I’m not sure.
For the same selection and price, Torys definitely out shined Totto. Sorry Totto!
*UPDATE: Sorry Tory, you’ve been totally demoted. The signature Totto salad that used to come in a huge bowl (and still DOES at Totto and Soba Totto) come on a small plate at Tory’s. Not only, but service is especially a concern at this location with illiterate servers and slow and unattentive service. Sigh, it’s heartbreaking for me too, but I won’t be coming back to this location anytime soon.