Toritake The Total Head Shop

**Disclaimer: to help international travelers, I’m writing a detailed account. If you are visiting Japan, it’s best to use the 4 Star app for more reviews by people since Unilocal is not popular in Japan.** DTLR: Good Yakitori, choose any of the lunch special.
Stumbled into this place during lunch one day. Found out there was a lunch special that day and the fact that it was such good food for the price, we made sure we returned the following day for our last meal in Japan before returning to the States. It’s very close to the Shibuya station, so for those of you traveling and short on time this would be ideal.
We were first in line before it opened at noon. By the time it was opening, there was already a line behind us. They have good options for lunch, and it definitely won’t break your pocket. They range from roughly $ 6 – 9 USD. We opted for the Karaage and chicken skewer option. Lunch specials come with miso soup, small salad, and white rice. For the Karaage, it the rice comes in the form of two riceballs with a cooked salmon filling wrapped in seaweed. I’d recommend to try both. The Karaage cost 700 Yen ($ 5.89 USD). You can select 1 – 3 chicken skewers. I got 3 skewers for 900 Yen ($ 7.57 USD).
As with many restaurants in Japan, they allow smoking inside so beware if you’re eating upstairs. If you’re eating downstairs, it’s more bearable. Don’t be worried about coming in there with luggage, we had 2 full suitcases and a backpack and still found room. Only downside was that we had to eat upstairs lol. During lunchtime, expect a lot of businessmen in suits eating.

Waited maybe 10 minutes as the restaurant was crazy packed. In Japan, if there is a yakitori place, you must go to one. Well, at least once during your stay there. They provide an english menu for you if you don’t read japanese which is great for us foreigners and the staff can converse with you in english as well. Servers were very quick and accommodated us very well and the food was just alright. The highlight of the meal was the eel green tea rice soup. It was so delicious– a must get when you go!

A local friend from Tokyo took us here. She said it was a chain but a good chain and what the locals think of when they think of yakitori. They shared tongue, kobe and some other meats and were pleased.
I’m a vegetarian so I was delighted when I learned I could order servings of veggies for grilling as well. They also have a cheese fondue. We got an order of plain fondue that you dip veggies in as well as one that included cheese and mushrooms that you roast in foil over the grill, out of the two fondues the mushroom/​cheese one was definitely the one to order.

Famished after traveling from London, the husband and I visited Toritake for beers and yakatori, in that order.
Walked up to the counter lining the outside of the building (by the windows where you can peer in and watched the chef do his thing) and eventually squeezed our way up to the window and waited for the server to open the window and take our order. The server periodically opens the window for various reasons (to take orders, to deliver food and to retrieve dishes) but if you are short on patience, then you can knock on the window and you’ll be greeted with a smile. Knocking is totally cool and not considered rude, so knock away, friend.
Round 1: Chicken meatballs + green peppers, chicken breast skewers and two beers.
Round 2: Two beers.
Round 3: Chicken meatballs + green peppers, chicken wings, one beer and one «lemon sour» (which looks like tap water with a slice of lemon but tastes more like faint still lemonade and is actually Japanese spirits with lemon juice with an alcohol percentage close to 15%). Note also that sometimes they serve grapefruit sour.
As with every place we visited in Japan, payment is due after you have finished drinking and eating (again, in that order). Toilets are just inside the door — there is one female/​male toilet and one male-​only toilet. This sounds backwards but I assure you, this is the toilet situation.
There is seating inside on the ground level and also upstairs. Smoking is allowed inside and I definitely saw people smoking when I made my trip to the toilet. The other downside is that if you stand outside and drink and eat (of course, in that order), then there is a high probability that you are going to smell like the smoke coming off the grill. Nothing a little Febreeze overnight can’t handle.
As far as good value for money, I’d say that this place was expensive. We walked away with a £40 bill. That’s steep for street food but we didn’t care. We mingled with two local Japanese English teachers who had set out to practice their conversational English and we learned loads from them and they got to practice their English with us. Had we not met the teachers, I never would have been introduced to lemon sours! (Maybe that would have been a good thing given my headache this morning?)
I would totally return to Toritake and bring my friends, if my friend and I were ever to be in Tokyo together.

Searched all around Tokyo for street food/​yakitori which apparently they don’t have here. This has to be the closest thing you could find. Right around the corner off of Shibuya Station, located on the bottom of a massive brightly lit building which is hard to miss. You’ll smell the delicious aromas of grilled chicken in the air which is what really led me here.
They only serve chicken products, organs, eggs and veggies. No frog legs which is what I was hoping to find. In Tokyo you could drink openly out in public so this was an enjoyable experience being able to eat tasty grilled chicken + beer while people watching in one of the busiest cities in the world. Awesome stuff!