Onigawara is a Jaoanese demon guardian. yakitori is like a fancy pub/eatery? and izakaya is a pub/eatery…with fewer lights?
What is the difference between a yakitori and an Izakaya?
Yakitori is basically grilled chicken on a stick.
Yaki -> ‘cooked over direct heat’
Tori -> ‘chicken’
(well, most literally, ‘bird’. also, not to be confused with ‘torii’, totally different concept)
Its like a street food, sorta like street tacos or hot dogs: relatively fast, simple, but still quite tasty… you could think of it as a very specific kind of barbecued chicken, sort of.
Izakaya is the pub/eatery, the place, the building.
Its … sort of a combination between a dive bar, and an all you can eat buffet?
Probably the westernized versions, they probably aren’t having a section for people dining on tatami mats, charging you an entrance fee, and then feeding you for up to 3 hours, as you order things in the order of ‘you know what will be cooked quickly, and what will take a while’… id imagine they’re probably more like just a sit down restaurant, with booths or tables and waiters snd servers and what not… though a lot of izakaya have that as well, it varies.
Yakitori also refers to a type of mid to upscale Japanese pub/restaurant with a wide menu of small dishes/skewers as well as the cultural signature yakitori skewer. Thank you for the direct translation.
While you can find yakitori as a street food at night markets, both izakayas and yakitori restaurants are cozy comfortable indoor pubs/bars, with yakitori pubs generally having more service, room and tables as well as a bar, although even an izakaya a lot cleaner and more-maintained/serviced than a dive bar, and a yakitori will be a fancy hardwood upscale sort of place with a much wider menu.
Boyyyyyy do I wish it was an AYCE buffet. In both izakayas and yakitoris, you’ll pay for each order/drink and can have them freshly prepared and delivered within minutes. So maybe 2 chicken hearts and a beer, then some tsukiji a little later, breathe a bit, get some shiso-wrapped pork. It’s pretty fun and chill.
An izakaya is a different type of pub, definitely less formal, usually less service and much more cramped, often just a bar and stools. People go to izakayas after work to get a bit rowdy, and the main point is drinking, rather than the menu, and sometimes there isn’t a menu at all.
I haven’t been to a western yakitori restaurant in about 15 years now, so I’m not sure how they’re organized these days. Back then, it was just like the Japanese ones, although the one I liked was owned and operated by a Japanese immigrant yakitori masterrrr, so he probably carefully traditionally controlled his yakitori pub more than a non-native or new-to-the-scene yakitori owner might.
… why did you ask the question … if you knew the answer?
Oh, haha, sorry, this question was from 2 months to gauge if what I understood from previous visits was correct, but I’ve since lived in Japan for 6 weeks and been fully versed in the deets by a new Japanese friend and the staff of several izakayas/yakitoris.
Yakitori is the style like at a Benihana’s right? Where the cooking is a performance and they’ll make a volcano outta an onion?
Hey, sorry I missed your comment 2 months ago. Yakitori refers to a cooking method but in practical terms is an upscale pub in Japan where the food, decor and service is a little fancier than an izakaya(regular pub), skewers are often cooked over charcoal, and yakitori have certain cooking methods.
No performances, although these guys were very happy to talk to me despite my terrible Japanese and even gifted me a shirt after I closed out the yakitori with them.
