I realised I haven’t had yakitori recently. And so, dinner was organised with my buddy to check out Gosso Omotenashi. I got to know of Gosso through another friend. And I must say, it’s a great recommendation. =)

For me, besides the food, my ideal yakitori joint has to have the following:-

  (A) Counter seats: Where one can watch the ‘grilling’ actions
  (B) Dimly lit: Yakitori joint normally doubles up as an izakaya. So I prefer it be dim to set the mood. Haha.
  (C) Japanese clientele: Not a must, but it certainly adds to the ambience. No? =)

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), we ordered:-

1) Special yakitori set, $28 comprised of:-

(A) Gosso dama (2 sticks) (above) – White chicken liver wrapped in crepine and baked with bincho-tan charcoal. $7 if ordered a-la carte. And this was so good! Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. Because Gosso believes this is best consumed when it’s hot, they even have a timer set to 40 seconds to tell us to consume the chicken liver before 40 seconds is up. And yes, it’s possible to take picture and consume 1 stick of 2 pieces within 40 seconds. I managed to! A must order.

(B) Hatsu (2 sticks) (above) – Chicken heart. With grated garlic sauce. My buddy was grumbling when he learnt I had ordered the ‘special set’ cause he wasn’t interested to try the non-normal items like chicken heart. But when he tried this, he knew better to trust my instinct when it comes to ordering. Haha. These were grilled to perfection; Chewy without being too chewy. Hmm… Haha. $3 if ordered a-la carte.

(C) Sunagimo (2 sticks) (above) – Chicken gizzard. With yuzu pepper. $3 if ordered a-la carte.

(D) Umesiso-yaki (2 sticks) (above) – Sasami fillet wrapped with shiso leaf. With plum pulp sauce. And it was a interesting combination of chicken fillet and shiso leaf. $5 if ordered a-la carte.

(E) Negima (2 sticks) (above) – Chicken thigh with leek. $6 if ordered a-la carte.

(F) Tsukune (2 sticks) (above) – Chicken minced ball. This was really good. With chopped vegetables mixed into the patty, the meat ball was juicy and flavourful. $6 if ordered a-la carte. A must order!

2) Butamaki shimeji, $6 (2 sticks) (above) – Shimeji mushroom wrapped with pork belly and grilled with miso sauce.

3) Butamaki omochi, $6 (2 sticks) (above) – Rice cake wrapped with pork belly and grilled with soya sauce. I love how the rice cake stretched with every bites. Ha. A musty try.

4) Isobe-yaki, $5 (2 sticks) (above) – Sasami fillet wrapped with seaweed and grilled with yakitori sauce.

5) Cheese-tsukune, $7 (2 sticks) (above) – Chicken minced ball with cheese. I preferred the original flavour over this. With a generous portion of meat, the amount of cheese seemed to be on the low side. I was hoping for the cheese to ‘burst’ out.

6) Omotenashi fried chicken, $5.80 (2 pieces) (above) – Deep fried drum stick marinated in special sauce.

7) Gyo-za, $6.80 (above) – Deep fried home made dumpling. With chili sauce. The dumplings were really oily but so good! The skin was crisp while the meat filling within was tender and juicy.

8) Tsukune gohan, $9.80 (above) – Chicken minced ball rice.I purposely enquired with the staff if this was ‘grilled rice ball with chicken within’ or ‘chicken placed on top of rice’. However, I must have somehow misinterpreted her “giant version” as ‘giant grilled rice ball’ when she really meant ‘giant version of chicken meat ball (placed on steamed rice)’. I say skip this and order more yakitori sticks. If one really needs carbohydrate, try the chicken porridge (item 10) instead! But if you must order this, add $1 for an additional raw egg.

9) Torisuki, $14.80 (above) – Chicken sukiyaki. Soup made from yakitori sauce. My buddy found the soup a little salty, but I thought it was okie. And when this was first served, all we could see was tang oh. Leave it alone (to boil) for almost 10 minutes before tucking in.

10) Rice porridge, $4.80 (Add on) (above) – Optional add-on to chicken sukiyaki (item 9). And when we were almost done with our torisuki (with some soup left), the staff brought our pot back to the kitchen to prepare our porridge where rice, egg, chicken and spring onion were added. And this was so gooey-ly good! I really liked it.

11) Chocolate daifuku, $7.80 (above) – We had wanted to order the mango daifuku, but the staff told us chocolate was also available. And since chocolate daifuku was not always available, we decided to go with it. Mochi stuffed with chocolate ice cream and berry sauce. I might by slightly bias since I like mochi. Generous portion of rich chocolate ice cream wrapped with a thin yet chewy skin. Yum.

I highly recommend Gosso Omotenashi. Firstly, the prices are wallet friendly. I know of other yakitori joints which charge more. And the ambience was great. Although my buddy and I were engrossed in our conversation and not paying much attention to our surroundings, please go for the counter seats. I would sometimes look up and watch the staff grill the chicken sticks. But if one is coming in a group, there’re indoor booth seats or alfresco seats.

Service was great too. From my observation, a Japanese lady seemed to be the lead waiting staff. When I reached at 7.30pm, the staff were really busy as 2 other groups had arrived at the same time as me. And while I was waiting quietly (since I made no prior reservation), the lady saw me and asked me to wait. I was a little afraid I would be forgotten since they were really busy directing the customers and checking their other reservations for the night. But she came up to me nontheless and arranged (my favourite) counter seats! =) Of course, there was another young female staff who was quick and attentive. Our empty plates were cleared promptly.

The fire of our portable stove (for our torisuki) was blown in our direction due to the air conditioner. It’s not the staff’s fault yet the staff came up to us and apologised.

So yes, I highly recommend Gosso Omotenashi. I guess I just found a new favourite yakitori joint.

Related posts:

Dinner @ Izy Dining & Bar Dinner @ Nanbantei [Revisit] Dinner @ Shunjuu Izakaya Dinner @ Tamaya Dining Dinner @ Yakitori UMA 焼鳥馬