Food Trip: Yakitori One - First Visit

Up until last Saturday, the hubby and I have never been to SM Aura. It's just one short trip down C5 from our neighborhood, but we just haven't gone somehow. We finally went there this past weekend, just to try the new yakitori (Japanese barbecue) joint, Yakitori One.

There are a number of good yakitori places in Manila (our most recent favorite is Nanbantei), but proper yakitori fastfood has been non-existent since Tokyo Tokyo phased out their chicken yakitori. Enter Yakitori One, which opened at the SM Aura foodcourt -- Food on Four -- earlier this year.

One look at Yakitori One's foodcourt stall and you know you've come to a good place. It looks modern, squeaky clean, and has a very attractive digital menu. The first thing you see when you get in line is the busy kitchen behind a glass window. You can see all the yakitori sticks being prepared as you order. 

Then the yakitori display greets you and you get to check out all the varieties. They have an extensive menu of around 12 kinds of yakitori (2 of which are promo items), ranging from classic chicken to pork and veggies. Stick prices range from P45 to P60. You can order the sticks solo or on top of their yakitori rice (donburi). You can choose from their suggested donburi combos too, which go from P143 to P198. They have soup side dishes and the requisite foodcourt beverages (soda, iced tea, and beer) as well. 

Yakitori One's grilled goodies are all served with their special yakitori sauce called Tare. It's a sweet sauce made of mirin (rice wine usually used for cooking), sake (rice liquor), soy sauce, and sugar. 

The hubby and I both went the donburi route because it was lunch time and we were hungry. We ordered three sticks each of the chicken skin, asparagus pork wrap, and pork butabara yakitori dripping in tare sauce on top of yakitori rice plus Coke. The donburi bowls came with gari (pickled ginger) and nori (seaweed strips).   

This was the best foodcourt meal we've had in ages! The yakitori sticks were perfectly grilled and the tare sauce had just the right flavor. The chicken skin and the asparagus pork wrap were absolutely scrumptious. The pork butabara was just okay -- we think Filipino street barbecue is way better, but it was still pretty good. The yakitori rice was fluffy and the gari and nori really went well with the sauce. 

We were quite the happy couple after the meal. We're going back for sure! We're ordering more sticks and trying the other flavors next time. 

Yakitori One is located at Food on Four, Level 4, SM Aura Premiere, The Fort, Taguig. 

 p.s. We had to take a pic at SM Aura's Sky Park afterwards, heh.