Wabiya Korekido Shijo Hanamikoji 侘家古暦堂 祇園花見小路本店 (Kyoto, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

Today's last order of business in Kyoto was Japanese yakitori dinner at Wabiya Korekido Shijo Hanamikoji (侘家古暦堂 祇園花見小路本店). Everybody should be familiar with the neighborhood around here as we have just enjoyed lunch at Gion Mametora (衹園豆寅), right across the street not too long ago.



Wabiya Korekido is best known for their chicken skewers and chicken centric menu. Among their signature dishes, the most popular one has to be their Ishiyaki Oyakodon served in a hot stone pot with chicken and raw eggs. But we are unlikely to see that dish for dinner tonight.

Directly behind the entrance door is the counter area. I would personally love to sit here and watch the chefs work but not tonight. Not when I'm dining with 3 elderlies and little nugget.

Once we turned ourselves in at the reception, we were told to go straight upstairs to our private room.

Onto the second floor we went......

The private dining room was intended for 5 people only so it was a little cramped for us with so much baggage (literally).

A degustation menu focused solely on dishes made with chicken. I have never had the pleasure of trying that before. 

I figured the bottle of oolong tea would be a good match with the charcoal grilled chicken.

The yakitori restaurant has its own line of seasoning powder for their chicken skewers. That's pretty slick.

First up, a trio of cold starters to whet our appetite including a chilled soy milk soup with bean curd (right), a refreshing white corn mousse with chicken consommé jelly and corn kennel (top) and last but not the least, baked chicken fillet with eggplant (left). 

Our chicken feast started off in rapid fire fashion with a number of skewers highlighted by the signature chicken thigh. The flesh was deliciously firm and juicy. Love this~

The chicken neck, well-seasoned and a little bouncy.

I haven't had chicken heart for years!

Our second course of the menu was charcoal grilled vegetables served in a sweet barbecue sauce made with miso. The pumpkin, zucchini and peas were extra crisp after finishing on the grill. Of course, they had to make sure that there were some chicken on this plate (see the minced chicken on the side).

Deep-fried chicken wing was next. This was easily the best dish of the night for me.

The chicken wing was stuffed full of what I thought was vermicelli at first but it turned out to be shark's fin! The shark's fin came with wonderful flavors after absorbing the juice from the meat. Very very nice.

Little nugget's favorite dish too!!!

Chicken asparagus roll was served with a light tomato sauce, mustard caviar and vinegar. I liked the crispy skin wrapping around the flesh and chopped asparagus providing some nice texture and smokiness to the dish.

After enjoying a small bowl of chicken soup, more skewers....

Chicken fillet with plum sauce, not bad.

Chicken soft bones, not as soft as the ones we had in Hong Kong. These were seriously crunchy.

Chicken oysters with leeks. Very flavorful. Certainly won't mind a little more charred marks and smokiness.

I thought we were done with meat on a stick but there was one final skewer to be served before the noodles. Gamey duck meatball was paired with a balsamic sauce and egg yolk. I thought this would be a much much better dish with more smokiness added to it (both the meatball and sauce). Food for thought 🤔

This guy didn't care as long as it's meaty enough.

Our final savory dish was homemade noodles with shaved mushroom.

The key was definitely the deep-flavored duck consommé.

It was working well as the dipping sauce for the noodles.

Dessert was milk ice-cream with mango coulis. Everyone was happy to finally see the end to the savory dishes.

That's really an incredible amount of food in a little more than 2 hours and I think everyone was just happy to finally see the end of the savory dishes. My stomach's feeling really heavy right now. I need to walk it off on my way to the train station.

What a beautiful night in Kyoto.....Amazingly, this is really the first time I stayed out on the streets of Kyoto this late to soak up the vibe. We will be back in 2 days. That's the good news.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: Gionmachi Minamigawa, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, 605-0074, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Kyoto-Kawaramachi

Tel: +81 (0)75 532-3355

Website: www.wabiya.com/gion/

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm, 5:30pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Sat)