Omoide Yokocho, “Memory Lane”, is two alleys of some sixty yakitori stands wedged between the west exit of Shinjuku Station and the department stores, left over from the black market that fed the city after 1945. The stalls are barely two meters wide, the smoke from charcoal grills collects under the tin roofs, and the regulars are a mix of salarymen who have been coming for thirty years and visitors who saw the photographs.
Go early, around six, when the counters still have seats and the cooks are not yet overwhelmed, and pick a stall by what is on the grill rather than by the English menu. Most take cash only. The locals’ nickname for it, Shonben Yokocho, “Piss Alley”, dates from when there were no toilets; there are now.
Tips
- Each stall seats eight to twelve; if a seat is free, sit down, you do not wait to be seated
- Expect a cover charge of 300–500 yen per person that comes with a small plate
- Order the motsu (offal) skewers or grilled eel, the two things the alley was built on