Yokohama Yakitori Koubou

This is our new go-​to place for Yakitori in San Diego. I’m not sure why it doesn’t come up when you search ‘Yakitori’ in Unilocal but we wish we found it earlier! We had been to Hillcrest’s Yakitori Yakudori, which is now Raku, and I think this place is a little bit better.
We went on a weekend night and they were pretty busy. The parking lot was pretty full but still better than looking for parking in Hillcrest. We wound up waiting about 30 minutes to be seated, although it looks like they now take reservations. The service was excellent and the food was great. Plus, they have chicken skin (on a skewer — not the boiled kind) which is oh sooo good and we haven’t found it in anywhere else. We also tried their beef stew which was the best I’ve ever had! Too bad it’s a specialty item for this month only.
Highly recommended!

THIS IS MY FAVORITE JAPANESE BBQ SKEWERS («Yakitori») PLACE! If you like Korean BBQ, you have to try Japanese BBQ grilled on their special charcoal. I can’t believe I never tried this style of BBQ before, and am so glad we discovered it.
They cook the meat really well, not salty but with their own unique flavoring. The service is fabulous — the chefs are really nice.
The only downside is their portions are not as big, but they are reasonably-​priced to reflect that. For example, one skewer of 4 quail eggs is $ 1.80. However, we come back here because the QUALITY of the skewers is WELL WORTH IT. We like liver, chicken thigh, beef, mushrooms, etc. They have chicken skewers where you can choose a special sauce such as pizza sauce, CA sauce, or plum sauce, to name a few.
This is a small place in the same parking lot as Original House of Pancakes. They offer limited table and bar seating. They stay open late!

We tried to hit up Yakyudori on Friday at like 7, but it was super packed and there were huge groups waiting outside, so we decided to hit up Yokohama Yakitori Koubou instead. It was still packed, but no one else was waiting, so we got in within like 10 minutes. There’s not really any place to wait inside, though, so if you don’t make a reservation, expect to stand outside (in the cold). Or you could try Izakaya Sakura or Tsuruhashi, which are mere feet away and both great restaurants, and see how long their waits are. If you want to eat here, though, make a reservation.
Décor and ambience are nice. It’s a little loud and smells of smoke, but that’s how you know it’s real. I started with a cold Asahi draft, which was great. The glass was like frozen so I got little ice crystals coming into my mouth as you drank and it was a fun sensation. They also give you a shot of milk to go with it, which I guess is some voodoo remedy for hangovers.
We also had the roast chicken salad, which was a lot bigger than I expected. It is easily an appetizer for 4 or a meal for 1. It was a bunch of greens with a nice dressing (reminded me of thousand island maybe?), and huge slices of roast chicken on top. It was really good.
We almost got the Koubou special salad instead, but in Japanese it says it’s a «Mexican salad» and we asked what that means. It’s similar to the chicken one but there’s more stuff and seasoned like, taco meat on it. Seemed weird, and since no other item on the menu had like, taco meat, I wondered why they’d go through the effort for this one item? Maybe it’s spectacular, but we weren’t feeling it.
My girlfriend likes nankotsu since she eats it a lot whenever she goes to visit family in Japan and hits the izakayas, so we got that as a starter and it was good. It’s like little bites of deep fried chicken cartilage. It was crunchy and fun.
Well, then we hit the yakitori. I’d only ever eaten at like, traditional places, so the whole flavored style thing at the top of the menu was neat. From there we got the wasabi, umeshiso, and pizza. My girlfriend liked the wasabi flavored one, though I didn’t see what was on it. The umeshiso was okay, it tasted more like vinegar than like ume, and I love ume so it’s not like that would put me off. The pizza one was melted american cheese and some kind of sauce that had little bits in it (taco meat maybe?). They were okay, but I wouldn’t order them again. I was really not impressed because the the chicken breast was way overcooked and super dry. A yakitori place shouldn’t be ruining the chicken breast that way. And it was a far cry from the other food, which was all spectacular.
On top of that we got an assortment of yakitori skewers that were all really, really good. We had the nakaochi, which was a special item, which the waitress described as «like the part between the heart and lungs.» We like organ bits, and it was delicious. We also had more nankotsu (on a skewer this time), liver, bonchi (chicken tail), thigh, thigh with green onion, gizzards, and other yakitori staples that I can’t remember. All of them were cooked perfectly and delicious. Another thing to note is that unlike some other yakitori places, you can order only 1 skewer of any type instead of having to order two.
A few other notes:
I went to use the bathroom and the area near the bathroom smelled terribly bad, like maybe the dude in there was dropping a huge load. He came out and I went in later, expecting to have to pull out a gas mask, but the bathroom smelled really nice and clean. So I don’t know if the bathroom vents out to the area outside it, or maybe it was a girl in the women’s restroom taking a big dump, but it was weird.
The translation on the menu is a little wonky. Sometimes the descriptions in English aren’t exactly what it says in Japanese, or more like they aren’t nearly as descriptive — so be sure to ask if you have any questions. The wait staff was super helpful and friendly, though, despite my numerous inquiries.
All in all, a really nice experience. Very Japanese and a lot of fun. We’ll definitely go here again — maybe once every week or two, it was that good. I’d have given them 5 stars if the chicken breast wasn’t so dry, but I’m picky that way and that was really my only complaint.

:D YUM!

The first thing I would want to say is… they have REAL Asahi!!! 98% of all Asahi that you will ever find in USA is «imported» from Canada… NOT the real thing… what they have here in Yokohama Yakitori Koubou is REAL imported from Japan, Asahi Tarunama Draft… the same taste, the same #1 selling beer in Japan, the REAL Asahi…
The food? Fantastic…
(I will follow up with a more detailed review soon. Plus photos…)

very yummy and authentic. their yakitori are cooked using traditional carbon method — extra tasty.

I loved their yakitori.
It is broiled over open Binchoutan coal grill which gave nice charred textured and flavor on outside and made meat very soft an juicy inside.
The place is more spacious, relaxing and organized than the other Yakitori place in Hillcrest and had a real authentic Japanese izakaya/​yakitori feel.
The other thing I loved was their draft beer! It was really good!
The foam on the top was super creamy, the foam and beer ratio was perfect and the chilled glass seemed to give beer an extra crisp flavor. It was really, really good beer!
Also they give you a tiny little glass of milk upon the seating and it is supposed to protect your kidney from alcohol. I have never been to the restaurant that does that, kind of a cool touch, I thought.
The menu seemed to be very heavy on protein. It is sort of expected from the yakitori place but I would have loved to see more vegetable skewer menu or light and fresh appetizers that cuts the greasiness of meat on my pallet.
Overall I was very pleased with them.
Considering the parking situation and seating fiasco that we had to deal with Yakyudori in Hillcrest, I would much rather come to Yakitori Koubou.

Taste great. Very clean. Reminds me of my days in Japan.