Beer. Skewers of grilled chicken. More beer. A perfect formula. One Yurippi has traded for the past nine years in Crows Nest with smash-and-go yakitori, but in the past year, the team has moved its workhorse grills across the road to a much larger site.

Here, there are vintage Sapporo posters, shelves lined with old Japanese toys and a smoky horseshoe-shaped counter where chefs spin skewers like they are competing in the Champions League of table football. This, of course, is where you want to sit.

Yakitori orders are placed through biro and paper and highlights include chicken wing (butterflied to look like a gnarly, golden kite); the juicy collagen-rich chicken tail; knobs of liver caramelised with tare, the sauce enriched with drippings; and chicken skin threaded like a crunchy, fatty accordion.

Don’t sleep on the non-chook sides either, such as butter-licked scallops grilled in the shell, and “addictive cabbage” seasoned with ultra-savoury shio kombu.

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