Bird's Nest

Back to Brisvegas for work, so catching up with C was almost compulsory. This time I was lucky enough to finally meet C's wifey, E (I had a long suspicion that C made her up). Lucky for me, C and E both love Japanese food and took me to a yakitori place in West End.

Bird's Nest isn't your typical Japanese restaurants as they specialize in yakitori (skewers) and if you want something else, then this is not the place for you. They only do skewers and they do it well. It is a popular venue too, even for a Wednesday night, booking in advance was essential.

Shortly after E finished her complimentary chicken broth, we decided to go with the 7 skewer set and added in 2 more dishes to compliment (Chicken karage and dashimaki tamago) .

The side dishes were the first to arrive. The chicken karage was served with lemon and wasabi mayo. Succulent bites of seasoned chicken thigh. Perfect balance of batter and the oily guilt factor.

Dashimaki tagamo is an Japanese egg omelette cooked with broth and severed with radish shavings. The broth flavours infused into the omelette was a good twist compared to typical breakfast styled omelettes.

First skewer off the grill was the tenderlion with wasabi mayo. As the name suggests, the meat was very tender and cooked just right. 

Next was the chicken wings. Who doesn't love a grilled chicken wing and anybody who get this wrong, isn't worthy of staying in the kitchen.

Third was the thigh with lemon. I loved the zest of the lemon fused with the charcoal aromas of the thigh meat.

Then came the thigh pieces with shallots. I am not a fan of shallots so for me, this was just another thigh skewer as I left all my shallots on the plate. 

Then my hero skewer, the tomato wrapped in pork belly. This was a genius combination, the acidic tomato popping in your mouth, paired with fatty pork belly goodness. I like to lie to myself and say it makes a balance diet.

Last 2 skewers were the chicken meatballs and the chicken tail (aka chicken bum). The chicken meat balls were nice but at this stage of the meal I wish I got something other than chicken. A skewer with some vegetables on it would have been nice. The chicken tail skewer was really nice. The meat was quite silky in comparison to the other parts of chicken we ate earlier.

I didn't get any dessert, as they only had the single option of a Japanese creme caramel. I understand it's a Japanese skewer specialist place but surely they can offer more than 1 option for dessert. I am of the opinion you offer more or none at all. This part was a disappointment to me.

Overall 14/20 I really enjoyed their authentic flavors and would recommend this place as a catch up with friends.