Osaka

Kuma no Yakitori106

熊の焼鳥106

An exclusive members-only restaurant, Kuma no Yakitori 106 is opening its doors to TABLEALL. The high-end restaurant group has been evolving the casual street food into a gourmet experience, offering premium breeds of chicken that you can’t savor elsewhere. Toshiyasu Kumawaki, the mastermind behind the restaurant’s success, is committed to astonishing his guests with the best possible yakitori.

The fourteenth addition to the private restaurant group, Kuma no Yakitori 106 is located on an alley off the bustling Tenjinbashi shopping street. Newly renovated in 2023, the members-only restaurant offers high-end yakitori using rare breeds of chicken that are distributed solely to them. Despite the 300,000 yen initiation fee to book your first reservation, requests for membership keep on pouring in.*

Like an entrance to a secret club, the exterior of the restaurant only displays the 106 number plates. Guests are asked to input their secret code in the keypad to enter. The chic interior is elegant and inviting, with a wide wooden counter stretched around the open charcoal grill.

The head chef, Kouhei Sensaka, greets the guests warmly and explains the evening’s omakase menu. A typical course starts with chicken sashimi, followed by skewers, grills, vegetables, ramen, rice and fruits. He often customizes the order and the flavoring depending on the condition of the meat.

The secret behind the restaurant’s popularity is the premium chicken that guests keep on coming back for. “Ultimate chicken” is an original breed that a poultry farmer in Kagoshima raises exclusively for Kuma no Yakitori. “Phantom chicken” from Kumamoto Prefecture is another top-grade meat, prepared and matured in a special way.

“You will be blown away by the flavor of our meat,” the owner says.

Blown away by the flavor of our meat,

From sashimi to skewers, the omakase menu offers you an opportunity to try different parts of the chicken, each cooked in the best way that maximizes the deep flavor. They are also served beautifully to entertain your eyes before you taste them.

The starting chicken sashimi dish looks like a French appetizer. Raw kyukyoku-dori breasts are diced into small pieces and stacked with layers of colorful summer vegetables like cucumbers and eggplants. The Yamagata dashi soup brings all the flavors together.

Kuma’s egg rice is adorable to look at. Kinkan egg yolks are decorated with seaweed cut into the shape of a bear character. The eggs sit on top of rice flavored in fat from grilled chicken. Squeeze out the creamy raw inside of the yolks onto the rice before your first spoonful.

Grilled fugumune has become the restaurant’s signature dish for the extraordinary flavor. A small layer of kyukyoku-dori breast meat is grilled with grains of salt. The yellow chives enhance the umami of the tender meat.

Sasami, chicken breast filets, is grilled and topped with wasabi. The meat is cooked rare on the inside. The chicken wings are lightly dried before grilled slowly over the charcoal grill. The crispy skin is packed with aroma and flavor.

Grilled tamahimo or chochin eggs are first dipped in a delicious homemade sauce made with chicken bones and seasonings.

INGREDIENTS
“As a members-only restaurant, I knew I had to offer something special that people can’t get elsewhere,” Kumawaki explains. “Finding the best chicken became my mission. I would visit producers across the country whenever someone told me about some delicious chicken.”

After an extensive search, Kumawaki selected two brands to serve at Kuma no Yakitori 106. Kyukyoku-dori or “ultimate chicken” is an original breed that Kumawaki raises with a farmer in Chiran, Kagoshima. Maboroshi-dori or “phantom chicken” comes from a farm in Kumamoto Prefecture.

Vegetables also play an important part, the head chef adds. “Freshness matters the most for vegetables,” he says. “If you eat corn right after it’s picked, it’s incredibly sweet. But that’s what corn should taste like.” He rents a garden plot near his house to grow his own vegetables. Every day before coming into the restaurant, he would stop by the garden to pick fresh vegetables to use in the meal.

CHEF

Toshiyasu Kumawaki & Kouhei Sensaka

Toshiyasu Kumawaki was born in Osaka in 1977. He began working at yakitori bars when he was in high school and fell in love with the cuisine. He was just 20 years old when he came across an opportunity to take on a yakitori restaurant and run it himself. The restaurant ended up bankrupt four years later, largely because of his inexperience in running a business.

“I ended up with a huge debt,” he recalls. “It was the failure that fueled me with the energy to push myself to where I am now.” He later joined a yakitori chain run by a family relative and worked there for the next 9 years until he felt ready to own a restaurant again. The first Kuma no Yakitori opened in 2014 serving high-end yakitori. The following year, he introduced the membership system to lure customers looking for an exclusive experience. The business continued to grow as he added new branches, including one in Hangzhou, China.

Kouhei Sensaka, the head chef, was born in Kyoto in 1991. After graduating from a culinary school in Osaka, he worked at an Italian restaurant for 5 years before joining Kuma no Yakitori. Since joining Kuma no Yakitori, Sensaka has been fascinated by the world of yakitori, and is always looking for ways to incorporate new ideas from other cuisines.

VISION
Kuma no Yakitori is a product of Kumawaki’s strong vision to evolve yakitori into a high-end dining experience. They’ve seen the market follow with other restaurants mimicking the new ideas they introduce.

“As the forerunner, we always need to be ahead of the game, evolving the business to match the changing market,” he explains. “Satisfying our customers on a daily basis is the only way forward.”

THE CHICKENS

Gourmands continue coming back to Kuma no Yakitori because of their delicious chicken they can’t have anywhere else.

"Ultimate chicken” is an original breed that Kumawaki raises with a farmer in Chiran, Kagoshima. Focusing on umami and texture, the chicken is nothing like what you’ve tasted before, he says. His favorite part is fugumune, a small layer of the breast with incredible flavor and firmness that is perfect for skewers.

"Phantom chicken” comes from a farm in Kumamoto Prefecture. The small farm first refused to distribute to outside restaurants but after Kumawaki’s passionate plea, they began working together for the best meat for yakitori. Prepared in a special way and matured for 3 days before shipped to the restaurant, the meat has an incredibly deep flavor.