Yakitori Jinbei

It occurred to me recently that I know next to nothing about Japanese food, aside from sushi and those big hibachi grill tables (which, I suspect, are about as authentically Japanese as me - which is to say, not at all). So after hearing rave reviews about Yakitori Jinbei, we were anxious to give it a try.

Yakitori is small pieces of chicken threaded onto a wooden stick and grilled - you choose if you want yours covered in a dark teriyaki or sea salt. There are several different varieties of yakitori - some just chicken, some chicken and veggies, some just veggies. Each order comes with two or three skewers and costs between about $6 and $10. We ordered three different kinds, two with teriyaki and one with sea salt. We agreed we liked the sea salt topping better. Overall, though, we didn't love yakitori as much as we hoped we would. For me, I think it's just because I'm not a huge fan of chicken. I cook it at home all the time, but I almost never order it at restaurants. Also, we thought the price was just a smidge too high, considering you don't get that much food with each order.

We also ordered a tempura appetizer that included several big chunks of veggies and huge shrimp. This was very, very good - I'm usually not a huge tempura fan, but this was probably one of the best I've had.

And finally, we also got a bowl of ramen noodles with pork, called tonkotsu. This was very rich, VERY filling, and VERY delicious!

Overall rating: Not sure we'd get the yakitori again. Maybe we'd order just a little to try some new varieties, but I wouldn't make a dinner out of it. Everything else was very good, but the yakitori left us feeling just lukewarm towards this restaurant. We'll probably go back eventually because we'd like to try some of their rice bowls, but we won't rush back.

Also, the price was a bit higher than we expected - including a glass of sake, our total was about $50.

Located on Cobb Parkway in Smyrna, across from Best Buy.

Yakitori Jinbei
2421 Cobb Parkway, Smyrna
(770) 818-9215

Minato

We have several good sushi places to choose from within five miles of our house, and I believe this one has moved into the coveted position of our favorite. The owners are incredibly friendly, and they clearly have many devoted regulars.

Every time we eat here, we learn more about specialty dishes that are not on the menu, including:

- Cowboy Hat: a fried scallop served on top of a crab salad on a crispy wonton. One order comes with two pieces. This is DELICIOUS.
- Cowgirl Hat: a spicy tuna/salmon mixture on top of a crispy wonton. Tasty, but we prefer the cowboy version.
- Spicy albacore: two pieces of albacore with a spicy ketchup-like sauce, lemon, and scallions on top. Very good, although with maybe a little too much ketchupy sauce for my taste.
- Super white tuna: Crazy good! Very buttery. Oh, and apparently it's not actually tuna.
- Easter egg: An avocado shell with crab salad in the bottom and then filled with a mixture of tuna, salmon, some whitefish, fish eggs, and a lite mayo. VERY good, although I think it may be pretty expensive.

Stuff on the menu that we love:
- Whitefish
- Caterpillar roll (I think?) - this had eel, avocado, and other stuff. You had me at "eel and avocado."

The one negative to this place is that we find the selection of rolls to be somewhat lacking. We tried the soft shell crab roll and didn't care for it. Most of the other rolls don't appeal to us that much. But the off-menu items and pieces of sushi make up for it!

On a night when we got a little extravagant, we spent around $60.

Overall rating: Love it. We'll continue to go back for the specialty items and the super-friendly owners.

Located on Spring Street in Smyrna, off of Cobb Parkway. This is the place that is on the backside of a shopping center, right next to where the Sonny's used to be.


Minato Japanese Restaurant

2697 Spring Rd, Smyrna

Get Directions

(770) 432-6012