Yakitori S, Sapporo: eleven skewers, the whole chicken and pork list minus sasami, and a ¥10,600 bill for two
Yakitori S stands on a corner at Minami 2 Nishi 10 in central Sapporo, in the few blocks where we do most of our drinking. Wooden front, a row of bottles in the window, a metal “S” on the wall beside the door. For a long time we could not tell from the street whether it was open, and that was enough to keep us walking past.
On 16 June 2026, the third day of a stay in Sapporo, we went in and worked through the whole chicken and pork lists except sasami, plus a tsukune. Two of us, ¥10,600 (about $71), at ¥150 to the dollar, the rate we use here.
Why we wanted somewhere close
That day was the Sapporo Festival, and specifically the day of the mikoshi togyo — the procession of portable shrines that gets called the climax of the whole thing. More than a thousand people in Heian-period costume walk through the city with four mikoshi carrying the deities of Hokkaido Jingu, plus floats.
We looked up the route after breakfast, walked for thirty minutes towards where the procession ought to be, and then heard drums and festival music from somewhere ahead. “That way?” “Maybe.” We found it on a road that still had ordinary traffic on it, which was not what we had pictured. One float carried a wisteria and a sea bream. On another, people in kimono were playing live.
Then we did something out of character and got on a train to Nakajima Park, where the festival food stalls are. They start near the entrance and thicken as you go in; around the pond in the middle they are packed solid. We bought nothing, because anything eaten there would have got in the way of the evening. There is a haunted house too, which our reading beforehand had said is a fixture of this festival, standing next to a couple of large mystery structures. “It’s like a travelling circus,” my wife said. Slightly homemade, and better for it. We looked from the outside and left it at that.
By the time we were done we were footsore, which is how dinner got chosen by distance rather than by appetite. We had started the day at the hotel breakfast buffet, which is its own story.
The shop we kept walking past
Two candidates went on the shortlist. We wanted yakitori — grilled skewers — and Yakitori S had the better Google Maps reviews, so it won by default.
Inside, the only customers were the two of us. We had arrived not long after opening, and the owner was working alone. Afterwards we read that the place opened in June 2024, so it is still a new shop.
First order was a draft Asahi Super Dry, ¥770, and it came with the otoshi — the small dish you did not order and pay for anyway, ¥550 a head here. Cold tofu with something green, pickled and faintly sticky, spooned over the top. Nozawana, at a guess.
Then the menu, which has two halves. The chicken is a brand called Sakura-hime, and the skewers are threaded by hand, one by one — that part we read on the shop’s site later. Turn the page and the pickles begin: singles at ¥440 each, a seven-item selection at ¥980, and more varieties than we expected. The shop’s own site puts the owner’s pickles level with the yakitori as the thing it is known for.
Ordering takes initiative. The owner is a quiet man, and if you do not speak first, nothing happens at all.
We opened with one pickle: nagaimo, a mountain yam, cured with shiso, ¥440. Crisp and sharp and cold. On the first night of this trip we had ordered a garlic-pickled nagaimo at Beer Bar North Island as well, so the yam was becoming a theme. After that, shio motsu nikomi, ¥700 — offal (motsu) simmered in a salt broth with daikon, konnyaku and carrot, spring onion piled on top. Good with beer, which is the entire job description.
One skewer at a time
We had taken seats at the counter, which turned out to be the point. Skewers came over the counter one at a time, in the order they came off the grill, rather than all together at the end. Nothing sat around. Everything was hot.
“Yakitori really is a counter thing,” we agreed.
First out were bonjiri — chicken tail, ¥280 — and Sakura-hime thigh, ¥330. The tail is the fatty one, and both of us go for it. The thigh had some chew to it and was worth the chewing.
The beer went, so we moved to sake and toasted a second time. Then the Muroran yakitori arrived, ¥330. In Muroran, along the coast, “yakitori” means pork; the shop’s site describes theirs as pork with onion and yellow mustard, and it comes glazed in tare with a dab of karashi on the plate. Grilled pork belly does not need defending.
At that point we stopped ordering carefully and started ordering thoroughly. Since we were in a yakitori place, said one of us, we may as well have the yakitori. Buta sagari, ¥330, a pork cut, served with wasabi. Kawa, skin, ¥280, crisp. Tsukune, minced chicken, ¥330, in tare. One at a time, each one hot, sake in between. The sake ran out and we ordered another round; the list starts at ¥700 a glass, though we did not write down which ones we drank.
Then hatsu (heart, ¥280), sunagimo (gizzard, ¥280) and tebasaki (wings, two pieces for ¥550). My wife, on the heart: “Softest hatsu of my life.”
Last came shiro — pork intestine, ¥330 — and chicken liver, ¥300, and that was the list finished. Eleven skewers: everything in the chicken and pork sections except sasami, the chicken breast tender at ¥300, which stayed unordered — plus the plain tsukune, which has a section of its own. The vegetable skewers, the meat-wrapped pickle skewers (¥300) and the two dressed-up tsukune we left alone as well; there is more menu here than two people can reasonably eat.
The bill is one number
There is no itemised receipt. The owner writes a total on a small card and hands it across: ¥10,600.
He was on his own the entire time we were there. Partway through, a party arrived with a booking, making two parties in the room, and he was grilling, pouring and taking orders at once. It was a weekday, which may be why he was solo, and it looked close to the limit of what one person can do. Three groups and something would have to give. We worried about it on his behalf, which helped nobody.
Second stop: PALS, and the fries we had never managed to order
Two places is a normal evening for us. The second was Mugishu Club PALS, a craft beer bar on the third floor of the M’s Building at Minami 3 Nishi 7 that we go to nearly every time we are in Sapporo — it turns up in our Izakaya Chiba piece too.
Six taps, no fixed lineup: a beer gets replaced whenever a keg blows, which is the explanation for something we had noticed over several visits, namely that the IPA is never the same twice. That night’s two were NEW Onigashima IX (Y.MARKET BREWING, Aichi; hazy IPA, 8.0%) and WATANABE ELEVATION IPA (Beer Again Brewing, Shizuoka; DDH IPA, 6.0%), ¥1,650 (about $11) each for a large glass.
And the fries. Sour cream and onion, ¥680, sold out every previous time we have asked. This time they had them. The sauce is sour cream with something like sweet chilli through it, so it lands sweet and salty at once. My wife eats fries with salt and nothing else, on principle. Her verdict: “This sauce is worth dipping in.”
That bill was ¥4,640 (about $31) on a card, stamped 19:19. We had eaten a lot of chicken. We called it a night.
Would we go back
Yes, on the next Sapporo trip, and we would sit at the counter again. What makes it worth the walk is not any single skewer but the delivery: one at a time, hot, from the man who grilled it.
Two reservations of our own about it. The shop is easier to enjoy if you are comfortable opening your mouth first, because nothing will be offered to you. And a one-man counter has a ceiling; if you are a group, book, and do not expect speed.
The unfinished business is the seven-item pickle selection at ¥980 — that, and the sasami.
Practical bits
- Yakitori S: Minami 2 Nishi 10, Nijo Park Building 1F, central Sapporo. Phone 011-600-1726, yakitori-s.com. Opened June 2024.
- Hours: 17:00–24:00, closed Sundays — and closed Monday instead when the Monday is a public holiday — per the menu cover when we visited on 16 June 2026. Prices tax included; they change.
- Prices we paid, June 2026: otoshi ¥550 per person (not optional), draft beer ¥770, skewers ¥250–¥380 apiece with the two-piece wings at ¥550, pickles ¥440 a plate, seven-item pickle selection ¥980, sake from ¥700 a glass.
- Seating: we sat at the counter; we did not note the rest. The counter is the reason to come — that is where the skewers get handed to you.
- Reservations: taken. One booked party came in while we were there.
- Ordering: you have to speak first. The owner is not chatty, and nobody will come to check on you.
- English menu: we didn’t check. The menus we were handed were in Japanese, and the skewer names above are what you would point at.
- Payment: the bill is a handwritten total with no breakdown. We did not note how we paid here; a card was fine at PALS afterwards.
- Smoking: we didn’t check.
- How busy: two parties in the room on a weekday evening, ours and one booking.
- The second stop: Mugishu Club PALS, Minami 3 Nishi 7, M’s Building 3F. Six rotating taps, large craft beer ¥1,650, otoshi ¥330 per person, fries ¥680, card fine, June 2026.
Facts checked 2026-08-18. Prices, hours and menus are what we saw on our visit; they change. Nothing here was sponsored or comped.