Saitamaya 2 @ Omoide-Yokocho, Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, another izakaya stop was in order during a cold and wet Tuesday night in Tokyo few weeks back. If you have yet to read about our first pit stop, do click here to see where we been during our first leg of the Memory Lane a.k.a. Piss Alley scramble.

The second pit stop, Saitamaya 2. No pun intended.

Also as we felt that we need more food and booze to end the night, we went to another place in between the alleyways and found a shop that had an oden pot at the counter. If you want a warm platter of steamy and braised goodies, oden should be your weapon of choice. And seeing that there was yakitori on the menu, we hopped right into Saitamaya 2. As with our previous visit in Daikoku-ya, this place had no English signs or menu. But as the days progress, so did my confidence in my conversational Japanese. And I was getting more familiar with some of the words there. So if you want to find a yakitori place, do look out for 焼き鳥 in the menu or signage outside the establishment. Or trust your nose, like what we did here. The establishment was covered with the smell of roasted meats, which is always a good sign if you are looking for good barbecue. Not so good if you do not want to smell like your meal later. 

The lower floors, where some of the cooking takes place in
front of you. 

Saitamaya 2 was even smaller than our earlier stop. And we were then headed upstairs, which sits only 9 people. The stairway is small and was slightly larger than my shoulder width. And I am not a really big guy. But no one was smoking and the windows were open, so it was much nicer than Daikoku-ya. However, just like Daikoku-ya, serving otoshi is also practiced here. This time it was marinated tofu, which was nice. It was coated with a chili sauce, similar to Thai style sweet sauce. 

Not as impressive as our previous otoshi, but still good

And since we spotted what we needed, it was much easier to order. We ordered an oden platter, a yakitori buta (pork yakitori) platter and 2 highballs. Each platter was ¥650 and highball was ¥350 each. And if you are really into stuff that is very porky, you would love the platter. Even if you do not, it is worth a try. 

From left to right: liver, intestines, lean meat with spring onions, tongue and tripe

The platter was loaded with various pork organs that were marinated in sweet soy and grilled to perfection. Each skewer had a different part of the pork, such as the liver, the intestines, tongue and tripe. Fortunately for my friend, there was a skewer that had lean pork so he had that one instead. All of the skewers were grilled well and all were tasty in their own right. If you love haggis, terrine or bak kut teh, this is right in your alley. No pun intended (again). All skewers were noteworthy and I can easily recommend a second helping. If I would have to pick one out of the five, then my favourite was the tripe. As the inner layers of tripe have generally more "folds", for lack of a better word, the yakitori marinade were all trapped in there. And that amazing sauce was waiting to flow out once you chew into them. They were like dams preventing a sweet and savoury sauce to pour out. And once you bite into them, the dam falls apart and a torrent of flavour just comes. Pork tripe is generally slightly bland, no matter how you cook it. But the marinade brought this humble cheap cut to several levels higher than expected. 

A amazing plate of goodness, where the daikon sits at the very center.
Photo was taken by my friend that was with me for this trip.
Check out some of his other works in Instagram @mod_ongxh 

On another extreme was the oden. As it is a boiled dish, the flavours are not as intense as the yakitori. Still an enjoyable plate nontheless. On the platter, we had a squid cake, a fish cake, a boiled egg, a konyakku cake, a noodle cake and a piece of daikon in the center. The platter had a mild taste, which was good as it give us the breather we need after the pork skewers and our grilled dishes beforehand. However, the main star was the piece of daikon. It was the most unassuming item there, but it was packed with amazing flavour. It was intensely sweet and the texture was almost akin to a boiled carrot. The sweetness is different from that of a carrot though. It had some meaty savouriness to it, probably because it was cooked in the same broth as the seafood items in that plate. Topping of with some western style mustard and you get a steamy and soothing dish which can warm you up in the colder months. Together with a second round of highballs, and were were two merry dudes in a great bar. Total damage was ¥3,200, which is not bad considering the quality of the food that we had. Good value if you ask me. 

Kampai everyone!

Overall, I had a good time scouring around Omoide-Yokocho. There are still so many stalls and so many interesting things to eat which I would love to try. However, doe to the lack of time and stomach space, this would suffice for now. I would definitely come back once more to try more place and spaces the alleyways has to offer. The atmosphere as a whole is great, although very small and pokey. This is however, a normal feature of yokochos scattered around Japan. It is a place where you can get humble grub and decent drinks at an affordable price. And if you can order like a local, it will surely pay dividends as you can try more things like house specials that are sometimes not mentioned on menus and also make friends with your fellow patrons. And trust me, they will know more than you and will guide you through if you are nice enough, like my experience in Daikoku-ya. 

Omoide-Yokocho is a must try for every food adventurer who intends to visit Tokyo. And if you want to give Saitamaya 2 a try,  I bet you would not regret it. This great establishment is located at lot 48 of Omoide-Yokocho and the specific address is as below:

埼玉屋２号店

1 Chome-2-10 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0023