Yakitori Jinbei

Yakitori Jinbei

2421 Cobb Parkway SE

Smyrna, GA 30080

770-818-9215

About four years ago a friend asked if he could take me to supper at "this wonderful Japanese restaurant [he knew] of" and, trusting his opinion as he's just as much a gourmand as yours truly, of course I said yes.

We drove.  And drove.  From his house in Decatur it seemed like we were driving to Tennessee but we stopped short - on Cobb Parkway just outside of the Perimeter at a strip mall.

There was an Olive Garden in the corner, a boat shop and a chain jewelry store ... typically not promising locale for good food.

But Mama taught me to not judge a book by its cover and man was she right!

Yakitori Jinbei is a VERY small resto in a strip mall, but the food that comes out of the partially open kitchen is anything but (small) ... 

Yakitori - small skewers cooked over special coals - became a favorite food of mine that night and I've been back several, several times since.  

The restaurant has traditional Japanese food as well as a fine sushi bar, but the star of the show are the skewers.  Ordered a la carte (or in several large group combos), you'll get chicken, pork, tiny little meatballs, green onions, asparagus, quail eggs (hardboiled then skewered and grilled), chicken skin (don't knock it until you've tried it) ... any number of tasty little treats served with just salt or with a special house made sauce.

Go for the salt - it enhances the flavor of anything grilled and works wonderfully with yakitori.

On a recent trip with two friends who were a bit skeptical (they're converts now, of course) we ate until our bellies plumped up and we waddled out.  I took several pictures with my phone - hence the less than stellar resolution - that I thought I would share.

ANYTIME - anyone - wants to go, let me know.  I could do it weekly.  :)