Blessed with a large Japanese community, Bangkok has no shortage of restaurants that bear an almost perfect resemblance to what you’d find in Japan. Taishusakaba Torayoshi is such a place: a barebones tavern (izakaya) where drinking and eating are equally important—and décor really isn’t. It’s as if they’d taken a big sake delivery, built the bar with the leftover crates, and opened up shop. Typically for this kind of spot, the cooks are hard at work behind the bar, barking orders in Japanese and throwing in little extras for their best customers. (Torayoshi is run by the same guys as neighboring Nagiya; both are imports from Tokyo, where they have a few more branches.) On every table, you’ll find a gas burner for some DIY barbeque and most punters do order at least some meat (chewy pancreas, B250, intestine, B250, shoulder, B300, short ribs, B320) to unleash their inner chef. But we prefer to let Torayoshi’s crew do the hard work. Their grilled fish are perfection: brushed with a very light, not-too-sweet soy sauce, and cooked with a slightly crisp exterior, while remaining fluffy inside. Belying the accepted wisdom that you can’t be good at everything, the kitchen is just as competent with raw fish, particularly their signature gokai nokke (B490). They claim that it’s “big in Japan” and we can see why: the six maki rolls almost completely disappear under the generous amounts of fresh crab, salmon roe and minced tuna. Just as importantly for an izakaya, the smaller side dishes are invariably satisfying, whether it’s some cold tofu sprinkled with condiments (B110) or a spicy tuna tartare with quail egg yolk (B160). Last but not least, you can get a great bottle of sake for a mere B300 and Asahi draft is just B90—but the complete drink list, which also includes sochu, would take many a drunken night to fully explore. Don’t compare izakaya fare to the fancy multi-course sets found at kaiseki restaurants, but as far as casual drinking food goes, this is currently one of our favorites in town. Corkage B800.
