Tori Bar

Tori Bar, a yakitori-sake-and-beer bar, makes for a pre-show drinks or dinner option on the busy strip near Enmore Theatre.

Owners Andrea Dal Bosco, Edward Howell and Mario Montecuollo opened the venue in December 2016 in place of Bar Racuda, one of Enmore’s first small bars. The trio decided to reinvigorate the venue after a revelatory trip to Japan, where dining and drinking was all about the experience.

The space was designed by 9Erawan Design and references Japan’s X and Y. There are a few tables with seats either at the bar (looking straight at the chefs and bartenders) or just behind it. There’s a smaller bar hidden at the back for more intimate evenings or bartender-customer one-on-ones.

The front bar is where most of the action happens. Chef Hiro Kano oversees a small grill, typically topped with all parts of the chicken (yakitori classics such as soft bone, skin and giblets), pork belly, beef tongue, wagyu cubes and asparagus-and-sake-coated king-brown mushrooms. Skewers make up most of the menu and can be ordered by the stick or omakase style, which is essentially trusting the chef to feed you until you’re full. Otherwise there’s a rotating selection of sashimi, raw vegetables with an intense miso dip or, the Tori Bar team’s favourite, egg sandwiches.

The other end of the bar serves organic wines, Japanese beers on tap, sake-inspired cocktails (such as the saketini or sagroni) and a small but varied selection of mostly high-grade sake.