he pot roast, mashed potatoes and free beer were halfway decent, but I couldn’t shake my craving for yakitori. I’ve been back in the swing of throwing yakitori parties, but hadn’t really tried any skewers around Portland in some while. It was 8:30pm, well before my companies holiday party would end, but not too long before Afuri would close. I turned to Tram and asked her if she wanted to bail and grab some skewers. She said “sure” and off we went.

Afuri opened back in 2016 and I’d been excited at the time, not for the ramen, but for the grilled meat. We went only a couple times over the years never really impressed, nor disappointed. Tonight though I was set on trying all their skewers to see if anything was worth copying for my next parties.

Wagyu

Mishima wagyu with shio-shiso tomato puree, $7.5. The beef was cooked well at a nice medium rare, but the seasoning of the tomato puree, and particularly the salt levels, were a little high for my taste. I would prefer to taste the meat more.

Sake

Garlic miso marinated salmon with chives and lemon, $7. The garlic miso marination didn’t impart too strong of a flavor on the fish which was nice. The skin was nice and crispy and contrasted with the delicate flesh on the well cooked pieces. Some of the skewer was a little overcooked and dried out.

Satsumaimo Mochi

Sweet potato mochi with a kuromitsu-tamari glaze and housemade furikake, $5. Kuromitsu is “black honey,” but really it’s just dark sugar syrup, similar to molasses. The texture was pretty interesting, really contrasting with all the other skewers. The flavor was pretty mild with some earthy hints, but was too salty for my taste.

Tsukune

Chicken meatballs with tare and egg yolk, $6. You don’t really see tsukune served with egg yolks in the states so it was a treat to have it with one. The grind on the meat was very fine, reminding me of bologna or vietnamese cha, which I enjoyed. There didn’t really seem to be any organs or cartilege in the grind though which I missed. The flavor also kind of reminded me of an IKEA meatball, which was odd.

Negima

Chicken thigh with scallions and yakitori tare, $5.5. This is usually one of my favorite skewers, like most people, unfortunately this one was overcooked and had just a light coating (maybe a single dip?) in the tare which was too sweet for my liking.

Momo

Chicken thigh with yakitori tare, chili jam, fried shallots and chives, $6. Chili jam this was a bit out of the ordinary. Thigh meat is pretty delicious on it’s own so I don’t think it needs strong flavors. This skewer was slathered in the chili jam though which was pretty dang spicy. The meat was cooked well and the texture of the shallots was nice, but I didn’t taste anything but chili jam.

Brussel Sprout

Charred brussel sprouts with sweet-miso mustard and chives, $4.5. Tram and I both like brussel sprouts, espeically when cooked well. These were cooked perfectly and the miso was a nice compliment. I would ditch the mustard, but Tram thought it was good.

Nasu

Eggplant with ginger amadare and oroshi ginger, $5. This was my favorite skewer of the night. The eggplant had soaked up the sweet ginger tare and the little bit of bite from the grated ginger on top was perfect. Simple, but well executed.

Takeaways

I’d say I was mostly disappointed with the meat skewers, especially considering the prices, but I defintely have fresh ideas to try out. I think the fish was nice, we’ve discussed doing collars before, but with my grill being small it would be hard to manage. Skewers might be worth a shot if I can feel confident it won’t fall off. The finer texture of the tsukune was really good. I typically only grind my tsukune once, but I think I’ll give it at least a second grind next time around. I think I’ll have to do brussel sprouts, but will need to think about the sauce. Perhaps trying with a standard miso dengaku would be a good place to start. Finally I need to do the nasu skewers, although I’m not sure how to get the sweet tare to infuse so well. It almost tasted like it was simmered in a dashi stock.

The staff was friendly, the beer and sake flowed and I satiated my craving for skewers. I’ll see you at the next izakaya!

Note: Prices are shown per skewer, but they are sold as a set of two unless you order a skewer flight which is five skewers of the chef’s choice.