I would have given 4-stars but the extremely slow and forgetful service brings it down to 3.5 stars. We had a group of 8 people that arrived right when it opened at 5pm. This is not a good place for large groups unless you show up at opening and snag a seat.
The gave us a 2-hour limit for dinner and drinks, but they ended up forgetting a bunch of our skewers and not adding the alcohol to the bills (luckily we're nice and reminded them). This was my first yakitori experience and it wasn't bad (aside from the service mix-up)
Nice presentation with the stone platters and flavoured salts. The udon pocket thing was really neat; same the random chicken body parts. The sake selection is good too (tending to the fruity flavours) and I really enjoyed the super black sesame ice-cream for dessert. Ordering $40 worth of skewers is still not filling enough for dinner alone, but better as a fancy snack with drinks.
Amazing decor that matches the Kinton downstairs. There's even a secret unmarked "ninja door" that hides the bathroom.
I suppose the slow service was due to new resto wrinkles that still need to be ironed out...the entrance to the yaktiori place is hidden INSIDE the Kinton.