The story
Kunitoraya is a Japanese yakitori restaurant at 5 rue Villedo in Paris, listed by Le Fooding in 2026 and Recommended by Michelin the same year. Masafumi Nomoto runs the kitchen, and the cooking centers on chicken grilled over binchotan charcoal.
The Kunitoraya group began as the first udon restaurant in Paris, and noodles have not vanished from the menu. A small udon still appears in the longer tasting menus. Le Fooding noted that Nomoto had reinvented the place around yakitori. Free-range chicken is cut up at the back of the room, then cooked over the charcoal.
Dinner leans on Bresse chicken, offered as a yakitori menu with five cuts or as longer set menus up to an omakase with sake pairings. On the night Le Fooding visited, the omakase opened with an oyster in a vin jaune and shallot reduction, and sea urchin with caviar under a tosazu jelly. Skewers followed: sasami rubbed with umeboshi and shiso, thigh with sansho pepper, and tsukune served with a soy-cured egg yolk. Dessert was milk ice cream over kaki and azuki, brightened with yuzu and tarragon.
The space has a Belle Époque feel, with metro tiling, oak tables and plenty of mirrors. Seating is suited to a solo meal at the grill as well as a table for two, and there is outdoor seating too.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Enough with noodles! Masafumi Nomoto has reinvented his delightful restaurant Kunitoraya, leaving udon behind to make way for yakitori – aka grilled chicken skewers. From the back of his Belle Époque style space (metro tiling, oak tables, mirrors galore), free-range chicken is sliced up before being braised over binchotan charcoal, the famous Japanese grilling medium of choice. The night we went, the stunning omakase menu (chef’s choice) included: a very slurpable oyster in a vin jaune / shallot reduction under a veil of salt water; sea urchin and caviar taken to the next level by a tosazu (dashi-infused rice vinegar) jelly; a lovely smoked quail egg over taro purée…. Before a procession of skewers: sasami (chicken strips) rubbed with umeboshi (salted plum) and shiso; tebasaki (wing) with golden skin; mune (breast) topped with watercress; momo (thigh) spiced with Sancho pepper; tsukune (chicken meatballs) served with an egg yolk cured in soy sauce, mirin and Magao mountain pepper for dipping; and it’s the same story if you move on from the poultry, with fried scallops and a tofu / hijiki seaweed cream. All before a milk flavored ice cream placed atop cubed kaki and azuki beans seasoned with some refreshing yuzu and tarragon. Long live the holy grilled chicken! / Pica Bidon