The Verdict
YARDBIRD is the Sheung Wan yakitori restaurant that appeared on the Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list and maintained the no-frills quality that earned it that position. Chef Matt Abergel built the restaurant on a simple premise: source whole birds from a specific farm in Japan, use every part (every skewer represents a different section of the anatomy), and cook each piece over binchotan charcoal with the timing and temperature discipline that Japanese yakitori tradition demands. The result is food that demonstrates why the form is serious.
The skewer progression moves through the bird in sequence: oysters (the two pieces of dark meat beside the backbone), heart, liver, thigh, breast, neck, skin, and the tsukune meatball that is the yakitori kitchen's compositional set piece — minced chicken with the kitchen's own tare glaze, brushed multiple times over the coals until the exterior caramelises with the sugar and soy's combined chemistry. The whole-bird sourcing means every skewer is from the same breed and farm, which produces the consistency that the form requires.
The bar programme at Yardbird — whisky highballs, sake in the Japanese tradition, shochu preparations — is assembled to accompany the food rather than to compete with it. The Wing Lok Street location in Sheung Wan's wholesale district, among the traders who have operated here for decades, provides an atmosphere that the restaurant enhances rather than disrupts. For Hong Kong's food community, Yardbird is the restaurant that demonstrated the city's international dining credibility before the current wave of Michelin recognition.
Why It Works for a Team Dinner
The yakitori format — a parade of skewers shared across the table, each one a conversation point about the specific cut and its preparation — creates the team dynamic that a business dinner benefits from. Yardbird handles groups of four to twelve with equal quality. The communal ordering, the bar programme, and the energy level of the room produce an evening that feels genuinely celebratory without the ceremony that the formal dining rooms impose. The Sheung Wan location is convenient and the neighbourhood walk is pleasant.
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