So a friend at work and I want something quick and cheap. And good. In our neck of the woods, that means House of Yakitori. Its not much to look at, but its a real gem.

House of Yakitori has been in town as long as I can remember (I moved here in 1985), and has always been great. The dad of one of my high school friends used to do their payroll (circa 1988), so I've been coming here for a long time and it has been very consistent for nearly 20 years. Thats no small feat. They've expanded over the years (I think they are up to 8 stores), but they all seem equally good.

Our waitress had her kids with her, which was entertaining (her youngest was singing or something). I thought it was cute, but if your a kid hater, it might bother you.

They always start you with a nice cup of soup. Its got crunchy floating things in it that soak up the broth, along with some green onions. Yum!

There are some Thai dishes on the menu, in addition to the typical Yakitori menu, but I almost always go with the #7, yakitori and tatsuta. If your not familiar with tatsuta, its bits of beef coated with some kind of batter, and fried. They serve it with this tangy mustard, and it is awesome. The meal is also served with a couple sticks of yakitori, some white rice, some onion rings, and a salad, which is closer to cole slaw than a normal salad, but without all of the yuckiness of cole slaw. All that for about seven bucks!

The yakitori was tasty, but could have used more sauce; my friend asked for some, but I was too busy shoveling tatsuta in my mouth. I'm not a big fan of the tempora style onion rings, so I left 'em. Everything else was great.

My one regret was that I got less Tatsuta than usual. Sometimes I order an additional side of the stuff, but that costs almost as much as the meal itself, so I restrained myself. If you stick to the lunch special, or the numbered combos, you can get out of here for eight or nine bucks apiece.