Japanese street food at Jap's Table

The idea of street food combines convenient and tasty eats, the great outdoors, hopefully reasonable pricing and a sprinkling of dust/germs/pollution from said streets.

It is quite literally street food at Jap's Table, with part of the menu cooked and eaten on the Chippendale footpath one sunny weekend lunch.

Cooking yakitori on the footpath at Jap's Table, Abercrombie Street, Chippendale

Jap's Table offers Japanese yakitori grilled chicken on a skewer, as well as a smattering of other Japanese highlights of sushi and ramen.

The sweet, smoky smells of the charcoal grill attracted quite a few looks from both passing pedestrians and cars.

Japanese soft drinks

The milky Calpis soft drink is a must-have for some with its subdued sweetness, while the Suntory branded C.C. Lemon is much like any lemon squash.

Negi toro maki sushi roll

As we waited for our hot food orders I tried out one of the pre-made sushi rolls, kept in a fridge displayed near the restaurant entrance.

The negi toro roll comprised a filling of minced raw toro tuna belly mixed with shallots, and wasn't bad but I could have used a touch of soy sauce which wasn't to be found.

Yokohama ramen

They had two varieties of ramen on offer featuring different broths: pork stock for the Yokohama version and chicken stock for the Tokyo version.

The ramen was pretty fair sized with the Yokohama one topped with Japanese style chashu roast pork, half a soft boiled egg, spinach, sliced shallots and two sheets of nori seaweed.

The soup was decidedly tasty and porky while the noodles were on the softer side of al dente, with chilli paste additions were available on the side.

Yakitori grill and chef

The main game for me was the yakitori which was being grilled under a watchful eye. Every flip on the grill or dunk into the sweet, soy-based sauce looked simple enough but I'm sure was a practised art.

Yakitori grill 

In addition to skewered yakitori options, the menu featured a yakitori don that has grilled chunks of chicken on a bowl of rice - chicken and rice, Japanese style.

(From top) Chicken liver, thigh and skin yakitori

Our yakitori order arrived all at once on the one plate: skewers of chicken thigh, liver and skin, suitably charred and saucy, straight off the grill.

The thigh, juicy with crunchy outer bits, was easy to love. The liver was overcooked, making it difficult for me (not a huge liver lover) to stomach.

I had high hopes for the chicken skin, which appeared as squares of skin folded and skewered, pretty much like they do in Japan. The texture was more rubbery than crisp like rendered skin would be; enjoyable for a little to start with but then completely and overwhelmingly too fatty.

Jap's Table is certainly waving the flag for street food in Sydney, and I can't wait to see it and the Sydney street food movement evolve.