Beatles not Beetles

Kota's Kitchen is a Beatles (the band) themed yakatori chain in Shanghai.  There are Beatles posters on the walls.  And as you would have guessed, the jams are a constant rotation of Beatles songs. 

My personable German coworker really likes music.  A LOT!  So I thought that going to Kota's Kitchen would be a great place to visit before he had to return to Germany the next day.  When I suggested we head there, he replied, "Beatles? B-E-A or B-E-E?"  I assured him that no bugs would be consumed, we headed off.

Just as a side note, yakatori is HUGE in Shanghai.  When the sun sets, and the people go out at night, the streets fill with yakatori vendors.  There are several on every corner.  They all have about 15 skewer types to choose from.  All cooked fresh over coal grills.

Kota's is not only known for their take on yakatori, but also their house made fruit infused sochus.  Sochu goes down easily enough, but fruit infused sochu is DANGEROUS.  My peach flavored sochu was absolutely wonderful.  It was like drinking a boozy Georgia summer.  As a special treat, the fresh peach is like a shot of super booze.



Goes down too easy!


Always so much talk of the booze!  Now that I was hungry, I ordered some food. 

The first to arrive were, what I believe to the pork meatballs.  They were pretty big.  There was a sweet teriyaki style glaze that was not too sweet or thick.  The meat was juicy all the way through. 

Pork meatballs

I am not sure what came next, but we did have this wonderful ox tail.  Although I agree with the Chinese concept, "No bone, no flavor," it is really difficult to eat off the bone with chopsticks.  There was little meat on this cut, and a lot of fat.  That is kind of my thing, so I really enjoyed it. 

Oxtail

As I have been eating a lot of pork, I decided to venture out by ordering two non-pork items.  I ordered a mushroom skewer, a skewer of chicken hearts (I'm gross, aren't I?), and pork belly.  Okay, I really tried on lowering the pork, but I can't pass up the belly.  I did make the trade off that I got pork belly instead of pork toro.

The mushrooms were very fresh, but in hindsight, I would have picked another veggie.  The pork belly was more fat than meat, but I loved it.  The chicken hearts were a little tough.  I am not sure if this is due to the cooking, or maybe it is due to a difference in the chicken meat.  I would not order those again.

An assortment of delicious (chicken hearts, pork belly, and mushrooms)

My coworker, ordered beef tongue.  It was smokey and tender, but obviously not as tender as a braised tongue.  Pleasant none the less.  I am not sure how they got the pieces so small, but there they are. 

Beef tongue

Being healthy is more important so some than others; here is my coworker eating a salad.

Fried pork and mozzarella salad

There were small pieces of pork and little chunks of mozzarella-like cheese.  I can't remember what the vegetable were, but the dressing was a slightly sweet and sour thin sauce.

Kota's is really hip.  After dinner, we ended up meeting two pretty cool dudes from Taiwan.  One guy, Wing, is a concert producer.  The other guy, Max, was a bad mama jama.  He was in a traditional Chinese band.  Also, he had rode a motorcycle from California to Florida.

I like Kota's Kitchen, but to be honest, I would not recommend it to people who are in Shanghai for a very short time.  I think you can get very similar food in the US or other western countries.  Notice I said food, not sochu.  I would definitely come back to get some very tasty drinks.