Izakaya Toribar

Toribar is a basement izakaya in Midtown East, dark and smallish, with a big grill throwing smoke behind a thick glass partition — a few seats sit right up against it — and a sake den feel that makes a Tuesday seem later than it is.

Order skewers with salt or tare: the chicken thigh with scallion, and the smelt stuffed with its own roe, which is a small revelation. Then go wide the way an izakaya intends — chicken karaage, takoyaki, a grilled fish collar, something from the teppan — and keep the sake and highballs coming.