Los Angeles

They say everything tastes better on a stick, but if the breadth of their experience is limited to strips of pedestrian meat and purloined doctor's office Tootsie Pops, how can "they" be sure? Pushing the boundaries of skewered stuff, Robata-Ya.

Far-Easted with decorative Japanese plaster and a central robata bar, Ya's a refrigerator-sized, stick-happy project from the Mako guy and the man who introduced LA to jidori chicken -- the Kobe of poultry, thanks to being scrumptiously murdered less than a day before it hits your plate. Beyond skewered standards (wasabi chicken breast, skirt steak, pork sausage, etc), Ya's impaling all manner of oddball parts from swine (belly, bacon-wrapped okra/asparagus/quail egg, and intestine) and chickens (gizzards, joints, tails, and the near-thigh dark meat some call the "oyster", probably to scare others away from eating it). For grilled & pierced sea creatures, there's shrimp (Tahiti, fresh, or sweet), sea bass, scallops, albacore, and more -- most of it also available as sashimi, for those who believe everything tastes better cut into tiny squares.

Ya also proffers a huge range of sake, and dishes based on rice and ramen -- served in a bowl, though if you're up for the effort, the zenith of cuisine would be to wrestle a noodle onto a stick.