Vin Chou subscribes to the contemporary ethos that morsels of high-quality, charcoal-grilled chicken on skewers go just as well with good wine as with fine sake. It's also quite comfortable using herbs, tomatoes and balsamico. But what makes this place so special is the quality of its yakitori ingredients.
At Vin Chou (which they rhyme with "banjo"), the chicken of preference is prime Date-jidori, one of the finest, most flavorful varieties of Japanese fowl. Rather more unusually, though, the menu also offers Bresse chicken wings, quail, cuts of Barbary duck and halves of squab, all flown in direct from Europe, from the same farms that supply some of the top French restaurants. Grilled over Bincho charcoal and anointed only with a sprinkle of sea salt or a simple soy-based tare dipping sauce, this prime yakitori is why Vin Chou has become a regular port of call for connoisseurs.
There is plenty of other exotica on the menu: prosciutto di Parma to start things off; excellent homemade sausage; salads of watercress or rocket; a good (if diminutive) cheese plate; and a superb vanilla cre^me brulee, prepared from the eggs of the same free-range Japanese jidori fowl you have nibbled on earlier in the meal.