Mitsumasa

Shimbashi has long been Tokyo's most reliable address for the salaryman's after-work ritual: a low stool, a cold glass, and skewers coming off a charcoal grate. Mitsumasa (三政 / みつまさ) is exactly that kind of place, a 串焼き専門店 (skewer-grill specialty shop) where the menu centres on yakitori and motsuyaki, the latter being charcoal-grilled offal and tripe that separates the committed regulars from the casual passerby. The cuisine falls squarely in the izakaya-adjacent tradition of Tokyo's working districts, where technique matters more than theatre. Charcoal grilling at this level demands consistent heat management and knowledge of the cuts, yakitori covering the range of chicken preparations, motsuyaki pushing into the more assertive territory of intestine, tripe, and similar offal that has been a staple of postwar Tokyo street eating since the Showa period.

The restaurant evokes that same era in its atmosphere, which sources describe as distinctly Showa in character rather than contemporary or renovated. Drinks follow the standard of the genre: Japanese sake, shochu, and wine are all listed, the kind of direct pairing that suits the food without demanding attention. There is no documented cocktail programme or wine list of note; this is not that kind of room. The address, 新橋3-19-6, 新陽ビルディング 1F, places it in Shimbashi's dense grid of bars, grills, and standing joints that fill after six with people from the neighbouring office towers.

The neighbourhood has enough competition to keep standards honest, and Mitsumasa's continued presence in that environment is its clearest credential. Visitors should arrive with an appetite for offal and no expectation of a formal dining structure.