Keishoan serves fantastic charcoal-grilled, free-range chicken and choice sake in a comfortable setting. What's more, the menu includes novel kaiseki-style prix-fixe menus - surprisingly elegant meals built around humble skewers of chicken parts and vegetables. Elegant, but not extravagant - the 7-course menu starts at just Y2800, and a la carte skewers are just a few hundred yen per pair.

The prix-fixe menu is naturally focused on chicken; for example the raw fish course is replaced by a very tender and flavorful chicken sashimi, served with thinly sliced raw onions and dipped just like regular sashimi in soy sauce and pungent wasabi. The fried dish consists of bits of semi-cooked chicken breast wrapped in yuba (tofu skin) and light batter and quickly fried tempura-style. There are a few more standard dishes as well - light morsels of stewed or dressed foods, and a simple but refreshing salad of lettuce, ripe tomatoes, and boiled chicken.

The highlight, though, is the yakitori items - these definitely show off the kitchen at its best. Tasty, smoke-infused chicken thigh meat, pleasantly crunchy (rather than chewy) gizzard, and very rich and tender liver, still a tiny bit rare at the center. The tsukune are simply fantastic - rich in flavor and nicely textured with tiny bits of cartilege.

The prix-fixe menu also includes a "mini oyakodon", and the version here is mostly runny scrambled eggs with just small bits of chicken, the whole thing rather on the sweet side. The pickles are first-rate.

Opting for a la carte, on the other hand, gives you more freedom of choice in your yakitori selection; you can also try some of the shop's homemade tofu dishes, including their grilled tofu dengaku.

The sake list consists of about a dozen brands from all over, with popular names like Juyondai and Suigei, but a few more obscure choices as well. If you call ahead to reserve a table, you'll get a Y1000-per-person otoshi when you arrive; this actually isn't such a bad deal, since it's a very nice three-part plate of tiny delicacies to go with your first drink. (We certainly thought it was more than worth it to get a spacious, non-smoking table at peak time on a crowded weeknight.)

This is the only Tokyo branch of a Nagoya-based shop, located in the spiffy new restaurant complex atop the Lumine 1 department store. (That's the store at the very southwest corner of Shinjuku station, just above the Toei Shinjuku subway exit.)