京の鳥どころ 八起庵 池袋東武百貨店 at Ikebukuro, Tokyo

A Kyoto-founded chicken-nabe specialist on the 12th floor of Tobu Ikebukuro, known for mizutaki, duck sukiyaki and oyakodon.

Kyo no Toridokoro Hachikian is a long-standing Kyoto chicken restaurant founded in 1970 in Marutamachi, and its Ikebukuro Tobu branch brings that heritage to the 12th-floor Spice restaurant zone of Tobu Department Store. The kitchen specialises in slow-simmered chicken soups and nabe, with a signature tori no mizutaki course at 7,000 yen that uses generously cut Daisen-gaina chicken, a house-made ponzu of gentle citrus and a finishing zosui cooked in the rich broth. Other Kyoto favourites include chicken sukiyaki, duck sukiyaki, the award-winning "particular oyakodon" and the duck nanba with kujo onion and Kyoto sansho. The dining room seats 52, is fully non-smoking and welcomes children, and accepts major credit cards; hours run 11am to 10pm daily with a 9pm last order, and the shop follows Tobu Department Store's own closing days. Reservations are recommended for the mizutaki course and are available by phone or online, with the calm, refined interior well suited to business entertaining, formal dining and family celebrations alike. For a taste of old Kyoto without leaving Ikebukuro, Hachikian pairs patient, broth-led cooking with warm hospitality rooted in half a century of tradition. Settle in, let the pot simmer and savour a bowl that has delighted dignitaries for generations - it is an elegant centrepiece for any special meal.