Something newsworthy has happened (well, newsworthy if you follow dining micro-trends): A new restaurant from Hawaii has opened in Tokyo and it doesn't serve pancakes. Maui Mike's (5-32-13 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; 03-3830-0139; www.mauimikes.jp) serves chicken — glistening rotisserie chicken that spends two hours making its hypnotic rounds over open flames.

And from what I can tell, the original Maui Mike's in Hawaii is not a tourist trap. It appears to be a place that locals actually like. It certainly doesn't look touristy: It's a squat building on the side of the highway in central Oahu (so not in Maui, but anyway). Also, it has flames painted on the windows.

Maui Mike's top selling point is that it uses only natural (as in hormone- and antibiotic-free), never-frozen birds, and the Tokyo shop does too. The Tokyo shop also uses "American-sized" chickens, which the manager told me were very hard to find in Japan. You can order the chicken in quarter or half sizes (to eat in or to go), with a side of french fries, onion rings, rice or corn. The other exciting thing on the menu is the Maui Wowie, a hot sandwich of shredded chicken breast topped with cheddar cheese in a mayo-slicked hoagie roll.