HATCH Your Tastebuds with Daniel Shemtob’s Yakitori

Chef Daniel Shemtob and his team have created a Japanese inspired yakitori and bar in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles called HATCH Yakitori +Bar. Chef Shemtob’s vision for a Japanese-inspired yakitori bar reflects his thoughtfulness around flavors and food. His yakitori skewers honor Japanese precision and perfection while displaying his personal culinary style.

Standout items include thigh and green onion, chicken meatballs, pork belly, pee wee potato and mushroom party sticks. Chef Shemtob features jidori chicken for his items and utilizes traditional grills and charcoal imported from Japan. The thigh and green onion skewer was a nod to traditional Japanese yakitori and beautifully executed. The most unique and interactive item was the chicken meatball. Grilled to perfection, the generously portioned meatball is served alongside an egg yolk and tare dip. Chef Shemtob’s dedication to the ingredients is reflected in the dipping sauce. The egg yolk is sous vide just precisely to provide a rich and velvety texture to coat the chicken.

His creativity truly shines in his plates. The Agedashi tofu, black karaage, avo tuna toast, and hamachi steal the show. While tofu, karaage, and sashimi are traditional Japanese menu items, Chef Shemtob’s incredibly unique spin dazzles the palate. The most surprising dish is the karaage. When it is presented on the plate, you almost wonder if the kitchen made a glaring mistake and served you lumps of charcoal. Once the server describes that the breading is colored with squid ink, your taste buds salivate. The karaage bites are incredibly crunchy on the outside, and juicy and flavorful on the inside.

During this media party, Chef Shemtob served a special off-menu item Wagyu beef nigiri. His sous chef carefully crafted the riceball, passed it to Chef Shemtob where he gently laid a piece of prized beef. Then, with a blow torch, Chef Shemtob seared the meat to perfection.

Cocktails at HATCH shine as brightly as the food. Using Japanese ingredients, the drinks are incredibly unique and match any high-end bar service in Los Angeles. The sake and Japanese whiskey based drinks are based on Japanese ingredients and not your run of the mill generic drinks. All drinks were unique, interesting, and delicious like the Wassup Bae made with roku gin, wasabi, cucumber, lemongrass syrup, lemon, and salt.

While HATCH is not necessarily the traditional Japanese yakitori restaurant an Angeleno would find in Little Tokyo or on Sawtelle Japantown, it’s food truly honors Japanese precision and flavors.

HATCH Yakitori + Bar