DTLA: Dinner at Hatch Yakitoriya

Coedo sweet potato beer

I recently checked out Hatch at the new Bloc. I had seen some amazing pictures recently for the spot. However, they were sold out of their signature fried chicken and it was too hot to try their ramen. In any case, it’s a yakitori ya (skewers) so we got a bunch of different ones plus some snacks.

I started out with Benikaka, the sweet potato beer from Coedo which is one of my favorite Japanese brewers.

chicken skin

Hatch is known for their chicken and we ordered the chicken skin to munch on.

seaweed salad and tsukemono

We actually ordered the seaweed salad and tsukemono (pickles) after our onslaught of skewers. We needed a little (more) veg.

confit chicken wings

I can’t resist chicken wings and when I saw Hatch had them confit-style, I had to get them. I expected them to be a bit more tender though.

miso spare ribs

We ordered the miso spare ribs on our server’s recommendation. I didn’t like these. Yes, they were tender but they also tasted like they were boiled plain and then covered in sauce.

quail eggs

Hatch calls their skewers “sticks.” Each comes with a few tasty morsels so you’re encouraged to order plenty to give you a full meal. We ordered almost all of them. Quite a few were bacon wrapped but we tended to prefer our veggies “natural” aka sans pork. We did get another order of the bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms though because that one was worth a second order.

I just love quail eggs. I’ve been obsessed with them since I was a kid and would get them at dim sum. I tried buying the canned sort once but I didn’t know what to do with them so now I just order quail eggs when I see them on menus.

skewers – mushrooms, okra, eggplant and chicken

As mentioned we tended to get the veggie sticks plain. We ended up getting more mushrooms and eggplant as well. When the mushroom was listed as mushroom party, we had to order it. Sadly it was just three pieces so that’s why we had to get another order.

skewers – bacon wrapped enoki mushrooms

Yeah… okay, so sometimes bacon wrapped is good! And this is the nice Japanese bacon.

skewers – chicken and brussels sprouts

Our favorites included gizzard (well, my favorite) and thigh and green onion. I didn’t order the breast with plum but it got dropped off. We had actually ordered the breast with shiso.

While I know Hatch is known for chicken, I was surprised to see the only seafood on the menu was fish. I was with a friend who can’t eat fish but can have shellfish (the opposite of most seafood allergies). So we stuck to land based protein. They do have raw oysters but we weren’t feeling those.

While I liked quite a bit of the food, I don’t need to return. There are plenty of Japanese places that are better with better service. Our server tended to hover near us  instead of just checking back when we were ready and it made us uncomfortable. I also thought he had never worked in a restaurant before and wasn’t familiar with the cues. On the other hand, I do want to try their black karaage (black fried chicken with charcoal infused ranch dressing) and black fried rice so maybe I shouldn’t speak so soon!

Hatch Yakitoriya and Bar