Hitachiya USA — Local services in Torrance

I really wanted to like this place. I took a few western knives here to be sharpened after reading online that they do a good job. These particular knives were almost completely dull, but hold lots of sentimental value to me because my parents used them to prepare all our family's meals when I was a kid.

I picked them up and drove home only to discover a number of problems with them. To start, all of the bevels were uneven and visible scratches remain in many areas. The tip of my chef's knife has a large hanging burr which obviously was not there before. My fillet knife's profile was completely ruined (I suspect in an attempt to mask a mistake during sharpening), and it's handle scales were carelessly ground down as well.

These knives started out just needing to be sharpened, but some now require reprofiling. The $100 they charged me wasn't a complete waste though, as they're sharper than they were before, but that's not really saying much.

As I said, I really wanted to like this place and support a small local business, but sadly I cannot recommend Hitachiya to others. Perhaps they provide better services for Japanese knives. Still, I would've much rather had them turn me away than agree to take on a job they weren't prepared to do well.

Lesson learned. If you want something done right, do...

I am a chef of Sushi and Yakitory. This store sells authentic top quality products selected by the owner that I can't find anywhere else in the US.

Although I can make my Sushi knife razor sharp, I still attend the owner's knife sharping classes. The owner corrected lots of my bad habits and misconception about Japanese professional knives.

Since I have a restaurant owner backup my professional knife expense budgets with the knife lesson, I bought 3 professional knives that cost $1000+, 20% OFF with a Knife Sharpen Class in the store.

I am a pro, so I can tell the difference between cheaper knives on the internet and this store.

This owner never fools me and he can't fool me, he always recommended the REAL BEST Choice to me. For example, there are two wok pans, one is plain black, another is hammered gray; I asked him "which one do you like?", he answered "the hammered", I said "me too".

I don't compare prices with the internet, because we will lose all high quality skilled professional shops selling authentic goods and knife sharpening masters because we all fall into selfishness, cheap and greedy to steal the service labor cost from the good man.

ALL Pro knows above what I am...

A gem ! I took a knife sharpening class here with Masa! We learned so much about the importance of the metal, quality of the knife and how to keep that samurai edge at home; the right and simple way. Their knife selection is for every budget and the quality they choose to carry in their store is meant to keep forever and even pass down. This little store (but big online)is everything you would need or can imagine you need to shop for your Asian kitchen! They carry the highest quality items; including artisan quality knives made by Masa himself; a 60 year master of making knives! It’s a gem of a place like no other! Thank you Masa for the best experience in learning the art of a well made knife! Side note as a big plus-There is a well stocked Asian grocery store...