Yakitori Hachibei — Restaurant in Honolulu

A MUST VISIT! Premium Yakitori Joint! You wont be disappointed. Ok so let me get this review started.

Location: As you all may know downtown is started to get really hip and revitalized with new shops and a much safer and cleaner area, but one thing that will never change is the difficulties in finding parking. Luckily this place is more of a place to go at night which is perfect because street parking is usually free but you'll be stuck finding spots, may the street parking gods be ever in your favor, otherwise UBER or LYFT "support local side job workers" (Better option if you're going to drink)

Atmosphere: I love how the restaurant was set up and designed, it has that warm ambience and gives you a sense of being in a casual yet classy as if you were in Japan feeling, again it's not like Yakitori Glad or the ones in Japan that has the same vibe as yakitori but this type of yakitori restaurant seems to mimic Tsukuneya kinda vibe but more open seating rather than being enclosed in pods. I love how they don't use electric type grilling from the looks of it it seemed more of actual charcoal grilling couldn't really tell, but you can really tell the difference in the cooking of the skewers.

Food: (The important part most people will read) (Cabbage w/sesame oil is included free/unlimited) So to clear up a few things, unlike Yakitori Glad where you get two skewers for $3.90 you only get one skewer per order which is priced at $2.80 or more (at current January 2017 prices) here. Now that's cleared let's get to whats good. So I and my friend basically ordered one of everything, didn't take a few photos in the beginning because totally forgot and just wanted to have it get in my belly, but these were a few that's worth trying and a MUST TRY:

Hachibei Foie Gras (Chicken Liver): So buttery and creamy, one order is not enough

Enoki Maki!! Mushroom is so good!! It also has a quail egg!

Sunazuri (Chicken Gizzard): A favorite of mine from Yakitori GLAD, and same here, the only difference is that here the gizzard is cooked perfectly and not chewy/rubbery as it often was in GLAD.

Shiso Maki (Perilla Leaves): So good Just try it!. The perilla leaves really have a strong flavor but it works so well.

Bacon & Egg Maki: TRY THIS! its so good, the egg is so good the right amount of sweetness and saltiness from the bacon completes it. Was really good I ordered another one.

Sukiyaki: This was really good! they include an egg yolk for you to dip the skewers, it just works! I had extra yolk so I dipped other skewers in it. Order THIS! -You can also just order the yolk by itself

Tsukune: A staple at any yakitori place, try dipping this in the yolk that comes with the sukiyaki!

Butabara (pork belly): Just order it so good Tara Bara: Same pork belly but this has the tare sauce which is the sweet shoyu sauce

Teba Shio (Chicken Wing): It comes with two wings, it's really moist and crisp, the way its grilled brings out the flavor.

Other things we ordered but was so so..

Mune (Chicken Breast): As with chicken breasts its dry, got the Mantai Mayo, and Wasabi shoyu. The wasabi shoyu flavor wasn't that strong like barely can taste and the mantai mayo was just a few dots of mayo, so wasn't really anything special.

Goma Salmon: Basically salmon poke like the one you get at foodland, I'm not sure if it was just the batch we got, but the salmon was fishy and I know what you're saying, "salmon is a fish" but if you know fishy fish you know what I mean, but it's good, but for the price I rather get the yakitori stuff.

Hachibei Goma Pudding: It's good, just try it there is a very strong smoky sesame taste, but it was interesting

Gelato Vanilla Azuki: Wished they added some kind of mochi ball on the side or something, it was pretty basic dessert.

Customer Service: Customer service was great! The workers were really nice and attentive, they were friendly and the owners like Robert were very welcoming and personable. No questions about service because they are excellent, which is what makes a restaurant...

For the price and for the service, not worth coming as a native Japanese girl’s opinion. Although my first-timer partner to Yakitori loved the place, I had some problems with how Y.H tries to represent itself as a fancy and trendy restaurant in downtown, which is not a typical concept of Yakitori place is in Japan at all for the most part. So many Japanese places in Hawaii (e.g Ramen) are overpriced and fantasized, and Y.H is definitely one of them.

But ok, I understand if you want to make Yakitori place that is high-end and perfect-for-date restaurant, but then you must train servers with the minimum level of customer service! Our young male server’s reminded me of an impersonal non-friendly cashier at a school cafeteria. In other words, he doesn’t even try to be nice or hospitable to our table. Take order, bring food, that’s it, no other elements of customer service. In fact, when I asked him something he usually just nod and turn around, he never once saw my eyes. He wasn’t horrible, but for what you pay for your food, you can’t even expect the standard pleasant service? Other servers seemed very nice, so maybe we were out of luck.

Quality of food is decent, but which is also relative to what you pay for. Some Happy Hour items were just jokes, because it’s all $5 you get a tiny drop of pâté??? Oh come on. Also we had two different kinds of chuhai, and they are like mock-tail and I could never figure if it has alcohol in it. All dishes come in the size that is smaller than you expect (Also smaller by the standard of Yakitori place in Japan). My love and hate dish of the night was Endoumame no kushiage, which is filled with wonderful pea’s flavor and texture, yet comes in a size of (smaller than) marshmallow and $3.80. Shime’s dishes Oyako-don and Ramen were average. In Yakitori place in Japan, the purpose of shime dishes (end of the meal entry with curb) are to finish meals strong, and they usually condense overwhelmingly rich chicken flavor in broth or with rice, which speaks of the pride of the restaurant. Ramen and Oyako-don missed the special flavors of having them at Yakitori place. The latter had tiniest pieces of chicken I’ve ever seen in Oyako-don.

It was also clear that this place is for Japanese community and Japanese business customers. The owner was present at the restaurant for the entire time when we dined in (I’ve seen him featured in an online article), but he was too busy to be a host of Japanese party of six. Even before the group came, he never checked tables or greet customers, never asked how’s everything going except for his favorite friends’ table. The same thing when you leave the restaurant, this place doesn’t care if you had good time with your meals. I’ve been a host and a server in Japanese restaurants in South Cal and Tokyo, and it’s unimaginable that the owner never say Arigato gozaimashita (thank you for coming in) when customers leave. It feels like that many non-Japanese reviews giving 5 starts to this place don’t know what’s authentic yakitori is,...

Its unfortunate to see all these one stars reviews (by others that are obviously not from here) wherever I go on businesses that has been serving top notch food and service.

Hachibei, despite the small portions, serves ingredients that are fresh and cooked to perfection! You should be expecting $5-10 per skewers of food but it was totally worth it! The A5 was my favorite! Ive been seeing the chicken noodle ramen all over ig and it also did not disappoint. The yakitori and their full bar comes well together for a fun night outing or even a get together.

Though the restaurant is located in the unappetizing part of downtown, it serves a type of rustic NY vibe to the dinner plate. It aint everybody's cup of tea but I think they shouldn't complain about it since they already know what they are getting into when making a rsvp.

I would like to emphasize a bit on the one star reviews Ive been seeing wherever I dine. I will not throw any race cards out there but it seems like one certain type of people from an app called Little Red Book (Chinese yelp) are ruining the service industry of Oahu. I do frequent this app and I am seeing all these people throwing shade are restaurants that dont go their way. I recently dined at Uosan and I am appalled at all these people ganging up on a small restaurant whom were serving quality food for many years. I feel for the businesses because these individuals do not know what good food is all about, and when theres good food it will come with bigger prices. I also am annoyed that these individuals all make reservations and do not show up on time or not at all even. Its the same complaint I hear from all the restaurants. That hurts the business significantly and these individuals are selfish to care about that.. yes they are having their best time at the beaches and north shore but to these small restaurant, your cover feeds many heads. Also detrimental to the waiters whom work off tips. The worst is if you make a cover and no show and there goes the table which could've been sat by some walk in. So you may feel like you're right for not coming to a rsvp or cancelling at the last minute, but it does hurt many others because of that. (I am speaking from 20yrs experience of owning...