Hitachiya USA

Excellent work on sharpening my chef knife. My knife is a German henckel Now it’s super sharp thanks to this guys .
Saving up for a nice Japanese knife .
Highly recommended!

This is a hidden gem for Japanese cookware and knife sharpening. We have many high end Japanese knives in my family. For thirty or so years, my mom would take them back to Japan once a year to be sharpened by an old guy when we were visiting our family.
I first discovered Hitachiya on Unilocal.Somewhat nervously, I first brought only 3 or 4 knives to be sharpened. My mom called ahead to speak in Japanese about the knife sharpening and Hiro was so kind. We were very happy with the sharpening and have since brought back over ten knives to be sharpened up… they are good as new.
The cost for kitchen knife sharpening ranges about 16 – 22 bucks each depending on the size and condition of the knives. Considering buying these new costs several hundred each, I think this is pretty reasonable.
Highly recommended!

I found Hitachiya on Unilocal.It’s one of the few places in the South Bay where you can get your knives hand sharpened! I had my two large kitchen knives sharpened for about $ 20 each. After doing research, this seems to be the going rate (about $ 1 per inch of knife). I dropped the knives off and received them back about three days later — nice and sharp! I’ll be back in about 6 months to get my knives sharpened again.

Me and my buddy had a warm greeting by Hiro. This place has an outstanding selection of knives. None of those sharpened pressed sheet metals. By far the best cooking supply shop I’ve walked into. Definitely will be a returning customer!

About 3 years ago, the LA Times ran an article about authentic Japanese cooking and where specialized equipment could be purchased. This store was mentioned, and had pictures of a Professional steel wok used by chefs. Although not a chef by any means, I wanted to learn more about Japanese cooking and the cookware necessary to make a semi-​decent dish that would not insult traditional Japanese folks.
Well, this store has pretty much everything a home chef would need to make a Japanese dinner an Issei would be proud of. The only problem is that the directions to use such equipment is in Japanese! On this occasion, a young 20 something Japanese man was able to speak in broken english and inform me of how to use a Japanese BBQ I was interested in. Being familiar with the American BBQ, I felt comfortable, but soon found out it’s not that simple. First, heating the coals requires heating a ceramic bowl over a hot stove and waiting for the right temperture to get the coals hot enough to cook meat. In addition, a secondary bowl is partially filled with water to ensure the temperatures do not crack the bowl itself. I felt it was a class in thermodynamics! Anyway, I ended up purchasing the BBQ and was fairly warned that it’ll take over an hour to heat up and that if I had friends over, everyone will be too drunk to eat. Noted!

My review is of the knife sharpening only.
I brought my Ka-​Bar 1218 USMC Fighting Knife with 7″ blade (4.5″ straight edge with 2.5″ seration) here because of the high reviews. I knew I was going to pay a little extra, was quoted $ 17 and agreed without complaint. As my ticket was about to be written the gentleman told me he couldn’t sharpen the serated edge but rather the straight blade only.
Needless to say, I grabbed my knife with a bewildered look on my face and left.
Who needs only ²⁄₃ of a knife sharpened? =/

I shopped at Hitachiya for the first time last night — my friend purchased a Christmas gift for me there, and I was intrigued to go and discover the store for myself. I love Japanese cookware and Japanese food, so I went to check out Hitachiya with my 2 sisters and a friend.
Hands down, they have the best assortment and inventory of Japanese cookware I have found in LA County. There are specialty utentils and supplies, fun and unusual gadgets that are difficult, if not impossible, to find in LA. If one is a Japanese cooking afficionado and enthusiast, I highly recommend Hitachiya to find interesting implements and supplies to add to one’s collection.
What is unique about Hitachiya is the good will and friendliness of the staff — — Hirota-​san being not only an expert craftsman, but a personality as well. I have found some Japanese shop keepers and staff to not be particularly welcoming or helpful, however, this is not the case at Hitachiya. They were very helpful and patient with our questions, and their socialable personas made us feel welcome to browse and to ask for details.
We purchased a number of things including bincho coals, a ‘tawashi’ natural scrub brush, fish scaler, chopsticks with the finest points; but our most uique purchase was a ceramic rice cooking pot — a Banko Yaki ceramic — and, we tried it this moring. Following the directions, the rice turned out to perfection –and, with the new crop Koshihikari rice, it was absolutely devine.
I recommend anyone with appreciation for Japanese cooking ware, home goods and hard-​to-​find gadgets to try Hitachiya — you will encounter helpful, friendly ambience and hopefully more than what you went in search for.

A high end japanese kitchenware store. They have hand man japanese knives and special purpose built japanese kitchenware. They also have a japanese knife sharpening service that is supposed to be one of the best in the country. If you’re a fan of kitchen stuff like Surfas, be sure to check this place out.

Everything they carry is of exceptional quality — to the casual eye it may look like an expensive version of things you can find elsewhere but in fact all of it is hand-​made or made with care using best-​quality materials (eg. Cypress & copper hangiri vs cheaper wood & aluminum). The owner and his staff are friendly, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. And it almost goes without saying that they carry many specialty items that you don’t know you need until you see them. A true destination store for any serious Japanese cooking enthusiast!

Dear Mango G.,
thank you for helping me get busy and write this review. Please read on, you might learn something.
Dear Everyone else,
if you have fine kitchen knives, scissors, etc and you want them sharpened by a master craftsman definitely seek out Hitachiya. My wife and I visit Hirota san several times a year to have him sharpen her (expensive and not so expensive) kitchen knives and my Japanese utility knife that I use everyday for my work. His work is impeccable. Absolutely the finest knife sharpener I have ever run across. And please don’t confuse my opinion with that of some amateur. In my work sharpening tools to perfection is part of my daily life. I know what goes into it. It isn’t easy. It requires years of dedication, education and refinement of technique. Consequently you shouldn’t expect to have it done at a bargain price. Yes, earlier this year Hirota san raised his prices. It was a fair increase, not excessive. Something I’d like to point out to Mango G. is that larger knives take more time to sharpen (duh). That’s why they’re more expensive. The condition they’re in will also affect the price. There are people who are satisfied with the job the guys at farmers markets do sharpening their knives. What they don’t know is that every time you let those guys grind away on your knife they take a few years away from its life expectancy. Bet you didn’t know that. Hirota san preserves the quality, integrity and life span of your fine knives. In the long run his work is a bargain.
As far as the prices of the kitchenware at Hitachiya goes… Most of it is top quality goods. A lot of it you can’t easily find somewhere else. Sadly the dollar sucks compared to the yen. Still, it beats the cost of a plane ticket to Japan.
Check out Hitachiya. It’s like going to a Japanese kitchen store in Japan. I’ve been to Aritsugu in Kyoto. It’s a little more high end than Hitachya. Virtually everything there is made by hand. But the knife sharpening? It’s the same. It’s the best.

Hitachiya sells the best quality kitchenware from Japan. Many items are handmade by high end craftsman. When i have a question, the store people always give me very detailed answer. I have bought Tamagoyaki pan, Wok, Daikon Oroshiki, rice cooker donabe, different size of bamboo made zaru. I love all of them. Makes them easy to prepare all sort of Japanese dishes.

This is a destination. It looks very small when you walk in but it took me 45 minutes to look at everything. Very helpful and knowledgable owners. I wanted to buy EVERYTHING. Some things are just the perfect tool for a given task — such as the daikon grater if you like daikon oroshi like I do – and some are simply breathtakingly beautiful.

just wanted to let people know more about this shop. Hitachiya is having a sale on all their products, up to 40% off. Sale officially starts on Saturday, September 14^th to Monday September 16^th.

I went to the store to sharpen my kitchen knives twice in the past year. First time they charged $ 15 for my Wusthoff (7″), $ 12 for a small one (6″). This time it cost me $ 19 for the bigger one while the smaller one cost $ 15.
$ 19 for sharpening one knife is waaaaaay too expensive. I will NOT go back there any more. In addition, why do they charge different prices for the same knifes???
The goods they have are nice but overpriced. Maybe because I know what they cost in Japan. It is a little cute store, but just not for me.

The owner has a specialty store in Tsukiji Japan and he has brought the Kitchen goods store to the USA. There is one in New York called Korin that is the place to go for serious Chefs looking for Japanese knives. Very Happy that Hitachiya is in Los Angeles. The goods that he carries are in the high end as to quality and performance. as the other reviewers have posted it is not items that you would find at other Japanese markets like Marukai. The knowledge base is extremely high for the items being sold and brought from Japan. There is another store in Abott Kinney that carries some Japanese Kitchen products but Hitachiya is hands down very comprehensive. I am going to take a 2 hours nice sharpening class. The sashimi knives are very long and the carbon steel blades very difficult to put the proper edge without instruction in sharpening.

Unique Japanese imports. I bought a hand-​hammered wok with accessories as well as a finely-​crafted bamboo steamer. Not cheap, but very good quality.
Wish the guy who helped me had brushed his teeth. I didn’t like smelling his cigarettes on his breath. Kinda gross, dude.

Very nice shop for Japanese kitchenware. Staff helpful and friendly. Liked the table top grills and specialty gadgets for cutting vegetables into fancy shapes.
Nice selection of kitchen gadgets.

A small Japanese kitchen store stocked with unique and specialty Japanese kitchen items imported from Japan. If you like to cook Japanese food this place should be on your must-​visit list. Prices are not cheap but you know you are making a high quality purchase and supporting a great independent store. They also provide knife sharpening. I was intrigued by the huge selection of what looked like mini cookie cutters. They turned out to be hand made garnish cutters in amazing shapes such as bunnies, turtles, and leaves. How much was the bunny one you ask? almost $ 50. that’s a serious garnish cutter. You won’t find a store like this anywhere else.