Hachibei offers tasty, interesting dishes at happy hour

Yakitori Hachibei is a refreshing blend of elegant intimacy and energetic atmosphere.

Opened just over a year ago in Chinatown, the restaurant-yakitori bar is the latest eatery established by Niku no Yashima Co. Ltd, a company founded in 1983 by Katsunori Yashima in Japan. The company has nine restaurants in Japan, two in Taiwan and one in Thailand in addition to the one here, but local managing partner Robert Yamazaki is reluctant to call it a “chain” since each restaurant is owned and operated directly from the home office.

Yamazaki himself, a Chicago native who spent time in New York’s financial markets, got interested in the business after a casual visit to one of the restaurants in Japan and deciding “this was it.”

Yakitori Hachibei restaurants focus on bringing an authentic Japanese dining experience here, which means fresh, local ingredients. The chicken for its yakitori, for example, is from the North Shore, specially chosen by the staff and slaughtered twice a week.

For happy hour, Hachibei offers both convenience and a flare for the unusual, making for a satisfying experience.

THE EXPERIENCE

Hachibei has a simple, graceful style that is quintessentially Japanese but also refreshingly mod. The design and furnishings feature rich wood tones, and the original red brick walls are exposed. A few plates and bowls on a wall shelf serve as decoration, while a long paper lampshade snakes over the tables on the opposite side. The small tables seat two, but it’s easy enough to put them together for larger parties.

Someone will yell out a Japanese greeting when you enter, welcoming you into the cozy space. You’ll be right at the bar, where you can watch the skewers of chicken getting grilled. There’s a huge fan overhead sucking out the smoke, which is kind of too bad — the aroma from the burning wood, specially chosen for grilling, probably smells heavenly, but it would certainly get smoky in there in a hurry.

THE FOOD

Happy hour at Hachibei offers an interesting selection of small dishes and beverages, each priced at $5, which is convenient. It might come as a surprise that yakitori is not on the happy-hour menu, but no matter. Everything I tried was excellent.

Especially pleasing was the Karaage, Hachibei Teba style, deep-fried chicken wings marinated in a yuzu sauce. It comes with a slice of lemon, but the yuzu alone gives the wings a surprisingly rich flavor. The fact that they were perfectly cooked, crisp but not crunchy, helped a lot. The lemon added another taste dimension, though I could take it or leave it.

An intriguing and fun dish was the Spicy Ahi Rice Crips, a tartared ahi served with crisp rice cubes. I’m a big fan of crisp rice — I used to try to get my mother to slightly burn the rice after it was steamed — and this combination of textures and tastes really hits the spot.

Fries are a standard on every happy hour, but Hachibei offers a twist with its Yaimaimo French Fries, which are battered yams cooked in a tempura style. The sauce they came with especially nice.

Goma Kampachi, amberjack in sesame shoyu, was as fresh as one would want it, each piece perfectly tender and tasty. The menu also offers salmon prepared in the same way.

Chicken liver pate and fried calamari are also offered as $5 pau hana dishes.

THE DRINK

The happy-hour drink menu is also simple, with Kirin the only beer, and then several kinds of Chuhai, the carbonated, shochu-based beverage. I had the Mint Honey Lemon Chuhai, which I’m sure would be especially refreshing on a hot day.

THE VERDICT

These offerings were so good I was tempted to go ahead and order yakitori, but they were also enough to make me feel reasonably full — and that was after sharing them with a colleague. That was a pleasant surprise, considering that Japanese food often can be expensive yet come in small portions. A price of $25 plus tax didn’t seem excessive at all for a light meal that offered both variety and excellent taste and was served gracefully.

I would suggest making a reservation, even if you’re planning to go early. At opening time of 5 p.m., there were already a few people there, and the space filled up pretty quickly. Apparently, doing things the Japanese way is the right way for Hachibei.