Toddy Shop chef Hemant Kishore prepares an order of his Macha, Tacos Undo? at Zappos Headquarters

Toddy Shop chef Hemant Kishore prepares an order of his Macha, Tacos Undo? at his booth during the second annual Hopped Taco Throwdown at Zappos’ headquarters in downtown Las Vegas
-Reviewjournal.com
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How Vegas Chefs Use Cannabis to Unwind and Get Creative After Hours

Hemant Kishore might be the best Indian chef in Las Vegas. He built his reputation as The 6 Pack Chef, running a meal-prep service before opening up a restaurant called The Toddy Shop. The food was incredible, but despite being a critic’s favorite, The Toddy Shop struggled to find a regular audience and didn’t last. Kishore now spends most of his time catering special events and pop-up dinners.

The day before he was scheduled to host a New Year’s Day brunch, he slipped on a chair and fractured his right ankle, putting him out of action for two weeks. He was prescribed hydrocodone to treat the pain.

“My doctors gave me a warning about how addictive it is,” the chef remembers. “They said It should be used only in cases of unbearable pain. So I wanted to get off it as quickly as I could.”

-Leafly.com
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An Indian chef is giving Las Vegas a taste of Kerala’s toddy shop food

With dishes like parotta beef fry and karimeen pollichathu, Hemant Kishore wants to highlight lesser-known Indian food in the US. From rundown wooden huts with standing room, to concrete structures sparsely furnished with plastic chairs and family portraits on its walls, toddy shops are a ubiquitous part of Kerala’s landscape. Shaaps, or kallu kada as they are known in Malayalam, serve the popular toddy made from the sap of the coconut tree. The shops have food as well, but its singular purpose can often be to aid and abet the consumption of the alcoholic beverage by mostly male patrons. When the insides are on fire from the spice of beef or fish fry, the pungent, milky toddy is the perfect antidote.
-Scroll.in
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Toddy Goes Global

Hemant Kishore has always loved his food. It is a little after graduation and dabbling with a sales and marketing job that he realised his passion lied in being in a kitchen, making what he loved. He didn’t wait. He got admitted to the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York, going away from India, from his home in Thiruvananthapuram, where he grew up. He got an Associate’s Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts, worked in New York restaurants before opening up his own place in Las Vegas, and earning the title of six-pack chef.
-Asianage.com
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2018 Life Is Beautiful Festival – Day 2

LAS VEGAS, NV – SEPTEMBER 22: Chef Hemant Kishore demonstrates making biriyani during the 2018 Life is Beautiful Festival on September 22, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
-Gettyimages.ch
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#1 Best Indian Restaurant In Las Vegas!

Located in the strangest of places, in the back of a sports bar on the west side of town, Toddy Shop™ offers scrumptious Southern Indian fare to the adventurers who seek it out. Chef Hemant Kishore’s takes on queen karimeen (a spicy fried fish made with pompano) and rajah masala (think Indian pico de gallo) are just two reasons to make the journey to this off-the-beaten-path hole in the wall.
-Timeout.com
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Best New Restaurants 2016

The Inn Zone needed someone to run the kitchen at its bar on Rainbow and Westcliff so Chef Hemant Kishore stepped in and made the most of the opportunity with the Toddy Shop™. In addition to serving traditional bar food for the regulars, there’s also a selection of authentic dishes from South India — in contrast to most Indian restaurants in town that serve food from the northern region. The traditional favorites include kothu parotta, a stir fry of flat bread, veggies, and beef, and the Pot of Biryani, a mixture of chicken and basmati sweetened with cashews and raisins. Other parts of the menu are fair game, with Jamaican jerk and Asian flavors finding their way in the dishes, including an amazing Chinatown-inspired burger. Everything is made in-house with ingredients sourced from local farmer’s markets.
-Thrillist
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Best Restaurants in Vegas Right Now

Killer Indian food served by request out of the back of a poker bar off the Strip – not your everyday dining experience but one of the most exciting restaurants in Las Vegas right now, and a great use of a neglected kitchen.
-Uproxx
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Rajah Masala

Chef and healthy living advocate Hemant Kishore’s Rajah Masala is a tribute to one of his favorite bar snacks, enjoyed during his college days in the South Indian state of Kerala. Available, along with other Indian dishes, at his Toddy Shop™, (inside Inn Zone) the dish consists of fresh and cool salsa sprinkled with hearty roasted peanuts and served with assorted chips. Kerala is a prominent spice exporter and its food prominently showcases its tropical influences. Expect chef’s offering to be a reflection of his native flavors and style.
-David Magazine
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Killer Indian food served by request w

Not your everyday dining experience but one of the most Creative cooking can spring up anywhere, including in the back of a Vegas dive bar and we were certainly glad we found this under-the-radar place. Toddy Shop™ may just be a trendsetter in giving a glimpse of great ethnic food where many locals find their respite in the Vegas way: at a small neighborhood bar, with a drink and a hot machine and some great grub.
-LVFNB
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Kerala kitchen in vegas

In the midst of casinos, glittering lights and where dreams come true is a quaint restaurant with an unusual name all the way from Kerala, Toddy Shop™, run by Malayali chef Hemant Kishore in Las Vegas. He wanted to do something different from the regular burgers, wings and fries. Thus was born Toddy Shop™, which features favourite bar snacks of Kerala. For Americans, local tourists and Indians in Las Vegas, suddenly there was something more than garlic naan, aloo gobi paratha and chicken tikka masala.
-New Indian Express
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CREATIVE NEW GEM HIDING IN A SPORTS BAR

As far as local Indian food goes, there’s nothing else like this in Las Vegas. Start with rajah masala ($6) an addictive appetizer of house-made chips and a dip of roasted peanuts and Kishore’s take on pico de gallo, which adds red chili powder to the usual components. Rasta wings ($10) show off the chef’s Caribbean influences—the chicken is slathered in Jamaican jerk sauce and accompanied by perfectly fried plantains.
-Las Vegas Weekly
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Toddy Shop™ Popup to Inn Zone

Healthy-living advocate and chef Hemant Kishore will bring a taste of his native land to the Inn Zone on Rainbow Boulevard and Westcliffe Drive. The self-proclaimed 6-Pack Chef came to the unlikely concept of serving up the bar food of India while seeking a kitchen for his healthful meal delivery service.
-Vegas Seven
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Now Serving: Toddy Shop™

The sides are also unlike any other bar food in town. Be sure to try the beautiful, fried, multicolored chips made from the sometimes frightening-looking bitter melon. But also look into the duo of sweet potato and taro root chips, the fried chunks of taro and the tiny fried anchovies seasoned with onions, curry leaf, chili powder, turmeric and lemon juice. Toddy Shop™ might not make you feel like you’re actually in India, but you might very well do a double take when you remember that you’re in a video poker bar.
-Vegas Seven
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Mojave Masala

Hemant Kishore brings fragrant Southern Indian dishes to an unlikely Las Vegas spot
At first glance, the venerable Inn Zone on Rainbow Boulevard is your ordinary old-school bar of the dive variety. There are nonstop sports on the TV screens, illuminated beer signs on the walls, classic rock on the sound system and plenty of poker-keno-o-rama machines — all the familiars. It’s also home to perhaps the most unlikely menu and venue mash-up in the valley. In the back, chef Hemant Kishore cooks up the fragrant specialties of Southern India, such as pot of biriyani and kappa and konji, out of a small kitchen-window eatery called Toddy Shop™.
-Desert Companion
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Hidden Restaurant Gem

Creative cooking can spring up anywhere, even in the back of a Vegas dive bar, and we were certainly glad we found this under-the-radar place. Toddy Shop™ may just be a trendsetter in giving a glimpse of great ethnic food where many locals find their respite in the Vegas way — at a small neighborhood place, with a drink and a hot machine and some great grub.
-The Daily Meal
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