seems in line to me with its competitors
Providence -295
manzke - 295 (on weekends)
Melisse - 325
Hayato - 325
nnaka - 275
kaneyoshi - 300
sushi 715 - 300
Q sushi - 300
morihiro - 400
Ginza Onodera - 400 (gratuity included)
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Prices have definitely crept up on the last few years. I remember when Somni was ~$225 pre-covid.
Addison (***) in the San Diego area is now $325.
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seems a bit high compared to the non-sushi, non-manzke, one star places:
citrin - 145
shibumi - 125, 155, 185, or 225
phenakite - ?
orsa & winston - 125
kali - 150
maude - 215
gucci osteria - 170?
pasta bar - 195
taco maria - 95
bell’s - 90
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Phenakite is not currently taking ressies on Tock, but according to the LA Times article, it was $150 pp including a 16% service fee in 2021.
https://www.latimes.com/food/story/2020-10-21/minh-phan-phenakite-hollywood-porridge-puffs
Gucci: cheapest tasting menu Under the Palms is $220: www.gucciosteria.com/en
I do think 80$ in one year is a big difference, but am conscious of rising food and labor costs. I think Kato occupied a spot that it was a little less expensive than the others so I felt a little more okay going a few times each year. That would probably be an orsa and winston now with Kato being put into the birthday/anniversary only territory.
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most of these are 4-5 course tasting menus as a comparison and aren’t long multi course tasting menus.
Maude might be the closest but the course count is less by one.
Also not sure why 1* sushi restaurants get a pass charging $300 but elaborate tasting menus don’t.
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Kato is also considerably better than all of those places. Just because Michelin got it all wrong doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be charging what the best places in the city are. It’s unquestionably one of the best places in town.
Dining out is just really expensive these days and it is only going to get worse.
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Good Food had a huge segment on their alcohol-free drinks last year.
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I can’t comment on the main courses as I’ve only sat at the bar. But their drinks are some of the tastiest and most inventive in the city. There’s no other restaurant in LA that I can think of that is doing cocktails on that level.
The prices are getting super high tho, but what can you do?
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The milk punch is my vote for best drink in the city.
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Manzke and Kato - two different style of cocktails but both just blowing out the competition at restaurants or bars.
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anyone been to the collab dinner yet?
I ended up keeping my normal reservation, but I did see some photos on IG of it (Tiffany Tse and Max Shapiro posted) .
Kato is an outstanding overall restaurant. Top 5 in LA for me. The execution of the dishes is as good as Providence. Service is exceptional. My only issue is that I find some of the sauces too strong for the seafood.
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We did special collab diner. It was fabulous! More heat on the palate in most dishes than usual for Kato but delicious all around! Service was A+++.
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I really enjoyed this collab dinner. Given that it includes a wine or non-alcoholic pairing it is a pretty good value compared to the regular Kato experience. It was ~$830 all in for two. You could tell when the different styles of the chefs had an impact. Some things like the ham sui gok and stuffed chicken wing taste strongly influenced by Cantonese dishes. You can definitely tell when the Thai flavors are in a dish, chef Debhakam did not hold back on the spice. It was a bit too much for my wife. Wine pairings were good, although I think they could have done with more off-dry wines for the dishes with thai influence like the cold noodle and sea urchin. They said they switched their pairing for the snapper to an off-dry kabinett riesling because of the spice profile on later nights. The caviar in the cold noodle was also a bit lost because the sauce is so strongly flavored and the noodles and abalone are pretty toothsome, which is a shame. My wife got it as a non-shellfish substitute in the sea urchin dish and I liked it better there, although she found the green curry flavor in the custard overwhelming (I liked it though). Dessert tang yuan was a variety of different fillings (red bean, almond, black sesame) with good flavor and the sauce was infused with tea. I appreciate that they used more salt here to bring out the flavors and not overly sugary. However I found the rice flour wrapper to have an uneven texture which was unexpected since the ham sui gok was pretty uniform.
HAM SUI GOK
mushroom, prawn
MEE KHROB
salted egg, finger lime
LUO BUO GAO
mullet, daikon
2009 R. Renaudin, L’Espiegle, Blanc de Blanc, Pierry, Champagne, France
PROSPERITY SALAD
radish, cucumber
2021 Ameztoi, Rubentis, Rosé, Getariako Txakolina, Basque Country, Spain
COLD NOODLE
rice, abalone
2019 Guy Robin, Montée de Tonnerre 1er Cru, Vieille Vignes, Chablis, France
CRAB
rice wine, wan sao long
2018 Domaine Jamet, Côtes du Rhône Blanc, Rhone Valley, France
SEA URCHIN
shiaoxing, curry
2018 Domaine Vacheron, Le Romains, Sancerre, Loire Valley, France
GOLDEN EYE SNAPPER
citrus nam yum, squash flower
2013 J.B. Becker, Riesling, Kabinett Halbtrocken, Wallufer Oberberg, Germany, Rheingau
CHICKEN
sticky rice, upland cress
2008 R. López de Heredia, Viña Tondonia, Reserva, Rioja, Spain
DUCK (from the regular menu)
perilla, soy preserve
2016 Lucien Boillot, Gevrey-Chambertin, Burgundy, France
TANG YUAN
osmanthus, ginger
2005 Chateau Raymond-Lafon, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France
Graveyard of bottles
Nightly lion dance
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Thank you for the write up - our dinner and observations were similar to yours. We wished there were some off dry rieslings paired with spicies dishes, but overall this dinner was pretty spectacular! We especially enjoyed the golden eye snapper, chicken, and duck courses.
this looks incredible!
the sesame flavored one was incredible.