Image
  • Writing
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • About my Novels & Writing
    • All Writing Posts
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Scrivener – Writer’s Word Processor
    • iPad for Writers
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Books
    • Book Review Index
    • Favorite Fantasy Novels
    • Andy Gavin: Author
    • The Darkening Dream
      • Buy the Book Online
      • Sample Chapters
      • Short Story: Harvard Divinity
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Untimed
      • About the Book
      • Buy Untimed Online
      • Book Trailer
      • Sample Chapters
      • Reviews
      • Info for Reviewers
      • Press Coverage
      • Awards
      • Cast of Characters
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Games
    • My Video Game Career
    • Post Archive by Series
    • All Games Posts Inline
    • Making Crash Bandicoot
    • Crash 15th Anniversary Memories
    • World of Warcraft Endgames
    • Getting a Job Designing Video Games
    • Getting a Job Programming Video Games
    • Naughty Dark Contest
  • Movies
    • Movie Review Index
  • Television
    • TV Review Index
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • A Game of Thrones
  • Food
    • Food Review Index
    • Foodie Club
    • Hedonists
    • LA Sushi Index
    • Chinese Food Index
    • LA Peking Duck Guide
    • Eating Italy
    • Eating France
    • Eating Spain
    • Eating Türkiye
    • Eating Dutch
    • Eating Croatia
    • Eating Vietnam
    • Eating Australia
    • Eating Israel
    • Ultimate Pizza
    • ThanksGavin
    • Margarita Mix
    • Foodie Photography
    • Burgundy Vintage Chart
  • Other
    • All Posts, Magazine Style
    • Archive of all Posts
    • Fiction
    • Technology
    • History
    • Anything Else
  • Gallery
  • Bio
  • About
    • About me
    • About my Writing
    • About my Video Games
    • Ask Me Anything
  • Contact

Archive for Kato

Kato DTLA

Jun02

Restaurant: Kato Restaurant [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 777 S Alameda St Building 1, Suite 114, Los Angeles, CA 90021. (213) 797-5770

Date: October 13, 2022

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Even better, but too far

_

In late 2021 Kato, a longstanding modern Asian omakase/kaiseki in Santa Monica shut up shop and moved downtown to a larger, far more glamorous space. Erick and I were bummed because there are so few unique places on the westside — and well the Row is FAR!

The nominal excuse for tonight’s dinner was the rare appearance of Reisa back in LA, so Eve organized this dinner. She’s an investor (and caviar supplier) for Kato.
1A4A6692

1A4A6693-Pano
Kato is right around the corner from Hayato.
1A4A6699-Pano
The interior is sleek.
1A4A6696
We had this nice large sized table.

1A4A6862-Edit
Most of the gang.

1A4A6712
1A4A6716
The minimalist menu (not much in the way of descriptors).

1A4A6821
I think we bought this off the list. Despite Eve being very tight with Kato, no one senior was in and she had forgotten to arrange something with regard to the corkage — and they have that idiotic 2 bottle limit. What sense does it make that a 2 person table and an 8 person table can open the same number of wines? The Kato list is decent, but it’s young, small, and pretty marked up. Plus we just have way too much wine to be buying off LA lists. After a while they forgot about us and our wine hijinks and we manged well enough.1A4A6726
Chicken Liver, genmaicha, date. Super yummy “liver macaron” style bite.
1A4A6733
Sweet Shrimp, seaweed, shaoxing wine. Very interesting blend of flavors being part Japanese and part Chinese. The Shaoxing wine is very distinct.
1A4A6742
Scallop, soy preserves, doubanjiang. Yummy little scallop tart with nice textures and a bit of heat to finish.
1A4A6822
More champgane.
1A4A6746
Sea urchin, Iberico ham, brown butter. Basically a puff pastry/donut hole stuffed with uni and wrapped in ham.
1A4A6823
2017 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Großes Gewächs. Probably. Loosen has so many cuvees it was hard to tell which dry Ürziger Würzgarten this was. I picked it off the list.
1A4A6753
Black throat sea perch, Tomato and tomato water jelly, shiso. Awesome dish with very pleasant tomato flavors and a bright acidity. I don’t even like (raw) tomatoes and I loved it.
1A4A6762
Caviar, dungeness crab, garlic. This is more or less a Kato classic and I’ve had it a bunch of times but it’s still creamy and delicious.
1A4A6777
Milk bread. Awesome sweet and fluffy bread. Addictive in fact.
1A4A6771
Normandy style butter. Bread was even better with this nice butter.
1A4A6824
From my cellar: 2009 François Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Subtle wood sets off aromas of flowers, oyster shell and tidal pool that complement perfectly the racy, pure and strikingly well-detailed medium plus weight flavors that brim with minerality on the delicious, mouth coating and impressively long finish. This beautifully vibrant and concentrated effort should drink well young and age well too plus it’s more classic in style than many wines from this vintage. (Drink starting 2016)
1A4A6785
Tilefish, fish fragrant sauce, Szechuan peppercorn. This is like that French seabass dish with the crispy scales but with a sticky numbing sauce!
1A4A6826
1985 Faiveley Latricières-Chambertin. BH 92. Some bricking. The nose is a complex mixture of Gevrey earth, spice, game, underbrush and an evident nose of minerality followed by powerful, intense and still moderately structured flavors with plenty of punch and length. The finish is still firm though by no means hard and while this is certainly approachable now, I would give it 45 minutes or so of air. Note: another recent bottle was similar in character but did not possess the same degree of freshness and in particular, the finish seemed somewhat light and diffuse.
1A4A6802-Edit
Duck, menegi, duck sausage. Great duck. Super tender, a bit sweet and delicious. The spring rolls off to the side with the sausage were even better.
1A4A6825
1999 Domaine Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs. VM 96. Good dark red. Seriously rich, deep aromas of black cherry, currant, tobacco, chocolate and sexy soil tones, plus a whiff of leather that adds complexity. Wonderfully rich, deep, tactile Volnay with a remarkably chewy texture and outstanding dimension to its flavors of strawberry, redcurrant, mocha, tobacco and cocoa powder. The salty, monumental finish features huge, mouthcoating tannins and outstanding rising length. This very complete wine boasts uncanny depth of flavor, particularly in light of the vintage’s healthy yields. By far the best bottle of this wine that I have tasted to date. (13.45% alcohol; September 24 harvest; 41 h/h; 3.37 pH) (Drink between 2019-2039)
1A4A6810-Edit
A5 Wagyu, beef tendon, sour Chinese mustard. Super tender and rich. Quite nice.
1A4A6827
2011 Jean-Claude Boisset Echezeaux. BH91. A ripe, spicy and violet-inflected nose of primarily plum and cassis gives way to opulent, rich and pliant medium-bodied flavors that possess very good depth on the attractively well-balanced finish where a touch of wood can be discerned. In much the same fashion as several other wines in the range this isn’t a great 2011 but it manages to avoid any shortcomings of the vintage and indeed about the only nit is a slight touch of warmth. Note that this could easily be enjoyed now if desired though it should also be capable of rewarding up to a decade of cellar time. (Drink starting 2018)1A4A6842
Freshwater eel, rice, cucumber. More or less like a Japanese rice, but without that Japanese flavor.
1A4A6849-Edit
Cucumber with a bit of Szechuan peppercorn. I really liked the pickles and was munching them for a while.
1A4A6902
Off the list grappa.
1A4A6890-Edit
Passionfruit, buttermilk, guava. I love passionfruit and I love custard, so this “pot ‘o creme” with passionfruit was an easy sell.
1A4A6896
Creme Puff, salted egg. Fine.
1A4A6898
Hazelnut, caramelized white chocolate. Like a sweet spaghetti with a white chocolate meatball hiding inside.
1A4A6906
Double Mint Oreo — Base made with Fresh Spring Mint infused milk and then laced with Crushed Mint Oreo Thins and Chopped Valrhona 70% Chocolate! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — lovely strong mint flavor and color is all natural — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #dessertgasm #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #mint #valrhona #chocolate #oreo ///// Triple Chocolate Cruch Gelato – The base is made with Valrhona 62% Satilla Chocolate and then layered with Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Ganache and chopped Nestlé Crunch! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #chocolate #creamcheese #ganache #icing #NestléCrunch
1A4A6915-Edit
Eve brought several tubs of bonus Astrea Caviar! Yummy!
1A4A6922
Take home gift.
1A4A6925
Almond sesame “cookies.”
1A4A6926
Emotional damage!

1A4A6938
The wine lineup.

Food at Kato is better than ever. It’s just as cryptic, but there are perhaps slightly more courses and a few of them are slightly larger. The net effect is that it’s not completely necessary anymore to go for second dinner. Back in Santa Monica, even with all the supplements, it always required something else. Now it’s a full meal, and surprising and delicious at that. But it’s also a trek to downtown. And that whole wine thing dragged out what was like a 8:30pm start into a 9:30pm start and we got home at about 2am.

Still, awesome and unique food, and highly worth checking out if you haven’t been.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

1A4A6697

Related posts:

  1. Kato West Final Act
  2. Kato
  3. Kato West Penultimate
  4. Astrea Caviar + Heroic Wine Bar
  5. Không Tên – Brunch
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Astrea Caviar, BYOG, Eve, Foodie Club, Gelato, Kato, Reisa, Taiwanese Cuisine, Wine

Kato West Final Act

May24

Restaurant: Kato [1, 2, 3]

Location: 11925 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (424) 535-3041

Date: October 1, 2021

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Really interesting and different

_

It’s hard to describe Kato. Located in one of the ubiquitous Santa Monica Blvd mini-malls it serves a sort of modern Asian omakase/kaiseki. It won a Michelin star recently and at the 2021-22 junction moved downtown. Now this last bit I’m bummed about as I loved having it on the westside. But their audience is predominantly young hip Asian couples who mostly live in the SGV. Sigh.

Given what was in the fall of 2021 an imminent move much further, Erick and I went twice to collect the tasty memory data from the late period at this westside location. This is the final report (before heading downtown to try the new spot).

Fit in there with the Mexican places, the cheap sushi, the massage joints.

The decor is minimalist but attractive. The crowd is young and predominantly Asian.
1A4A3256

1A4A5196
1A4A5198
1A4A5200
The menu tonight.
1A4A5158
2002 Billecart-Salmon Champagne Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. VM 96. The 2002 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is outrageously beautiful. The ripeness of the Chardonnay is front and center in a Champagne that delivers the goods, big-time. An infusion of apricot, orange peel, crème brûlée, chamomile, hazelnut and honey give the 2002 its racy, exotic personality. I enjoy it most with bottle age, but the 2002 is undeniably beautiful right now. The 2002 is a stunning NFB. The blend is 60% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Vallée de la Marne and 40% Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs, done partially in oak (20%). Dosage is 4 grams per liter. (Drink between 2020-2030)
1A4A5159
From my cellar: 2002 Bruno Paillard Champagne Nec Plus Ultra. JG 97. The newest vintage of Bruno Paillard’s N.P.U. is utterly brilliant and a glorious example of the magical vintage of 2002. The bouquet soars from the glass in a very refined blend of apple, white peach, stony minerality, hazelnut, fresh-baked bread and a lovely touch of orange peel in the upper register. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and displays marvelous mid-palate depth, with racy acids, very elegant mousse, laser-like focus and a very, very long, complex and simply stunning finish. This wine is young, precise and so beautifully balanced that it is already a joy to dink, though it is clearly built for the long haul and its true apogee is at least a decade down the road! Stunning wine. (Drink between 2017-2075)
1A4A5160
2010 Domaine Leflaive Meursault 1er Cru Sous le Dos d’Âne. VM 92. Bright yellow with a green tinge. Very ripe aromas of yellow fruits and nut oils. Broad, sweet and fruity, offering lovely volume without excess weight. Silky-smooth and rich but kept fresh by harmonious acidity (4.6 grams per liter, according to winemaker Remy). Long on the aftertaste. A very good vintage for this bottling.

1A4A5161
2010 Jean-Marc Roulot Meursault 1er Cru. Very rare bottle.
1A4A5164
Tapioca, brown butter, uni. This dish started out with us wanting to do something with milk and tapioca and eventually led to a savory dish. We also try not to have dairy in the majority of the menu so when we do we get to use it, it’s a treat. We think the uni pairs well with the different textures, temperatures and forms of dairy.
1A4A5189
Tuna, 3 cup. The flavors of Thai basil, sweetened soy and sesame oil are so emblematic of Taiwanese cuisine so I can see why 3 cup chicken is so beloved. This version is with pacific big eye tuna that’s lightly cooked so it kind of looks like the chicken in 3 cup chicken.
1A4A5213
Kanpachi, cucumber. This is one of the first dishes we were really known for. We wanted to revisit it with our new pantry and style of cooking. We smoke pacific amberjack and serve it with a vinaigrette of charred negi and a cucumber relish as well as a bonito vinegar gelee.
1A4A5214
Caviar, geoduck, koji butter. We source caviar through Astrea (our friends Eve and Reisa), their Kaluga hybrid is one of my favorites that I’ve ever tasted. The only inspiration for this dish is the quality of the caviar and the rest of the ingredients serve to highlight it.
1A4A5227
Egg custard. Whenever I was sick as a child my mom would steam egg custard with black vinegar. It’s still one of my favorite dishes to this day. This dish is our egg custard, a sauce of kelp and black vinegar, a few different shellfish, Brentwood corn and Aaron’s negi.
1A4A5231
Bread!
1A4A5234
A spread (for the bread).

1A4A5242
Chinese style steamed fish. Every regional cuisine of China and every home has a version of this dish. The most recognizable would be the Cantonese version where a fish is steamed whole and dressed with soy, ginger and scallion to which scalding oil is poured over the top. Our version has loup de mer and we cook each element separately and assemble it to service. The soy is traditionally unadorned but mixes with the fish jus in the steaming vessel. We take sea bream bones and make a tisane and season it with different rice wines and soy sauces to emulate the traditional technique.1A4A5247
Short rib, pear. We’re working on doing a throwback menu to our favorite dishes from 5 years. This dish isn’t Taiwanese or Chinese but it reminds us of eating in Los Angeles and our first year of opening. It’s a dish of short rib cooked with pear then grilled. We serve it with matsutake and some of the pear cooking liquid.

But it was a bit different with some rice.
1A4A5251
Yogurt, plum. The only dessert I’ll ever go out specifically for is frozen yogurt. This version is served with a shaved ice made from tisane of lemon verbena that Girl and Dug is growing and emerald plums since it’s stonefruit season.
1A4A5256
Boniato yam tapioca, fresh cheese, sable. Here’s our other longest standing dish, our ode to arguably the most popular thing to ever come out of Taiwan, boba milk tea. We make tapioca balls out of an Asian roasting yam, similar to the sweet potato or taro ones you’d have in Taiwan. We make a fresh cheese and foam it and we shave frozen brown butter sable so it gives the feeling of eating shaved ice. We think that the flavors range from milk tea shops to shaved ice stands.
1A4A5270
A bigger group this time.
1A4A5186
Overall, a very interesting and different meal. Very light, bright flavors and the whole thing tasted great but left one feeling not in the least “bombed out” which is actually kinda nice. Extremely modern too and straight up ready for instagram!

Tonight’s (final) meal was pretty similar to the August one.

Service is great, if a bit fast! Like just over an hour! It’s also, for gluttons like Erick and I, not nearly enough food, so despite ordering all the supplements we have always gone for “second dinner.” But this time we went down the street to Sasaya, a local Izakaya.

IMG_3976
IMG_3977
Open late into the night with ipad ordering.
IMG_3968
Crab rice.
IMG_3970
Korean style short rib.
IMG_3973
An egg dish.
IMG_3974
Grilled eel.

Check out more epic Foodie Club meals, here.

Related posts:

  1. Kato West Penultimate
  2. Kato
  3. The Final Cover
  4. From Sketch to Final
  5. Szechuan Impression West
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Foodie Club, Kato, Sasaya, Second Dinner, Taiwanese Cuisine, Wine

Kato West Penultimate

Apr04

Restaurant: Kato [1, 2, 3]

Location: 11925 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (424) 535-3041

Date: August 31, 2021

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Really interesting and different

_

It’s hard to describe Kato. Located in one of the ubiquitous Santa Monica Blvd mini-malls it serves a sort of modern Asian omakase/kaiseki. It won a Michelin star recently and at the 2021-22 junction moved downtown. Now this last bit I’m bummed about as I loved having it on the westside. But their audience is predominantly young hip Asian couples who mostly live in the SGV. Sigh.

Given what was in the fall of 2021 an imminent move much further, Erick and I went twice to collect the tasty memory data from the late period at this westside location.

Fit in there with the Mexican places, the cheap sushi, the massage joints.

The decor is minimalist but attractive. The crowd is young and predominantly Asian.
1A4A3256
1A4A3258

The descriptive but cryptic menu.1A4A3109
From my cellar: NV Krug Champagne Brut Rosé Edition 21eme. JG95+. The Krug Brut Rosé “21ème Édition” is from the beautiful base year of 2008, with the oldest reserve wine in the blend going back to 2000. The wine was disgorged in the spring of 2015 and is a blend of fifty-one percent pinot noir, forty-one percent chardonnay and eight percent pinot meunier. Ten percent of the pinot noir in the blend is still red wine from Krug’s own parcels of vines in the village of Aÿ. The blend is a slight departure from many releases of Krug Rosé, as hail in the village of Ste. Ghemme in 2008 dramatically cut back the quality of pinot meunier from this vintage, so that Chef de Caves Eric Lebel opted to use all reserve wines for the pinot meunier portion of the blend. The very complex wine offers up the characteristically refined and gently exotic bouquet that this cuvée is cherished for, wafting from the glass in a blend of cherries, a touch of pomegranate, orange peel, beautiful, savory spice elements, rye bread, a complex base of soil tones , dried rose petals and incipient smokiness. On the palate the wine is full, complex and still quite youthful in terms of structure, with vibrant acids, a lovely core, elegant mousse and a very long, perfectly balanced and seamless finish. This is already beautifully complex, but I would love to revisit it five to ten years down the road and see what the passage of time does to this beautiful constellation of aromas and flavors. (Drink between 2018-2050)
1A4A3110
Erick brought: 1976 Dr. Loosen Erdener Prälat Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel. Amazing! We bought multiple bottles of this at a fantastic Loosen dinner.
1A4A3118

NOTE: I’ve used the restaurant’s notes, so they are in written from the chef’s point of view.

The rectangular one was: Tapioca, brown butter, uni. This dish started out with us wanting to do something with milk and tapioca and eventually led to a savory dish. We also try not to have dairy in the majority of the menu so when we do we get to use it, it’s a treat. We think the uni pairs well with the different textures, temperatures and forms of dairy.

The rounder one is: Tuna, cilantro. I’ve been trying to make our cold dishes feel like the cold side dishes you would get whenever you eat at casual Chinese noodle houses. The dish is based on a smashed cucumber salad. It’s an onion croustade with roasted chili jam, cilantro condiment and minced bluefin tuna.
1A4A3125
3 cup abalone. The flavors of Thai basil, sweetened soy and sesame oil are so emblematic of Taiwanese cuisine so I can see why 3 cup chicken is so beloved. My mom used to stir fry sea snails or clams in the same sauce. We decided to recreate that by reducing 3 cup sauce into a syrup and marinating California abalone in it. The dish is dotted with an abalone and sesame oil emulsion so there’s extra notes of sesame.
1A4A3134
Tomato. Aaron from Girl and Dug Farms has a huge selection of tomatoes right now. They all taste different so we wanted to do a dish that showcases all of them. It’s a salad of all of Aaron’s tomatoes, tomato consommé, semi dried sungold tomatoes and a vinegar gelee.
1A4A3147
Caviar, geoduck, koji butter. We source caviar through Astrea (our friends Eve and Reisa), their Kaluga hybrid is one of my favorites that I’ve ever tasted. The only inspiration for this dish is the quality of the caviar and the rest of the ingredients serve to highlight it.
1A4A3176
Shrimp Toast. We’ve been serving a bread course for a long time now because we really like the milk bread recipe that we developed. We’re starting to realize that a bread course doesn’t make sense in the course of our menu but we still wanted to use our milk bread. So we decided to use it as the base of a shrimp toast done in the style of honey walnut shrimp to pair with the custard course.
1A4A3192
Egg custard. Whenever I was sick as a child my mom would steam egg custard with black vinegar. It’s still one of my favorite dishes to this day. This dish is our egg custard, a sauce of kelp and black vinegar, a few different shellfish, Brentwood corn and Aaron’s negi.
1A4A3197
Chinese style steamed fish. Every regional cuisine of China and every home has a version of this dish. The most recognizable would be the Cantonese version where a fish is steamed whole and dressed with soy, ginger and scallion to which scalding oil is poured over the top. Our version has loup de mer and we cook each element separately and assemble it to service. The soy is traditionally unadorned but mixes with the fish jus in the steaming vessel. We take sea bream bones and make a tisane and season it with different rice wines and soy sauces to emulate the traditional technique.
1A4A3205
Short rib, pear. We’re working on doing a throwback menu to our favorite dishes from 5 years. This dish isn’t Taiwanese or Chinese but it reminds us of eating in Los Angeles and our first year of opening. It’s a dish of short rib cooked with pear then grilled. We serve it with matsutake and some of the pear cooking liquid.
1A4A3221
Rice dishes are traditional finishers in Asia.
1A4A3235
Yogurt, melon. Frozen yogurt is hands down my favorite dessert to eat. I’m not a sweets person but I’ll always make room if there’s frozen yogurt promised. Dessert doesn’t play a huge part in a coursed Taiwanese meal but tea and fruits always cap a meal. Weiser farm melons right now are at their peak so we wanted to incorporate that so we made the juice of 3 different melons into a granita and there are also pieces of mush melon as well. We think it tastes like a melona bar, a staff favorite.
1A4A3248
Boniato yam tapioca, fresh cheese, sable. Here’s our other longest standing dish, our ode to arguably the most popular thing to ever come out of Taiwan, boba milk tea. We make tapioca balls out of an Asian roasting yam, similar to the sweet potato or taro ones you’d have in Taiwan. We make a fresh cheese and foam it and we shave frozen brown butter sable so it gives the feeling of eating shaved ice. We think that the flavors range from milk tea shops to shaved ice stands.
1A4A3270

Overall, a very interesting and different meal. Very light, bright flavors and the whole thing tasted great but left one feeling not in the least “bombed out” which is actually kinda nice. Extremely modern too and straight up ready for instagram!

Service is great, if a bit fast! Like just over an hour! It’s also, for gluttons like Erick and I, not nearly enough food, so despite ordering all the supplements we have always gone for “second dinner.” In this case right outside to Monte Alban (a Oaxacan Mexican place).

1A4A3271
Chips and salsa.
1A4A3275
Chilaquiles. Crispy corn tortillas pieces in spicy tomato sauce, sprinkled with cheese, onion, sour cream, and green salsa, with your choice of protein.
1A4A3278
Tacos Enchilados, mole negro. Three soft tacos rolled with chicken or cheese covered with red or black mole and sprinkled with fresh cheese, onion, and parsley. Served with rice.

Check out more epic Foodie Club meals, here.
1A4A3112

Related posts:

  1. Kato
  2. Szechuan Impression West
  3. East Meets West – Maru Sushi
  4. Public Houses on the Rebound – Upper West
  5. Chinese Fusion – Nightshade
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Foodie Club, fusion, Kato, Krug, Loosen, Second Dinner, Taiwanese Cuisine

Kato

Oct23

Restaurant: Kato

Location: 11925 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (424) 535-3041

Date: September 15, 2017

Cuisine: Omakase Asian

Rating: Really interesting and different

_

It’s hard to describe Kato. Located in one of the ubiquitous Santa Monica Blvd mini-malls it serves a sort of modern Asian omakase/kaiseki.

Fit in there with the Mexican places, the cheap sushi, the massage joints.

The decor is minimalist but attractive. The crowd is young and predominantly Asian.

There are only 2 choices, $55 and $80 tasting menus. We went for the larger of course which includes beef and the foie gras and an extra dessert.

Cheap, minimalist, but attractive wares.

There is NO LIQUOR LICENSE, not even a 41 (beer/wine) so it’s tea only.

Stuffed shisito peppers. There was something sweet and savory inside. It was delicious actually, with just the right amount of salt.

Hamachi, cucumber, scallion, black squid sauce. Bright flavors, mixture of textures, some crunch. Very interesting — and attractive.

I love to make abstract squid ink art.

Cold Noodle. Apparently vaguely inspired by a Korean dish. Very thin white cold noodles in an almost clear vinegar sugar broth with bits of clam and greens. Bright and light. Quite lovely actually and very different.

Octopus, Doubanjiang. Crispy fried octopus with spicy sauce and some greens.Quite “crispy” and more than a little kick.

Ocean trout, ikura. Very soft, nearly rare ocean trout (aka salmon) with a light ponzu/dashi like sauce and a crispy bit of skin (or was it skin)? Regardless a nice fish dish.

Wagyu beef, ramp, seaweed. The seaweed was crispy fried. There was some ginger-like stuff on the meat. Also tasty and interesting.

Foie, strawberry, milk bread.

Basically a foie / strawberry uncrustable “peanut-butter” sandwich. Delicious and the light fluffy quality of the milk bread balanced nicely with the sweet/rich innards.

Buttermilk & yuzu. Very fresh and light citrus crumble.

Strawberry semifreddo and cream. Absolutely delicious. Great cold texture and intense strawberry flavor on the pink part, nice sweet cream on the rest.

Wasabi, matcha, lime. Interesting. Wasabi ice cream! And it tasted like it. A sort of tangy caramel below. Very different.

Corn & Hojicha. Fluffy bun of corn with corn filling. Tasted like corn bun.

Ginger gels.

Overall, a very interesting and different meal. Very light, bright flavors and the whole thing tasted great but left one feeling not in the least “bombed out” which is actually kinda nice. Extremely modern too and straight up ready for instagram!

Service was good. I’d like to see them get a liquor license and allow corkage. The manager told us they were working on it but there were zoning issues. I know all about those!

For more New York dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Kiriko Days – a la Carte
  2. Zengo 2 – part deux
  3. Takao Top Omakase
  4. Finding the One at One Pico
  5. Quick Eats – Bru’s Wiffle
By: agavin
Comments (3)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Japanese, Kato, Omakase, Santa Monica, Taiwanese Cuisine
Watch the Trailer or

Buy it Online!

Buy it Online!

96 of 100 tickets!

Find Andy at:

Follow Me on Pinterest

Subscribe by email:

More posts on:



Complete Archives

Categories

  • Contests (7)
  • Fiction (404)
    • Books (113)
    • Movies (77)
    • Television (123)
    • Writing (115)
      • Darkening Dream (62)
      • Untimed (37)
  • Food (1,766)
  • Games (101)
  • History (13)
  • Technology (21)
  • Uncategorized (16)

Recent Posts

  • Tomato Wednesday!
  • Happy Hibi
  • Eating Naples – Palazzo Petrucci
  • Eating San Foca – Aura
  • Eating Otranto – ArborVitae
  • Eating Lecce – Gimmi
  • Eating Lecce – Varius
  • Eating Lecce – Duo
  • Eating Lecce – Doppiozero
  • Eating Torre Canne – Autentico

Favorite Posts

  • I, Author
  • My Novels
  • The Darkening Dream
  • Sample Chapters
  • Untimed
  • Making Crash Bandicoot
  • My Gaming Career
  • Getting a job designing video games
  • Getting a job programming video games
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • A Game of Thrones
  • 27 Courses of Truffles
  • Ultimate Pizza
  • Eating Italy
  • LA Sushi
  • Foodie Club

Archives

  • May 2025 (5)
  • April 2025 (4)
  • February 2025 (5)
  • January 2025 (3)
  • December 2024 (13)
  • November 2024 (14)
  • October 2024 (14)
  • September 2024 (15)
  • August 2024 (13)
  • July 2024 (15)
  • June 2024 (14)
  • May 2024 (15)
  • April 2024 (13)
  • March 2024 (9)
  • February 2024 (7)
  • January 2024 (9)
  • December 2023 (8)
  • November 2023 (14)
  • October 2023 (13)
  • September 2023 (9)
  • August 2023 (15)
  • July 2023 (13)
  • June 2023 (14)
  • May 2023 (15)
  • April 2023 (14)
  • March 2023 (12)
  • February 2023 (11)
  • January 2023 (14)
  • December 2022 (11)
  • November 2022 (13)
  • October 2022 (14)
  • September 2022 (14)
  • August 2022 (12)
  • July 2022 (9)
  • June 2022 (6)
  • May 2022 (8)
  • April 2022 (5)
  • March 2022 (4)
  • February 2022 (2)
  • January 2022 (8)
  • December 2021 (6)
  • November 2021 (6)
  • October 2021 (8)
  • September 2021 (4)
  • August 2021 (5)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • June 2021 (3)
  • January 2021 (1)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • August 2020 (1)
  • April 2020 (11)
  • March 2020 (15)
  • February 2020 (13)
  • January 2020 (14)
  • December 2019 (13)
  • November 2019 (12)
  • October 2019 (14)
  • September 2019 (14)
  • August 2019 (13)
  • July 2019 (13)
  • June 2019 (14)
  • May 2019 (13)
  • April 2019 (10)
  • March 2019 (10)
  • February 2019 (11)
  • January 2019 (13)
  • December 2018 (14)
  • November 2018 (11)
  • October 2018 (15)
  • September 2018 (15)
  • August 2018 (15)
  • July 2018 (11)
  • June 2018 (14)
  • May 2018 (13)
  • April 2018 (13)
  • March 2018 (17)
  • February 2018 (12)
  • January 2018 (15)
  • December 2017 (15)
  • November 2017 (13)
  • October 2017 (16)
  • September 2017 (16)
  • August 2017 (16)
  • July 2017 (11)
  • June 2017 (13)
  • May 2017 (6)
  • March 2017 (3)
  • February 2017 (4)
  • January 2017 (7)
  • December 2016 (14)
  • November 2016 (11)
  • October 2016 (11)
  • September 2016 (12)
  • August 2016 (15)
  • July 2016 (13)
  • June 2016 (13)
  • May 2016 (13)
  • April 2016 (12)
  • March 2016 (13)
  • February 2016 (12)
  • January 2016 (13)
  • December 2015 (14)
  • November 2015 (14)
  • October 2015 (13)
  • September 2015 (13)
  • August 2015 (18)
  • July 2015 (16)
  • June 2015 (13)
  • May 2015 (13)
  • April 2015 (14)
  • March 2015 (15)
  • February 2015 (13)
  • January 2015 (13)
  • December 2014 (14)
  • November 2014 (13)
  • October 2014 (13)
  • September 2014 (12)
  • August 2014 (15)
  • July 2014 (13)
  • June 2014 (13)
  • May 2014 (14)
  • April 2014 (14)
  • March 2014 (10)
  • February 2014 (11)
  • January 2014 (13)
  • December 2013 (14)
  • November 2013 (13)
  • October 2013 (14)
  • September 2013 (12)
  • August 2013 (14)
  • July 2013 (10)
  • June 2013 (14)
  • May 2013 (14)
  • April 2013 (14)
  • March 2013 (15)
  • February 2013 (14)
  • January 2013 (13)
  • December 2012 (14)
  • November 2012 (16)
  • October 2012 (13)
  • September 2012 (14)
  • August 2012 (16)
  • July 2012 (12)
  • June 2012 (16)
  • May 2012 (21)
  • April 2012 (18)
  • March 2012 (20)
  • February 2012 (23)
  • January 2012 (31)
  • December 2011 (35)
  • November 2011 (33)
  • October 2011 (32)
  • September 2011 (29)
  • August 2011 (35)
  • July 2011 (33)
  • June 2011 (25)
  • May 2011 (31)
  • April 2011 (30)
  • March 2011 (34)
  • February 2011 (31)
  • January 2011 (33)
  • December 2010 (33)
  • November 2010 (39)
  • October 2010 (26)
All Things Andy Gavin
Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved
Programmed by Andy Gavin