LA’s acclaimed Taiwanese tasting-menu spot Kato already has an enviable list of accolades: One MICHELIN Star, the top spot on the LA Times’s 101 Best Restaurants list in 2019 and 2023, and one of the New York Times’s 50 favorite restaurants in 2022. Plus chef and co-owner Jon Yao was named Food & Wine’s Best New Chef in 2018 and on Forbes’s 30 Under 30 Food and Drink list in 2019.
But now the DTLA restaurant is poised for big-time global fame. The restaurant was just named The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ “One to Watch,” which is a massive vote of confidence from the organization and indicates that Kato could place on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in the coming years. “We are excited, honored, and grateful to be recognized on the international stage,” Yao says of the honor.
For context, New York’s legendary Eleven Madison Park was named One to Watch before it topped the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017. Last year, another trailblazer—Top Chef star Kwame Onwuachi’s Tatiana in New York—earned the same honor.
Kato marks the first time the 50 Best organization has recognized a restaurant in Los Angeles in more than a decade, and it’s been a particularly exciting time for the restaurant in the last few years. After debuting in its humble Sawtelle strip mall digs in 2016 (where it already won tons of acclaim), the restaurant reopened in a larger space at Downtown’s swanky Row development in 2022. At the new location, Yao has leaned even more into his Taiwanese and San Gabriel Valley roots, and you’ll see that come to life in dishes like roasted scallops with cured pork jowl in an XO-like sauce.
Nikki Reginaldo (general manager) and Ryan Bailey (director of operations and wine director) round out the team at the restaurant, which LA Times critic Bill Addison called “a stunning re-envisioning of what was already one of Los Angeles’ vital restaurants.”
Unsurprisingly, reservations book out fast, and the World’s 50 Best Restaurants nod will probably make it even harder to get in—so hop on those bookings ASAP. Meanwhile, stay tuned for when the 50 Best organization reveals its full list in Las Vegas on June 5. Until then, let’s give it up for Kato!
Tanay Warerkar has spent more than a decade as a journalist, including several years as a food reporter and editor. He’s worked at the San Francisco Chronicle, Eater, and the New York Daily News, among others. He now oversees features content at OpenTable, where he also stays on top of the hottest trends and developments in the restaurant industry.
