"I'm calling to confirm your reservation for 8 PM at Kato," my voicemail starts. It sends an electric jolt of excitement clear through my toes. This is the third time we've tried to eat there, and this call makes it true. "We are difficult to find," it elaborates. Be still my heart.
I find the correct random-very-obscure shopping center, which I probably would have passed multiple times had they not told me, and no matter how many ways I look, I still can't find Kato. And that is AWESOME.
Normal people would be frustrated, but I'm just happy to find something truly hidden...And there it is. A small glass door, Kato labeled in a pink, barely backlit by a garish neon sign for tacos overhead.
There is a quiet calm inside, but our level of FOMO is palpable. We look at this deceptively simple menu, a choice between a tasting menu and a bigger tasting menu, and we can't decide if less is more or if we just want more.
We decide that more is more, and the Fried Smelt is off to a promising start. Fresh as can be, fried into gold, a fishy-fish with belly full of grainy roe, grounded by an earthy sesame sauce, smooth as a white-sand beach.
The Smoked Hamachi is pretty in pink and not-so-delicate in flavor. Smoke permeates every bite, and it blends with bright sweet pickles and a murky charred scallion sauce that adds a layer of mystery.
Each dish is a peek into the soul of the chef. We see that he can be serious and mysterious, and the fried soft shell crab Lettuce Wrap is a display of a more playful side. This is his iteration of everyone's favorite appetizer from P.F. Chang's with better ingredients. The crab is sweet and fresh, and a dense green chili paste adds a rich spice to the mix.
The Ocean Trout finishes with smoke and salt like an pillow of lighter salmon, and it melts in our mouths with flakes of smoldering lettuce. The eggplant puree meshes with the trout, enhancing the sweetness.
The Octopus is braised in a gentle chili pepper, softened to a delightful goo. The outer layer takes on a soft, glutinous rice-like texture, and you can taste the kiss from the flames. A little salty for me, but that's just my personal preference.
The Duck is dense. The skin is a perfect crisp, and the slice of breast is a few meaty mouthfuls. There is a kelp glaze that highlights the salty meat, but the sticky roast shitake steals the show.
The chef has Asian roots, and it's dishes like the Dungeness Crab Porridge where you can see those roots soak up some California seawater. An amazing interpretation of Chinese comfort food: the crab is so impossibly sweet, the Santa Barbara uni is a topping straight from heaven, and rice grains rest on top to add a satisfying crunch to each creamy spoonful. It is by far the best dish in this line-up, and it's on par with half the Michelin stars I've tried.
The main dishes are a treat, but porridge aside, it's the desserts that blow my mind. Dessert is a lost art as more restaurants choose to focus on one or the other, and anything post-meal gets outsourced to donut shops and Yogurtland.
Not at Kato. They don't play. They just cleanse the palate cleanser with a fresh Guava Sorbet and dive into a bunch of awesomeness. The green apple juice is laced with shiso and lime so it finishes like a brisk breathmint.
From a light reset to a thick Buttermilk Pudding. A seamless millk-sour that slides down like velvet, it offsets a side of summer sunshine, a cool mix of plump strawberries and delicate hibiscus ice.
Soy and Strawberry finishes like a much-improved iteration of a Keebler wafer cookie. The top layer snaps apart and crackles as it melts, and the rhubarb tempers the sweet.
Last dish, and I can't even hide the disappointment. As much as I enjoyed the meal, I would have had at least 20 courses of just dessert. The Iced Green Tea is SO FREAKIN' COOL. The tea sits, a circle-solid, cooling its heels over a bed of longan; an ice-cold highlight to the concentrated sweetness of a lychee-cousin at its ripest peak.
You've seen Smoke.Oil.Salt. come and go. Based on what I had at Kato, you could probably call it Smoke.Ice.Salt. But while the fancy big-name went away, I think Kato is here to stay. They use a lot of smoke, but they're not just blowing smoke. There's a recurring theme to every dish, but the preparations are a playground of flavors and textures, not a single one of them uninspired.
And there is something about Kato. An undeniable charm, a genuine calm, and an innocence that stems from a genuine desire to just do what chefs do: cook. It's a refreshing thing to see in a city like LA. While everyone else clamors to get noticed, Kato lies in wait, with a seemingly purposeful obscurity, like it doesn't want to be found. I hope you do find it, but I also hope they stay a secret...MY secret.
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