At Kato, Jon Yao's restaurant at the ROW DTLA, the chef reimagines the food he grew up eating in the San Gabriel Valley into complex and delicious dishes. "For me, it is everything great about dining out — the personal narrative, the ambition, the scope," says Bill Addison. The Los Angeles Times restaurant critic recently honored, Yao's establishment with the top spot on his list of the 101 Best Restaurants.
Chef Jon Yao of Kato receives a congratulatory hug after learning his restaurant had earned the top spot on the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants list. Photo by Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times © 2023.
"If you care about food in Southern California, you know about this restaurant," Addison says of Anajak Thai, his pick for the No. 2 position. With its limited seating, an even more impossible reservation to get is Hayato, in third place. "There is no one like Brandon Go and his reimagined Japanese kaiseki. It's a world-class restaurant — full stop," he says. République and last year's top pick, Holbox, round out the top five.
"I try to make at least a quarter of the list fresh each year," Addison says. New additions to the list include Two Hommés in Inglewood, with straight-up comfort food through a West African lens, and as part of the shawarma boom, Sincerely Syria in Sherman Oaks. In Orange County, Nok's Kitchen serves hard to come by Laotian food. While in Long Beach, Addison points to the Levantine cuisine at Ammatoli.