syori the foodie: Hayato@Little Tokyo ★★★

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Hayato@Little Tokyo ★★★

2 Michelin Stars Restaurant Hayato. Exquisite Kaiseki Cuisine handcrafted by Brandon-san with his careful attention to detail. Various traditional cooking techniques used for the courses. Like a Food Artist/Scientist. Freshest seafood arrived same day from Japan from US Sakasyu. Fresh vegetables from Torrance Farmers Market. He explained each dish at the beginning of each course with the cooking method, ingredients, and why. Love the amazing Charcoal Grilled Kinki Rockfish w/ Roasted Onion, which brought me back to the taste of Japan. Nodoguro Rice Pot was all-you-can-eat (woohoo). Good idea to refill a bit to get the crispy rice on bottom of pot. Experience was quite different from last visit in 2021. Brandon-san has a serious look when he's cooking, but he actually has a nice personality. He's honest, straightforward, & quite talkative with a sense of humor. We enjoyed chatting about everything from Japan, food, people, to getting on his waitlist on Tock. He likes to play it fair and give new customers opportunity to try it. Server Kaori was nice & friendly. Impossible to book with only 7 seats (counter) & 1 seating per night. Reservation was made on Tock within 2 seconds at release time. Limited 2 people per party. Door opens at 6:30pm. Dinner was 3.5 hours. $350 per person ($400 starting 5/1). Plus 18% gratuity automatically added. Complimentary hot tea. Parking at the Row DTLA structure or street.