Kato offered only a tasting menu focused on seasonality and innovation in the main dining room and a collection of classic dishes in the Bar Tasting Menu.  Chef Jon Yao, who won Food and Wine’s Best New Chef in 2018, was at the helm.  His Taiwanese menu earned a one Michelin Star rating at the reopening of the place in Feb 2022.  It previously was at a strip mall.  The L-shaped place was in some converted warehouse buildings with a large open kitchen.  Blond wood tables were under an open ceiling with wood beams, metal supports and some acoustic tiles.  Windows made up 2 walls, the lights were lowered and music was in the background.  The tasting menu has optional wine pairings and as part of the Lunar New Year celebration they were offering a pairing of cocktails made by some bartenders from the area. They also had a supplemental course you could add that was Japanese A5 Waygu beef and then you could also add a supplemental wine to go with it.  We opted for a bottle of champagne to go with dinner and a half bottle of red for the meat course.  The food was good but the service pacing was way too slow.  It was 30 minutes before we got our bottle or food started being served.  As the meal progressed more time elapsed between courses until those that arrived an hour after us caught up to our course.  Other service issues were our wine glasses were constantly empty and servers had to be reminded to pour and they picked up the napkin when you went to the bathroom but failed to replace it, but this was later in the meal but still un-Michelin.   It’s a restaurant worth eating at because the food is good but go relaxed and prepared to spend 3-4 hours. Continue reading →