TL;DR: great food, average service, subpar value
There’s been a lot of hype recently behind Kato especially after chef Jon Yao’s James Beard award along with the new eater video! I’ve been following Kato for a few years now and after reading all of the rave reviews here I decided to give it a try. I opted for the bar tasting menu ($185) as they didn’t have any availability for the full menu along with a non alc pairing ($55 on opentable but $70 in person…will get to this later).
Ambience (8/10) – The vibe is upscale but approachable—think casual yet premium. I loved the open kitchen; watching the team cook in "quiet harmony" was a nice touch. I did have two gripes, though: the bar is isolated in a corner with no view, and the seating is weird. My friend found the chairs painful; I just thought the height was awkward.
Food + Drink (8/10) – The bar menu consisted of 6 courses; 3 mains, 1 bread, 2 dessert.
Dish 1: Seafood Gratin:
Wow! I didn’t expect to get a dish this large. Delicious, warm gratin filled with crab, scallop, mussels and abalone. Amazing opener. It was paired with cucumber/bitter melon drink which was great – it cleansed my palette each time and the next bite felt brand new.
Dish 2: Sablefish with Consome + Vermicelli
The sablefish/cod skin was poached with oil separately which made it have a nice crunch while the fish itself was extremely tender. The soup reminded me of a super clean, premium 牛肉麵(beef noodle soup) and had vermicelli and other veggies inside. It had a slight spice but it wasn’t overwhelming at all. The pairing helped cool down the spice as well!
Dish 3: Milk Bread
This dish was served to us in the middle of dish 2. Definitely the weakest dish of the bunch. It didn’t have much flavor other than.. bread. We were expecting it to be slightly sweet or maybe even a little hot but… it was just bread lol.
It was also split between my friend and I which made me a little 🤔🤔🤔.
Also felt weird getting it during dish 2 as milk bread + soup combo is odd.
Dish 4: Octopus
Super tender and crispy octopus legs. The sauce was a spicy Szechuan sauce and paired amazingly with the octopus. The drink pairing though definitely did not go well with the dish in my opinion. It was a spicy dish with an earthy, red date hot drink (which was served almost 15 mins before the actual dish…).
Dish 5: passion fruit boba sundae
Onto dessert! At this point I was still a bit hungry but satisfied enough. This dessert was definitely overpowered by the passion fruit but was decent. They forgot our pairing drink probably because we ordered tea – both were nice though but nothing memorable.
Dish 6: extra dessert
One was a chocolate filled with passion fruit, macaroon walnut and a mini Mooncake filled with dates. All delicious and great.
Service (6.5/10) – Now service wasn’t bad by any means but it felt off, especially for a Michelin star establishment. I’ve been to only a few in my time but even a more casual establishment like San Ho Won felt more inviting. I read a review similarly a few months ago and had almost the exact same experience. Some dishes received more explanations than others – other times they would just list out the ingredients and drop it off. Not even a little “enjoy!” They also spoke so softly I couldn’t hear them half the time.
I also had a similar experience with the non alc pairing in which I received a hot drink almost 15 minutes before the actual dish itself. I’m starting to wonder if they want us to drink it before the dish but it wasn’t explained to us at all so by the time the dish came it was cold and almost empty (also didn’t pair very well).
Additionally, we ordered an additional tea drink before dessert and because of this they FORGOT to bring out the fourth and final pairing. We had to remind them as we realized halfway through eating. Some pours received additional top offs but for the most part we didn’t – which is fine but it didn’t feel consistent. Even the additional tea, we only got a cup (which is also fine but makes me feel like those tea leaves went to waste with only one steep lol).
Value (5/10): This is where I feel the most contentious because while I did enjoy every dish and drink…$185 for 3 ok sized dishes (could’ve gotten two ~$50 supplements but one was a one biter) and a bread felt criminal 😭 and also the non alc pairing online said it was $55 but in store they charged $70.. for four drinks (this also had 2 $10 supplemental drinks). When I looked at previous bar tasting menus I saw ~8 courses for 185 and 5 drinks for $70. They removed a whole drink but kept the same price! As for the actual menu I wonder if the portions got bigger for the dishes themselves but it still didn’t feel almost $200 worth.
Overall (6.8/10) – I’m fairly satisfied with the meal and experience but it so far has been my most disappointing fine dining meal. The food was delicious but for the price and service I feel like I could have spent $300 (after tax and tip) better elsewhere. I want to give it another shot with the main tasting menu but with that being $325 I’m wondering if that would be even worth it as well. Wonder if anyone else has had similar thoughts as I know it’s highly rated here in the subreddit so this may be a bit controversial take 😅
by Iyota