![]() The mainstay menu preserves the legacy of Ricky Pichetrungsi, Justin’s father, whose recipes coalesce his Thai upbringing and Cantonese heritage. In his hands, Anajak Thai straddles parallel worlds. In 2019, Justin Pichetrungsi made the life-changing decision to leave a successful career as an art director at Walt Disney Imagineering and take over the Sherman Oaks restaurant his parents founded in 1981. I drift into the night always with the same feeling: That was some serious food, but that was also a seriously fun evening. It’s happened at each of my handful of meals at Hayato, this dinner-party-of-the-gods moment Go creates without forcing or staging a mood. By the time there are seconds (or thirds) of black cod and rice, followed by muskmelon and matcha for dessert, the group can be almost slaphappy from elation. Bottles of wine may be shared among customers who arrived as strangers. He tells funny travel stories people lob out random questions about his favorite places to eat in Los Angeles. ![]() He can be at once immersed in his tasks and disarmingly relaxed. He’s been cooking in front of people for nearly 30 years. Go began working at his father’s sushi restaurant in Seal Beach when he was 15. Whether Go has bound together scallops and corn in the laciest summertime tempura or steamed the sweetest fall Hokkaido crab, whether he’s grilled rockfish and lotus root to a smoky copper sheen or presented a lacquered bowl of dashi with an orb of shrimp that’s equal parts snap and silk, the quality of the seafood is profound. The meal’s structure loosely follows kaiseki, emphasizing varied cooking techniques served in ceremonial order. Washoku (a broad term for traditional Japanese cooking) and kappo ryori (in which the chef prepares a series of refined plates in front of the customer) inform his style of cooking. With seven diners seated along a cedar counter, Go and his small crew stay in continuous motion for several hours, composing more than a dozen courses. ![]() And yet, if I’m asked to pinpoint the single most transcendent dining experience in Los Angeles - the restaurant that meets, even exceeds, its own impossible aspirations - this is the place. Few will have the opportunity to enjoy his food. And Go serves only 35 customers a week a reservation means phone alarms, compulsive browser refreshing and longed-for cancellation notifications. The cost is $350 per person, without taking into account the deep, persuasive list of sakes and Champagnes. I consider the reasons against naming Brandon Hayato Go’s tiny tasting-menu restaurant No.
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