Kato Wins World’s 50 Best Resy One to Watch Award

For the first time in more than a decade, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants will recognize a Los Angeles restaurant with an award. The organization, which annually publishes the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world, named Kato the winner of the Resy One to Watch 2024 award.

Although Kato did not make the World’s 50 Best list this year, the recognition is an acknowledgment of a restaurant’s potential to be named to the list at some point in the future.

“Los Angeles has one of the most exciting and diverse food scenes in the world right now,” William Drew, chief content officer for World’s 50 Best Restaurants, said in a statement to The Times. “Kato is representative of Southern California as a region, reflecting Jon Yao’s own experience as an Asian American growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, but also embodying the dynamic culinary spirit of Los Angeles.”

For those who know Yao’s career trajectory, the award doesn’t come as a big surprise. Kato, run by Yao and partners Nikki Reginaldo and Ryan Bailey, is nostalgic Taiwanese-inspired food presented as fine dining on a level that is both comforting and exciting.

The restaurant earned the top spot on The Times’ 2019 Top 101 Restaurants list. After the restaurant moved from its original shopping center location in West Los Angeles to Row DTLA in the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District, critic Bill Addison landed the No. 1 spot on The Times’ 2023 list.

The new, larger space and the addition of lead bartender Han Suk Cho and bar director Austin Hennelly have helped further establish the restaurant as a global dining destination.

“Since moving, we have tried to find ways to celebrate and champion diasporic food,” Yao said in a statement to The Times. “We are proud and steadfast in our restaurant’s identity now more than ever and are grateful to have an international spotlight in Los Angeles. We hope others find the beauty we see every day in our community, team and industry.”

Previous winners of the Resy One to Watch award include Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi in New York City in 2023 and AM par Alexandre Mazzia in France in 2022.

There have been only three Los Angeles restaurants on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list – Ginza Sushiko in 2002, Spago in 2004, and José Andrés’ Bazaar on the expanded list from 51 to 100 in 2011.

Bailey hopes the award will be a boost to the large restaurant industry in Los Angeles, which has seen a staggering number of closures in 2023.

“Operators are struggling with historic increases in the cost of products, a decreasing number of qualified candidates, adapting work models to rapidly changing minimum wages, and new state regulations like SB 478, which eliminated all of the recent hard work needed to resolve salary issues. discrepancy between service and culinary roles,” Bailey said. “We hope this recognition brings more attention to this city’s unique hospitality scene and encourages people from all over the world to visit and try the many incredible restaurants in our community.”

The World’s Top 50 list is chosen by a panel of more than 1,000 culinary experts. The British magazine Restaurant produced the first list in 2002. The 50 Best brand, which includes lists of the 50 best bars in the world, the 50 best hotels in the world and the 50 best restaurants in the world in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America, is owned and managed by William Reed.

The full list of awards will be announced at a ceremony on June 5th at the Wynn Las Vegas in Nevada.

“The restaurant became a way to honor my parents and the strength of previous generations that have allowed us to thrive now,” Yao said. “The award recognizes the work of our team and expands our mission statement and for that we are extremely grateful.”