Kato wins the Resy One to Watch award for the 50 best restaurants in the world

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 publishes the annual list of the world's 50 best restaurants, named Kato the winner of the 2024 Resy One to Watch award.

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

“Los Angeles has one of the most interesting and diverse dining scenes in the world right now,” William Drew, chief content officer of the 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 embodies the dynamic food spirit of Los Angeles.”

For those familiar with Yao's career trajectory, the award doesn't come as a huge surprise. Kato, run by co-owners Yao and Ryan Bailey and general manager Nikki Reginaldo, is nostalgic Taiwanese-inspired food presented as good food on a comforting and exciting level.

The restaurant took first place on the Times' 2019 list of the 101 Best Restaurants. After the restaurant moved from its original location in a shopping center in West Los Angeles to Row DTLA in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, critic Bill Addison made it No. 1 on the 2023 list of the Times.

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

“Since we moved, we have tried to find ways to celebrate and champion diaspora food,” Yao said in a statement to the Times. “Now more than ever we are proud and steadfast in our restaurant's identity and are grateful to have international attention 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 Kwame Onwuachi's Tatiana in New York City in 2023 and Alexandre Mazzia's AM in France in 2022.

There have only been three Los Angeles restaurants on the list of the world's 50 best restaurants: Ginza Sushiko in 2002, Spago in 2004 and Bazaar by José Andrés on the list expanded from 51 to 100 in 2011.

Han Suk Cho, head bartender at Kato restaurant in Los Angeles, and Austin Hennelly, bar manager, are photographed inside the restaurant.

(Mel Melcón / Los Angeles Times)

Bailey hopes the award will be a boost for the broader restaurant industry in Los Angeles, which saw a staggering number of closures in 2023.

“Operators are struggling with historic increases in the cost of goods, a shrinking pool of qualified applicants, adapting work models to rapidly changing minimum wages, and new state regulations like SB 478, which eliminated all recent hard work. that was invested in resolving salaries. discrepancy between service and culinary roles,” Bailey said. “We hope this recognition will draw more eyes to this city's unique hospitality scene and encourage people from around the world to visit and experience the incredible restaurants in our community.”

The list of the 50 best restaurants in the world 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 world's 50 best bars, the world's 50 best hotels and the world's 50 best restaurants in Asia, the Middle East, Africa North and Latin America, is owned and managed by William Reed.

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

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