How to book Hayato

Hayato is a seven-seat Japanese kaiseki counter inside the ROW DTLA complex in the Arts District, run by chef Brandon Go^1,4. It began serving dinner in July 2018, according to a 2019 Los Angeles Times review². Go spent years making sushi at his father's restaurant, Koi in Seal Beach, and staged in Japan at kitchens such as Tokyo's three-star Ishikawa^2,5. He also attended a soba school in Tokyo and buys most of his fish from Toyosu market⁶.

The meal is a single seasonal, seafood-focused omakase cooked in an open kitchen in front of guests, with one seating a night for seven people¹. Tock lists it at $450 per guest¹. The Michelin Guide, which gives Hayato two stars, describes counter service beginning at 6:30 p.m. and a meal that closes with a generous rice course, served on pottery the chef collected himself³. Courses change with the season: writers have described corn and Hokkaido scallop kakiage, charcoal-grilled mehikari and bonito smoked over rice straw⁵.

The room is small and spare, with a pale hinoki counter, and sits behind a noren curtain with no sign outside^2,5. Time Out calls the setting "intimate and almost reverent"⁴. Beyond the Michelin stars, the Tock page lists a first place on the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants list in 2022 and a 2023 James Beard Best Chef: California finalist nod¹. Seats are hard to get: the restaurant limits guests to one booking a month, checks photo ID on first visits and keeps a Notify list for people who miss the monthly release¹.