How to book n/naka

n/naka is a kaiseki restaurant on Overland Avenue in the Palms area of Los Angeles, run by chef and owner Niki Nakayama with her co-chef, co-owner and life partner Carole Iida-Nakayama^1,4. It opened in 2011^4,6. The two chefs describe their cooking as a California take on kaiseki that draws on both their Japanese heritage and their California upbringing¹.

Dinner is a single 13-course tasting menu built mostly around seafood, using seasonal produce and fish from California and Japan, with wine and sake pairings offered alongside². The Michelin Guide notes that the menu changes and mentions broths, grilled Miyazaki wagyu and scallops, while spaghetti with abalone, pickled cod roe and black truffle is the one dish kept on the menu³. In a 2012 review for the Los Angeles Times, Jonathan Gold wrote that many of the vegetables and herbs came from an organic garden the chef kept at her home in Arcadia⁵.

The restaurant sits in a low building with no sign⁵. A 2024 redesign reshaped the dining room to suggest a Japanese tea garden, with small courtyard gardens, or tsuboniwa, visible through the windows⁴. Michelin calls the room "wonderfully stylish"³. n/naka serves dinner only, Wednesday to Saturday, and releases its tables on Tock every Sunday at 10:00 am for the matching week one month ahead².