Kappo-Style Fine Dining on Sawtelle: $240 Omakase at KOJIMA

KOJIMA is the quietest of the Michelin stars Los Angeles gained in 2026. It is a small second-floor room in Sawtelle Japantown, on the West Los Angeles strip packed with ramen shops, dessert bars and Japanese grocers, where chef Hayato Kojima cooks a single omakase for one counter. The price is $240 per person. Don't come expecting nigiri: the meal is kappo, a run of cooked, seasonal plates served across the counter, and the menu changes from week to week.

Before Los Angeles, Kojima ran a restaurant called Nishi-Ogikubo Hayato in Tokyo, and the Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand in 2018 and again in 2019. The style he took there and brought here mixes the structure of formal kaiseki with the looser, Western-tinged cooking of a kappo counter. He calls the result a Kojima-style omakase: the order of plates doesn't follow kaiseki rules, but every course is planned around the season.

The Los Angeles restaurant began serving in August 2025. A diner who posted photos from the first night on the Food Talk Central forum described an L-shaped wood counter with seats for six on one side and two on the other, plus a few four-person tables behind a noren curtain. The counter is the seat to ask for. At the 2026 California ceremony in San Diego on June 24, KOJIMA was one of five Los Angeles restaurants to win a first star, less than a year after opening.

The kitchen builds its menu from fish shipped directly from Toyosu and Kanazawa markets in Japan, plus California produce. Because the menu changes often, treat any dish as an example rather than a promise. On opening night, the meal began with a chilled chawanmushi of sweet corn heaped with hairy crab, then moved to what Kojima calls a C.A.O. salad: finely cut cauliflower, alfalfa and onion with his own dressing and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano.

Next came chicken heart yakitori dusted with sansho pepper, then tempura of sea bream and zucchini blossom with a house dipping sauce. A diner who went two weeks later found that only three plates were the same, a fried tofu ball, the chicken heart and the rice course, and that the soup had changed to a miso served on its own. Repeat visits can be very different meals.

Several diners on that thread single out the rice, which arrives near the end of the meal. Nigiri never appears. If you want raw fish on rice, book a sushi counter instead. If you want to see a Japanese cook cooking, KOJIMA suits you better.

Reservations are taken only on Tock, for parties of one to eight, and every guest pays a $120 deposit when booking. The deposit goes toward the bill on the night. Cancel or change a booking at least 72 hours ahead to get the deposit back; within 72 hours, nothing is refunded, and that includes cutting the size of your party. Adding guests is possible only if seats are free.

All guests at a seating are served each course together, so late arrivals may get courses rearranged. There is no waiting area inside, and the early seating has a time limit, so the restaurant asks early-seating guests to stay mindful of the clock. Arrive on time, but not much earlier than your booking.

The kitchen can't adjust the menu for guests who avoid soy, miso, fish or raw items, or who need gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan meals. Other allergies should be listed when you book. A 15 percent service charge is added to every bill, sales tax is applied to that charge under California law, and no further tip is expected.

At $240 for the omakase and a 15 percent service charge, a dinner for two comes to $552 before drinks and tax. Two counter seats on a Friday release quickly, so check Tock when the next month's calendar opens; in late September the reservation page was already showing October dates.

The restaurant runs its own drinks program to match the food and allows limited corkage: $100 for a 750ml bottle of wine or Champagne and $200 for a magnum, with a limit of two bottles per party. Bottles of sake are not allowed, so if you love sake, order from the list.

KOJIMA publishes no phone number. For questions about a booking or a diet, use the email link on its Tock page, and include the details in the booking notes as well.

Sawtelle Japantown grew up around plant nurseries run by Japanese American families in the first half of the twentieth century, and a few garden shops still sit among the newer storefronts. Today the blocks between Olympic Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard hold some of the densest clusters of Japanese restaurants in the city.

If you arrive early, walk the strip for a few blocks, past the tea houses, stationery stores, toy shops and Japanese grocers that line both sides of the boulevard. Plan the walk before dinner rather than after, since the kitchen keeps tempo with the seating and you won't want to rush the rice course.

Parking can be the hardest part of the night. Tock lists on-site parking for KOJIMA, with the first hour free in the lot, and street spaces on Sawtelle fill quickly in the evening. A rideshare drop-off at the building is the simplest option on a weekend.

Address: KOJIMA, at 2130 Sawtelle Blvd Suite 211, Los Angeles, CA 90025, on the second floor, in Sawtelle Japantown, West Los Angeles. Seating times: Tock shows reservation slots between 5 pm and 11 pm. Menu: Kojima-style omakase, $240 per person; no sushi or nigiri. Recognition: one Michelin star, 2026. Phone: none published; contact through Tock.

Booking: Tock only, parties of one to eight, $120 deposit per guest, refundable only with 72 hours' notice. Fees: 15 percent service charge, no additional gratuity. Corkage: $100 per 750ml, $200 per magnum, two bottles maximum, no sake. Diets: no soy-free, miso-free, fish-free, raw-free, gluten-free, vegetarian or vegan menus. Parking: lot with one free hour.