Orsa & Winston Fine Dining in DTLA: $150 Five-Course Omakase

Orsa & Winston is the downtown Los Angeles fine dining room where Italian and Japanese cooking meet over five courses. Chef Josef Centeno's small restaurant at 122 W. 4th Street in the Historic Core serves a five-course omakase for $150 per person, the menu changes daily, and the dining room seats guests at two seatings each night, Tuesday through Saturday. Among the city's Michelin-starred tasting rooms, it is one of the most affordable.

The restaurant opened on September 24, 2013, and its name has nothing to do with Italy or Japan: the team says Orsa & Winston is named after two little dogs. The restaurant describes its cooking as inspired by Italian and Japanese flavors, focused on seafood and vegetables and tied together by Centeno's own creativity, which is why no two menus look alike.

The approach won over critics and inspectors. Orsa & Winston earned a star in 2019, the first year the Michelin Guide covered all of California in one edition. In 2020 it was among the first restaurants in Los Angeles to close ahead of the pandemic shutdown, reopened with a skeleton crew and was named the Los Angeles Times Restaurant of the Year. Michelin listings still show it with one star in 2026.

There is one format: a five-course omakase tasting menu at $150 per person, with an optional beverage pairing for $85 per person. Beer, wine and sake are also sold by the glass or bottle. The menu is pescatarian, and a five-course vegetarian version is offered every night if you ask for it when you book.

Because the menu changes daily, the dishes you read about online may not be the dishes you get. What stays the same is the balance: the menu focuses predominantly on seafood and vegetables, and each course is meant to show how naturally the two cuisines sit together in Centeno's cooking. Five courses is a modest count for a starred room, which makes this a dinner that ends at a reasonable hour.

The kitchen also hosts occasional one-night events. In May it cooked a five-course dinner with Nancy Singleton Hachisu, the James Beard Award-winning author of The Art and Craft of Japanese Cooking, for $200 per person with a signed copy of the book, sold as tickets on OpenTable. Follow the restaurant's Instagram for the next one.

The team does its best with dietary restrictions and allergies if you give advance notice, but the kitchen is small, so it cannot cook for guests who could go into anaphylactic shock or have an extreme reaction to any ingredient it uses. If you have a serious allergy, email the restaurant before booking rather than after.

This is not a bring-your-own-bottle room. Corkage is not permitted, and neither is any other outside food or drink. That includes birthday cakes: the restaurant says no outside cakes and does not offer a cake-cutting fee, so let the kitchen know about the occasion instead. Plan to drink from the list or take the $85 pairing.

Reservations are required, and the restaurant cannot seat walk-ins. Parties of one to four book on OpenTable up to three months in advance, and the team does not take reservations by phone. For five or more guests, email info@orsaandwinston.com; the team replies within one or two business days. Tables are often fully booked one to two weeks ahead, so if your date is gone online, the room is full.

A credit card holds every booking but is not charged unless the cancellation fee applies. Cancel at least 24 hours ahead to avoid it. Inside 24 hours, and for no-shows, smaller parties, same-day cancellations or day-of reschedules, the fee is $150 per person. The last seating is at 8 pm, and the team asks every guest to be on time so the rest of the room isn't disturbed.

The bill arrives at the end of the meal, and Orsa & Winston no longer adds a service charge, so gratuity is not included and is left to you. Payment is by debit or credit card only. Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover are accepted, but the restaurant does not take cash or Apple Pay, so bring a physical card.

For two guests, the omakase alone comes to $300 before tax and tip, and adding two beverage pairings brings the menu total to $470. That is well under the price of most starred tasting menus in Los Angeles, and with no surcharges or service fees on top, the number on the website is close to what you will actually pay.

There are metered spaces on 4th Street in front of the restaurant, and private lots and garages on 4th and on Main Street. Pay at the meter or lot, because the restaurant does not validate. Taking Metro is simpler: Pershing Square station on the B and D lines is a short walk west along 4th Street.

Arrive early and walk the Historic Core. Grand Central Market, the food hall on Broadway that opened in 1917, is a few blocks away for a coffee or a look at the stalls. Across Broadway, the Bradbury Building's skylit atrium of wrought-iron railings and open-cage elevators is one of the most photographed interiors in Los Angeles. The Last Bookstore, at the corner of Spring and Fifth, is another easy stop.

Address: Orsa & Winston, 122 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, in the Historic Core of downtown. Email: info@orsaandwinston.com. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 5 pm to 10 pm, dinner only, with the last seating at 8 pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. There is no lunch, brunch, takeout or outdoor seating.

Menu: five-course omakase, $150 per person; vegetarian version on request; beverage pairing $85. Booking: OpenTable for one to four guests, up to three months ahead; email for five or more. Cancellation: 24 hours, or $150 per person. Service charge: none, and tip is not included. Payment: cards only. Corkage: not permitted. Transit: Pershing Square station.