Asakura

Tucked inside an unassuming strip mall on Santa Monica Boulevard, Asakura is a tiny Tokyo transplant that asks diners to leave the flashiness at the door. With just twelve seats arranged around an intimate counter, this kaiseki restaurant from the team behind La Bombance creates an atmosphere of quiet focus, where every detail from the hand-blown sake cups to the farmers market vegetables receives meticulous attention.

The food here rewards those who appreciate subtlety and craftsmanship. The eight-course tasting menu is the clear winner, opening with a treasure chest of bite-sized appetizers that span temperatures and textures—think chilled dashi-braised cabbage sprinkled with baby sardines alongside sweet seared scallops glazed with ginger. The smoked caviar course arrives in a wooden chest trailing cherrywood smoke, the fish eggs gaining an extra savory depth that pairs beautifully with delicate egg noodles. Perhaps the most memorable bite is the house-made sesame tofu, somehow both rich and ethereal, with a toasted nuttiness that lingers.

This is dining for the contemplative, not the celebratory. The narrow room won’t win any design awards, and the meal unfolds to soft jazz covers of Beatles songs rather than any dramatic theatrics. But there are charming touches throughout—the chefs shape leftover rice from the final course into onigiri for guests to take home, and the silky coffee milk pudding makes birthdays and anniversaries feel properly marked.

At $300 for eight courses, Asakura isn’t competing for the title of most exciting meal in Los Angeles. What it offers instead is something rarer: a peaceful, precisely executed journey through Japanese culinary traditions. For special occasions that call for refinement over razzle-dazzle, this hidden Sawtelle gem delivers exactly what it promises.