RFK Rankings · Los Angeles
Best Tasting Menus Under $200 in Los Angeles 2026
Tasting menus, food only · Los Angeles · 7 menus ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 3, 2026 · Updated June 3, 2026
Kato holds two Michelin stars, and the bar in front of its kitchen sells the same caliber of cooking for 185 dollars, barely half the price of the dining room behind it. That is the quiet secret of fine dining in Los Angeles: the best value is not in the famous 400-dollar rooms but in the bar seats, the food halls and the strip-mall counters where serious chefs cook to a lower number on purpose. The 200-dollar ceiling on this list is a hard line, and every price below was checked against a current menu rather than assumed. These seven, ranked on the cooking and the value at the price, are the tasting menus to book when the meal should be excellent without being ruinous.
1.Kato
Two Michelin stars at the bar for $185, the best tasting-menu value in the city. Book the bar seats, not the dining room.
Kato moved to Row DTLA and climbed to two Michelin stars in the 2025 guide, with chef Jon Yao taking the James Beard Best Chef California award the same year for his Taiwanese-Californian cooking. The headline is the price gap: the dining-room tasting is 325 dollars, but the bar tasting, five to seven courses of the same kitchen's hits including the smoked sturgeon and the milk bread, is 185, with only twelve bar seats sold a night. No other two-star kitchen in the country offers a way in at that number. It is the single best food-to-price ratio in Los Angeles, full stop. Book the bar specifically when reservations open, because those twelve seats are the value and they go first.
Book on the Kato site; reserve the bar tasting, not the dining-room menu.
2.Holbox
A one-star, $130 seafood tasting inside a USC-area food hall. Worth the drive for the aguachiles.
Holbox sits inside the Mercado La Paloma food hall near USC, and chef Gilbert Cetina turned a seafood counter into a Michelin-starred restaurant, taking the star in the 2024 guide and holding it in 2025. The eight-course tasting is 130 dollars, the best value of any starred tasting in the city, built on the Baja and Southern California seafood Cetina knows cold: aguachiles, smoked kanpachi, tostadas layered with the day's catch. Counter seating only, on the nights the tasting runs. The setting, a stool at a market stall, is the opposite of white-tablecloth fine dining, which is exactly why a one-star meal here costs what a mid-tier dinner does elsewhere. Worth the drive south for the aguachiles alone.
Book the tasting on the Holbox site; it is counter seating on select nights.
3.Anajak Thai
Justin Pichetrungsi's $195 Thai omakase, a James Beard and LA Times champion in Sherman Oaks. Reserve weeks ahead.
Anajak Thai is the Sherman Oaks strip-mall restaurant that Justin Pichetrungsi turned into one of the most decorated rooms in the country, winning the James Beard Best Chef California award in 2023 and the LA Times Restaurant of the Year. Its Thursday-to-Saturday Thai omakase is 195 dollars for roughly fourteen courses, dry-aged fish and layered curries and the famous Thai tacos rebuilt as fine dining, and it is the hardest reservation on this list. The 200-dollar ceiling barely contains it; few tasting menus anywhere deliver this much invention for the money. The à la carte Thai Taco Tuesday is a separate, walk-in affair. Reserve the omakase weeks ahead and clear a weekend night for it.
Book the omakase on the Anajak Thai site; it runs Thursday to Saturday.
4.Baroo
Kwang Uh's $140 modern-Korean tasting in the Arts District rewards the curious. Try it once for the fermentation.
Baroo is the revival of chef Kwang Uh's cult Korean project, reopened in the Arts District with partner Mina Park and listed in the 2025 Michelin Guide. The tasting menu is 140 dollars, recently raised from 125, and it is the most adventurous cooking at this price in the city: fermentation-driven modern Korean built on dishes like the yuhkoe tartelette, the buckwheat maemil guksu and the Brandt beef short-rib ssam. This is a tasting for the curious rather than the cautious, food that uses funk and acid the way other kitchens use butter. At 140 dollars it is a remarkable amount of original cooking for the number. Try it once for the fermentation and go in without a fixed idea of what Korean food is.
Book on the Baroo site; the tasting menu is the way to experience the kitchen.
5.Sushi by Scratch Restaurants
A 17-course Edomae omakase for $185 in Encino, theatrical and precise. Pencil it in for sushi night.
Sushi by Scratch in Encino is the flagship of chef Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee, a tiny Edomae counter in the Michelin Guide that runs a seventeen-course omakase for 185 dollars before service. The format mixes classical nigiri technique with the kind of non-traditional flourishes that made the couple James Beard nominees, each piece staged and explained at the counter. It is theatre as much as sushi, which makes it a livelier, more performative night than the purist counters, and at 185 it sits comfortably under the ceiling. The intimate seating and single nightly run make it feel like a private event. Pencil it in for a sushi night that wants personality as much as precision, and book the counter ahead.
Book on the Sushi by Scratch site; the Encino counter is the flagship.
6.Sushi Note
Wine-paired nigiri at the counter for around $150 in Sherman Oaks. Order the Whole Note and a glass.
Sushi Note on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks is the rare sushi room built around a wine list, and it sits in the 2025 Michelin Guide. Chef Kiminobu Saito runs a market-fish program, and the full Whole Note omakase lands around 150 dollars, set against a 90-plus-bottle wine list designed to pair with nigiri rather than fight it. The wine-and-sushi angle is genuinely uncommon, and it makes this the counter to choose when you want a glass of grower Champagne or Riesling with your fish rather than sake or tea. At roughly 150 dollars it is one of the gentler-priced omakase counters in the Guide. Order the Whole Note and let the floor pour a glass alongside it.
Book on the Sushi Note site; ask for the wine pairing with the omakase.
7.Sushi Park
The cult WeHo omakase at $200, the counter that fed The Bear's dreams. Go once and skip the add-ons.
Sushi Park has run quietly above a Sunset Plaza strip mall in West Hollywood for decades, the omakase counter that drew a fresh wave of attention after it featured in the third season of The Bear in 2024. The omakase is 200 dollars for the food, seven-plus courses of pristine, flown-in nigiri, which puts it exactly at this list's ceiling; appetizers and dessert are charged separately and push a full bill toward 250, so the headline number takes discipline to hold. The room is plain and the focus is entirely on the fish, an old-school counter in a city of newer spectacle. Go once for the purity of it, and to keep it under 200, skip the add-ons and stay with the set omakase.
Book on the Sushi Park site; the set omakase is 200 before add-ons.
Avoid for this list
Great, but well over $200
Providence. LA's first three-Michelin-star room is a bucket-list meal, but the tasting runs roughly 375 to 495 dollars after the 2025 upgrade, more than double this list's ceiling. Save it for the splurge ranking, not the value one.
n/naka. Niki Nakayama's modern kaiseki is one of the city's defining tastings, but at 395 dollars before the 195-dollar pairing it is nowhere near under 200. Its Netflix fame makes people assume it belongs on every list; on this one it does not.
Mélisse. Josiah Citrin's two-star Santa Monica tasting is 399 dollars, so despite its classic reputation it sits firmly outside the budget here. If a guide files it under affordable tastings, it has not checked the current price.
How to book these tastings
The value seats are the scarce ones, so timing matters more than at the pricier rooms. Kato sells only twelve bar seats a night and Anajak Thai's weekend omakase is among the hardest tables in LA, so set a reminder for the moment reservations open and sit ready. Holbox runs its tasting on select nights with counter seating only, and Sushi Park's cult following keeps its small counter tight, so neither rewards a last-minute plan. Sushi Note, Sushi by Scratch and Baroo are a little easier midweek, which is also when the rooms are calmest. Hold the prices in mind when you book: a couple of these sit right at 200 dollars for the food alone, so factor in tax, service and any add-ons before you call it a budget night.
Frequently asked
What is the best tasting menu under $200 in Los Angeles?
The bar tasting menu at Kato in Row DTLA is our top pick. Kato holds two Michelin stars in the 2025 California guide, and chef Jon Yao won the James Beard Best Chef California award in 2025, yet his five-to-seven-course bar tasting runs 185 dollars, a fraction of the 325-dollar dining-room menu. It is the best food-to-price ratio in the city. Only twelve bar seats are sold a night, so book the bar specifically rather than the dining room, and reserve early.
What is the cheapest Michelin-starred tasting menu in LA?
Holbox, inside the Mercado La Paloma food hall near USC, serves an eight-course seafood tasting for 130 dollars, the best value of any Michelin-starred tasting in Los Angeles. Chef Gilbert Cetina earned the star in the 2024 guide and held it in 2025 for coastal Mexican cooking built on aguachiles, smoked kanpachi and tostadas. Counter seating only, two seatings on the tasting nights. It is proof that a one-star meal in LA need not cost a week's groceries.
Are there any LA omakase counters under $200?
Yes, several. Sushi Note in Sherman Oaks pours its wine-paired Whole Note omakase for around 150 dollars, Sushi by Scratch in Encino runs a theatrical 17-course Edomae omakase at 185, and the cult Sushi Park in West Hollywood sits right at the 200-dollar ceiling for its nigiri-forward counter, though add-ons push the full bill higher. All three are in the Michelin Guide or its orbit. For serious sushi without a 300-dollar ticket, these are the counters to book.
Which LA tasting menus are NOT under $200?
Most of the famous ones. Providence runs roughly 375 to 495 dollars after its third Michelin star, n/naka's modern kaiseki is 395, and Mélisse is 399, so none qualify here. Somni reaches 495, Hayato 450 and Vespertine 395. If a list lumps those in with affordable tastings, it has not checked the current prices. The seven on this page are all verified at or under 200 dollars for the food, which is the entire point of the ranking.
How far ahead should I book these LA tasting menus?
Two to four weeks for most, longer for the hardest tickets. Anajak Thai's Thursday-to-Saturday omakase and Kato's twelve bar seats sell out fastest, so set a reminder for the reservation drop. Holbox runs its tasting only on certain nights with counter seating, and Sushi Park's cult following keeps its counter tight. Sushi Note and Sushi by Scratch are a little easier midweek. A weekday booking everywhere is calmer and easier to land than a weekend.
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