Kusano

On our lists of the best romantic restaurants and special-occasion restaurants in Los Angeles.

The counter seats eight, in an unmarked strip-mall unit near Overland Avenue, and Yasu Kusano works all of it himself: pouring the drinks, clearing the plates, making the food. His 18 courses run nigiri-forward, with sweet shrimp under blue roe, sea bream under shavings of cured egg yolk, and uni wrapped in a thin sheet of squid. Two seatings go each night, and the room is sparse enough that the fish is the only thing to look at.