26 WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS SEPTEMBER 2019
your neighbors that friendliness is the
only option.
The actual family at the heart of
this operation are the Sanciminos, who
bought Swan three generations ago
from its original owners. It’s likely
that a member of the Sancimino tribe
will act as your guide once you’re
seated, explaining your options and
offering advice and encouragement.
You can order from the hand-lettered
and -illustrated menu on the wall or
probe deeper to find out what else
is available that day. My advice is to
come with an appetite and go for all of
the above. Start with a dozen oysters.
Follow those with the not-so-secret
(but not on the menu) plate of “Sicilian
sashimi”—slices of the freshest fish and
seafood of the day, doused in olive oil
and cracked pepper. Then turn to the
classic crab salad, a generous pile of
sweet crabmeat over shredded lettuce. If
San Francisco is wallowing in its trade-
mark damp weather, throw in a cup of
warming, creamy clam chowder.
The food at Swan Oyster Depot is
the stuff of minimalist beauty—the
Sanciminos serve tasty things from the
ocean, at peak freshness, with little
adornment. But the real product they
traffic in is joy. The joy of that seafood,
yes, but also the joy of friendship and
family, of eating somewhere and feeling
like part of a community, of experi-
encing the humanity of a city and its
people. What could be more delicious?
I SAID IT THE FIRST TIME I ate at n/naka more than five years ago,
and I’ll say it again now: Meals at Niki Nakayama’s small, elegant
restaurant unfold like poetry, flavors and dishes acting as phrases
and stanzas in one long, lyrical, and utterly profound experience.
Nakayama was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles
but spent years in Japan training in the art of kaiseki, the tradi-
tional, multicourse Japanese style of dining that focuses on sea-
sonality and ritual. In 2011 she opened n/naka in an unmarked
building on an unremarkable stretch of road in Palms, a mostly
residential neighborhood in West L.A. There, along with her sous
chef and wife, Carole Iida-Nakayama, Nakayama presents an
intensely personal version of kaiseki.
Over 12 courses, diners move through a series of dishes that
showcase seasonal Southern Californian ingredients assembled in
elaborate and beautiful combinations. Raw wild sea bream comes
curled on the plate; intertwined with celtuce, Jade Beauty green
tomato, Buddha’s hand citron, and hibiscus and begonia flowers;
and seasoned with ume ponzu. Traditional sashimi is followed by
a grilled dish of Spanish mackerel with kelp and black garlic oil
then a steamed dish of sweet shrimp with Santa Barbara uni.
Why, you might ask, is the best restaurant in Los Angeles one
that looks to Japan for much of its inspiration? L.A.’s greatest asset
is its diversity and its cultivation of culture that blurs the lines
of influence and origin, arriving at something wholly new that
couldn’t exist anywhere else. Something exactly like what Niki
Nakayama has created at n/naka. (Read more about Nakayama in
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” on p. 86.)
N/NAKA
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA
WHERE TO STAY
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With a recent restoration sympathetic to its Spanish Colonial–style architecture, the Hotel Figueroa in downtown L.A. is a stylish delight.
(From $229; hotelfigueroa.com)
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Pacific oyster, Koshihikari
rice, shiitake mushroom,
and caviar at n/naka.
Swan Oyster
Depot owner
Tom Sancimino.
PHOTOGRAPHY (FROM LEFT): SORAYA MATOS, ZEN SEKIZAWA/COURTESY OF N/NAKA
