Hinoki & The Bird

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Concept Built on Movement

Hinoki & the Bird describes itself as a travel-inspired dining concept, and the phrase is more than marketing shorthand. The kitchen takes its cues from journeys along the Silk Road, translating that geographic sweep into a menu where bright, assertive flavors and a healthful sensibility meet precise technique. The result is a style of Asian-Californian cooking that feels genuinely its own — not fusion for its own sake, but a coherent point of view expressed through what ends up on the plate.

The Space

The restaurant occupies the ground floor of The Century, a luxury residential tower in Century City. Designer Milo Garcia shaped an indoor/outdoor environment that mirrors the kitchen's ethos: open, layered, and considered. The outdoor seating in particular gives the room a lightness that suits the food well — this is not a place that takes itself too seriously in atmosphere, even if the cooking demands attention.

What's on the Plate

The menu reads like a map of the influences the kitchen draws on. A tasting menu offered for special occasions has included salmon sashimi with nuoc cham and daikon, crispy Jidori chicken with sambal honey, hamachi collar with gochujang and chilled somen noodles, and confit pork shoulder bo ssam with smoked oysters and banchan. Vegetable-forward options — a yellow coconut curry with cauliflower, tofu, and fried lotus root — sit alongside more indulgent add-ons like black winter truffle and Astrea Schrenckii caviar. The range is deliberate: the kitchen wants to accommodate, not restrict.

The Californian instinct shows in sourcing — Straus Farms ricotta appears on the menu — while the Asian inflections run deep through the flavor profiles rather than sitting decoratively on top.

Recognition

Wine Spectator awarded Hinoki & the Bird its Best of Award of Excellence in 2024, a recognition that speaks to the seriousness of the beverage program alongside the food. The list is curated to move with the kitchen's pan-Asian-Californian range, no small task given the breadth of flavors at play.

The Broader Picture

The restaurant also operates as a non-tipping establishment, adding a service fee to checks in lieu of gratuity — a policy worth knowing before you arrive. Private dining, catering, and event hosting round out what the space offers, making it as functional for a corporate dinner as for a quiet weekday lunch.