Restaurants: Two Michelin Stars Shine

The Michelin Guide announced it awarded 27 new stars across California late last month, including two Valley region restaurants: Pasta|Bar in Encino and Morihiro in Glendale. 

The announcement included five new two-star restaurants and 22 new one-star locations after Michelin skipped producing a guide for California last year due to wildfire and COVID-19 concerns. Both Pasta|Bar, an Italian restaurant from husband-and-wife chef duo Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee, and Morihiro, an omakase sushi restaurant by Chef Morihiro Onodera, earned their first stars. 

“As an international culinary destination and leader in the industry, California continues to impress Michelin Guide inspectors with a commitment to sustainable gastronomy and creative cuisine,” Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, said in a statement. “We are delighted to celebrate 19 promotions for restaurants that elevated their quality and consistency despite the challenges of the health crisis, and welcome eight new entries to our selection at the star level.”

Morihiro, the Glendale sushi restaurant featuring a $250 per person omakase menu, is open Wednesday through Sunday for diners to sample Onodera’s fresh fish and meticulously cooked rice. 

“Chef Morihiro Onodera’s omakase yields an impressive amount of food that includes such impeccably executed items as firefly squid with wakame seaweed and halibut sashimi with pink peppercorn,” read the Michelin inspector notes on the restaurant. “Minimally seasoned nigiri with large defined grains may unveil everything from clean, white hirame to appetizingly oily mackerel.”

Pasta|Bar earned its first star as a promotion from being a “New Discovery” restaurant last year, which the Michelin guide recognized in lieu of the traditional stars. The multi-course meal with a rotating seasonal menu is set at $165 per person.

“The mastery of this team lies in their ability to take full advantage of California’s natural bounty, with thrilling results, as seen in cavatelli with a glossy, butter-rich lobster sauce, with spring peas and chunks of sweet meat; or an exalted take on the caprese by way of marigold tomatoes, mozzarella, fennel flowers and avocado,” Michelin inspector notes said about the restaurant.