AKIRA AKUTO AND Nick Montgomery hatched their tiny Echo Park business out of its takeout chrysalis this year, and it took off in two new directions. In the summer they debuted their second location at Culver City’s Sony Pictures Plaza, where their riffs on Japanese convenience-store sandos — pork or eggplant katsu, the egg salad that cornered Instagram — remain at the center of the menu. In addition to salads brightened with shiso dressing or miso vinaigrette and Kiyoshi Tsukamoto’s magnificent pastries (including the famous chocolate croissant, best consumed hot), they’ve introduced ice creams to the mix. Try the houjicha flavor, with its swirl of smoky honey caramel.

Back in Echo Park, Akuto and Montgomery relaunched indoor dining at year’s end, renaming the restaurant Konbi Ni. They’re serving breakfast, lunch and dinner at the eight-seat counter; based on a recent Japanese-style preset morning meal involving fish, jeweled fruit and vegetables in various forms, I’m wondering if reservations are about to be as in demand here as for our top-flight sushi bars.

• 1463 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; 10000 Washington Blvd., Culver City; konbi.co

Konbi’s Culver City shop serves sandwiches like tunafish, above, on house-made bread.