Earlier this week, the New York Times released its list of the 50 best restaurants in America right now—and two pretty recent L.A. destinations were included among the picks: Camélia and Azizam.
We certainly can’t disagree with the mentions. Let’ start with Camélia, the long-awaited French-Japanese bistro in the Arts District from the pair behind Echo Park’s Tsubaki and OTOTO.
The destination currently sits at the top of our best new restaurants in Los Angeles list and has been since it was first included on August 1. Although dining at Camélia is a well-rounded experience that will be memorable no matter what you order, we suggest indulging in the outstanding dry-aged burger and washing it down with the Tokyo Banana cocktail, made with Remi Martin 1738 cognac, Jamaican and black strap rum, Mr. Black coffee liqueur, banana and custard.
Azizam, meanwhile, struck our own food and drink editor Patricia Kelly Yeo’s fancy in more ways than one—starting the the beef tongue sandwich, which Yeo believes is the only one in town that usurps what’s offered at longtime city-wide favorite Attari Sandwich Shop.
The casual Persian eatery, whose name translates to “my dear” in Farsi, maintained a place in the top two on our best new restaurants list for the entirety of its six-month tenure (the maximum number of months we include a spot on that list, after which we don’t really consider a restaurant “new” anymore).
In addition to the two L.A. mentions, three other California restaurants made the coveted list: Quince and Four Kings in San Francisco, and Fikscue in Alameda. Clearly, we live in one of the most culinarily exciting states across all of the U.S.