Bon Appétit just released its Best New Restaurants in America list for 2025, and two Los Angeles newcomers—Camélia and Komal—made the cut. The list recognizes restaurants that opened between March 2024 and March 2025, spotlighting “ambitious chefs [who] laid themselves bare, their autobiographical storytelling shaping singular restaurants.” Here’s what makes these spots shine:
Camélia (Arts District)
Partners Courtney Kaplan and Charles Namba built Camélia on inspiration gathered from Paris and Tokyo, and the result is a bistro that feels equal parts French classic and Japanese precision. The space—once a Nabisco factory—sets the mood with red brick floors, dark leather booths and globe lights, while chopsticks sit neatly beside polished bistro silverware.
Namba’s menu leans French but dazzles with Japanese flourishes. Bon Appétit writer Elazar Sontag gushes about dishes like the roast chicken that's “as burnished as a penny,” its flavor deepened with koji and served in a seaweed cream sauce “that tastes like the distillation of a warm ocean breeze.” Loup de mer arrives with sansho-pepper butter and a storm of grated daikon. Meanwhile, Kaplan’s sake pairings stand alongside French wines, elevating everything from abalone pot pies to croque-madames made with fluffy shoku-pan. As Sontag puts it: “Camélia is never just one thing. Always both, always and.”
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Komal (Mercado La Paloma)
At Komal, inside the bustling Mercado La Paloma, chef Fátima Juárez turns masa into art. Guests are invited to choose the corn—yellow, purple or even shimmering pink—for their tetela, the Oaxacan triangular pastry stuffed with cheese. Juárez might blend multiple varietals into marbled creations that showcase the subtle differences displayed by each variety.
Komal draws mostly from Mexico’s deep masa traditions, though Juárez occasionally nods to other Latin American staples. Each bite of rowboat-shaped masa filled with velvety ayocote beans is a reminder of what fresh tortillas can really be. According to Sontag, "lunch at Komal is enough to make anyone wonder if they’ve ever really known corn.”
Check out the full list of Best New Restaurant winners here.