Berenjak

This upscale Persian concept from London takes the standard kebab house formula—dips, skewers, stews, rice, bread—and elevates it with winning details, including two kinds of housemade bread and light citrus dressing on the panir sabzi (or cheese and herb platter). Since opening the first Berenjak in London back in 2018, chef Kian Samyani has expanded to Qatar (Doha), the UAE (Dubai, Sharjah) and NYC, but the glitzy, wide-reaching expansions have seemingly done little to detract from the flavorful, beautifully presented platters of kebabs and gleaming silver plates carrying mast-o-musir (shallot-topped creamy yogurt), salad olivieh (a Persian spin on Russian salad olivier) and hashk-e bademjan (roasted eggplant and whey dip). An equally interesting beverage menu includes a clarified, boozy take on doogh, a classic Persian savory yogurt drink; a refreshing vodka watermelon cocktail playfully named “shumpine”; and a Persian-style black lime soda known as sharbat. While the L.A. outpost isn’t the first Berenjak in the US, it’s the first one that’s available to the public. This is some of the best, if not necessarily the most interesting, Persian cuisine I’ve had in Los Angeles; and that’s coming from someone who’s been to essentially every major sit-down Persian restaurant in the county twice over.