These 2 LA Restaurants Are Among America's Top 50, NYT Says

LOS ANGELES — The New York Times recently announced its 50 favorite restaurants in America for 2024, with two from Los Angeles making the cut.

“Over the last 12 months, reporters and editors traveled to nearly every state scouting restaurants for our annual list,” according to the newspaper. “As always, there were no-brainers and tough choices — the United States has a vast, diverse spread of great restaurants these days — but these are our 50 favorites for 2024.”

The LA restaurants named among the nation’s best are Camélia and Azizam. Quince in San Francisco, Four Kings in San Francisco and Fikscue in Alameda were also included. California had more restaurants on the list than any other state.

Camélia opened in July, courtesy of Charles Namba and Courtney Kaplan, and blends Japanese and French cuisines, according to the Times.

"A delicately crunchy slice of ham katsu, enrobed in Mornay sauce, rests on a slice of sweet, buttery house-made shokupan, almost entirely hidden by a softly fried egg. Even the basic croque-madame here is a thoughtfully composed thrill," the newspaper raved.

"This is the magic of a good bistro: a place where you can come across the familiar, and even predictable, and fall in love with it again."

Azizam has been serving up Iranian fare from Cody Ma and Misha Sesar since March after starting as a pop-up in 2021, according to the Times.

"Their casual Silver Lake cafe is devoted to the kind of deeply delicious, often labor-intensive cooking that doesn’t like to show off about how much prep (a lot) goes into it," the newspaper wrote. "It tastes like being home, no matter where you’re from."

Of the 50 resturants highlighted by the Times, 32 are newly opened, including all five in California.

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