Los Angeles Magazine held its third annual Best New Restaurants celebration on Wednesday, January 20 at 440 Seaton in the Arts District. While “2016” was attached to the event’s name, since that’s when it took place, the idea was to honor the best restaurants that opened in the past year, and a bit—honorees Le Comptoir, Love & Salt, Redbird, and Terrine all opened in late 2014. Two participants, Faith & Flower and Union, were past Best New Restaurant honorees, but were called in to fill a void left by Odys + Penelope, according to The LA Beat. Rounding out the participants were Birch, Broken Spanish, Cassia, Jon & Vinny’s, and The Bellwether.
My top three bites of the night were Birch’s chicken liver and foie gras crostini, Love & Salt’s lamb tongue panini, and Redbird’s shrimp & grits.
Other highlights included Birch’s salmon tartare (photo below by Tanaya’s Table), Broken Spanish’s camote, Cassia’s chopped escargot, and Jon & Vinny’s meatballs.
Though the above ranked as my favorites, all the dishes at the event were good-to-great. With such a well curated list of participants, selected from among the best new restaurants of the past year, I wouldn’t have expected any duds anyway. With apologies to chef Kris Morningstar and his restaurant Terrine for not getting a suitable pic of his knockwurst and sauerkraut (that’s what she said), photos of dishes by the other participants can be seen below.
As I mentioned in my January/February food festival preview, this is my first food event of 2016. Thanks to Los Angeles Magazine for loading the deck with such heavy hitters and throwing a great party!
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