Bavel

Bavel is a Middle Eastern restaurant on Mateo Street in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. It was opened by the chefs Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis, who also own the Italian restaurant Bestia.

Menashe found his calling as a cook during a year in South America, and after returning to Los Angeles in 2001 he started at an Israeli café before moving on to La Terza. Gergis taught herself pastry, baking at first simply to satisfy a sweet tooth. Bavel followed Bestia, and in 2019 the Los Angeles Times named it restaurant of the year, while the James Beard awards nominated it as the best new restaurant in the country.

The name is the Modern Hebrew form of the biblical Babel, chosen because the menu belongs to no single country. The cooking draws on family roots in Israel, Morocco, Turkey and Egypt, and it takes familiar dishes and gives them more weight and richness. Hummus and malawach bread are the best known, and one hummus comes topped with a duck 'nduja. Taking the flavours of several neighbouring countries onto one table echoes the name, a single meal in many tongues.

Most plates arrive with pita or flatbread and are meant to be shared around the table. A lamb neck shawarma is big enough to be a meal on its own, and grilled celery root comes with a tzatziki of honey mushrooms. The dining room is a warehouse made warm, with its structure left bare and long green vines hanging from the ceiling, a large open kitchen, and a patio at the side adds almost as much room again. Bavel holds a regular place on the Los Angeles Times list of the 101 best restaurants and is listed in the Michelin Guide.