Yoav’s Yaps: How to fill your Beli

New Caledonian Blue Prawns

Got any foodie friends? If you do, you might have heard about the Letterboxd for restaurants: Beli. You’ve heard the story before: rate (insert X type of establishment here), see what your friends are rating, go from there. Unlike its peers, who’ve struggled with inconsistent rating metrics, Beli asks you to do your scoring in relation to every other restaurant you’ve ever been to.

I know what you’re thinking. How am I supposed to compare the sake bar I blacked out at last night to the classy Italian place I went to three years ago for my Grandma’s 90th birthday? The good news is, you don’t have to. Beli saves you from that fate by splitting restaurants up into five categories: restaurants, bars, bakeries, coffee shops, and dessert places. Even with those genres, this stuff is hard. It is really hard to compare a good carbonara to good sushi or steak or even a lasagna you had long enough ago to forget the color of, much less the flavor of.

Still, there is a lot of value in a system that forces you to choose. A good friend once explained to me that the reason Los Angeles’ culinary scene lags behind New York City’s cornucopia is a lack of direct competition. In New York City, he explained, everyone is always on top of everyone. The Chinese place down the street has to taste better than the falafel spot downstairs, or it goes extinct. In Los Angeles, the Korean place in Koreatown just has to beat out the other Korean places in the neighborhood. Sure, the Bibimbap might be the best in the area, but it didn’t have to fight an Indian Biryani or a Persian Tachin for its spot on the rice dish totem pole.

I don’t entirely buy my friend’s theory, but the awards speak for themselves. New York City has 72 Michelin-starred restaurants compared to a paltry 25 in our West Coast outpost. That 72 includes five 3-star restaurants, the guide’s highest distinction, while the 25 is all twos and ones. Needless to say, you’ll have to find hidden gems to fill your Beli on this side of the country.

My top pick on the app isn’t really hidden, but it’s a gem. The Venice-based Felix Trattoria has homemade pasta prepared right in front of your eyes. The cozy (and pricey) bistro has a delicious array of sauce and shape styles, but my personal favorite dish was the Gamberi I enjoyed as an appetizer. Built on massive blue prawns from New Caledonia, this pre-meal delicacy is a must-eat. A zingy bagnetto verde sauce draped over the jumbo crustaceans pools at the base and brings out a flavor I didn’t know prawns could hide. Their texture was almost lobster-like, and the seasoning was just the right balance of salt, pepper, and some unidentifiable third spice.

Before I get too caught up daydreaming about those Pacific island prawns, I’m calling it a wrap. My official recommendations from this week’s Yap are to download Beli and try Felix Trattoria. See you next week!