re: Shaya picture thread

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Food: Excellent to superior. Chef Alon Shaya honors the food of his native Israel with concise, heartfelt interpretations that deliver the sensation of previously unimagined perfection. If you dismiss what this chef is accomplishing on the grounds that you've seen it all before, you're missing out on some of the most poignantly personal cooking New Orleans currently has to offer.

Ambiance: Very good to excellent. Shaya is elegant in a comfortable, sensible way. At a time when so many new restaurants strive to one-up the next guy with a new extreme of studied dishevelment, there's something radical about a place that appears to have been designed for the explicit purpose of appealing to customers in their 40s.

Service: Excellent to superior. Shaya's staff is quietly efficient. It's sophisticated service inspired by intelligent but simple food.

Best bets: watermelon and Bulgarian feta ($5); snow peas ($5); hummus with soft-cooked egg ($10); hummus with lamb ragu ($14); avocado toast with smoked white fish ($14); crispy cheese with chanterelle ($20); Persian rice ($10); roasted chicken ($24); labneh cheesecake ($9)

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