What does it mean to top a national magazine's “best of” list? Just ask Ari Taymor and Ashleigh Parsons, whose restaurant Alma last year was named Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurant in America. The accolade turned the low-key modernist spot in downtown L.A. into a bona fide international destination. 

Bon Appétit  restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton is at it again, having just released the 50 nominees for 2014's Best New Restaurants list. And Los Angeles has more nominees than any other city: L.A. restaurants make up 10 percent of the entire list.

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That's right, kids, with five nominees L.A. even beat out New York, which has four spots in the top 50. The five Los Angeles contenders are Trois Mec, Orsa & Winston, Q, Night Market Song and Grand Central Market. That last one is a bit of a stretch, seeing as it's neither new nor one restaurant, instead rather a collection of both new and old, but we see what he's getting at. And it is pretty awesome.  

Why so many L.A. restaurants on the list? We reached out to Knowlton, who had this to say: “Los Angeles is now the best example of what defines American dining in 2014 and what makes it so dynamic: quality of ingredients, diversity of cultures and a certain laid-back swagger.”

True dat. 

See also: The 20 Best Restaurants in L.A.

Next comes the top 10, and then one will be crowned the Best New Restaurant in America. Could L.A. take the title again? We'll find out next week, on August 19. 

(Editor's note: This post has been changed since initial publication, to add Knowlton's quote.)

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