Camphor

At Camphor, light-as-a-cloud French cuisine feels more than apt within the restaurant’s airy white and blue dining room, where old-school touches and a featherweight culinary approach combine in a stunning blend of elegant, yet nontraditional, fine dining. Inside the former Nightshade space, Alain Ducasse veterans Max Boonthanakit and Lijo George offer what looks like the usual French bill of fare, with one major twist: far, far less butter and oil. Combined with a few South Asian-inspired dishes—the must-order gunpowder baby shrimp among them—Camphor’s refined, slightly tweaked menu of classics puts the Arts District bistro in a class of its own. This extends to dessert, where a phenomenal savarin with passionfruit glaze and kiwi glacée hold their own next to a hot cocoa-inspired take on chocolate soufflé.