A Rare Four-Star Honor
The New York Times has awarded its first-ever four-star restaurant review outside New York City to Albi, a Palestinian-themed eatery in Washington, D.C. The restaurant, which reopened in 2025 with heightened emphasis on its Palestinian identity, joins an exclusive group of five New York restaurants to earn the rating since the paper began reviews in 1963.
The review, written by Ligaya Mishan, praises Albi's "overt, unabashed pleasure" and describes chef Michael Rafidi as building "a wholly realized world." Rafidi, who grew up in Maryland with grandparents from Ramallah, has publicly dedicated awards to Palestine and criticized Israeli policies. His restaurant's website features a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet who left the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993 over the Oslo Accords.
Political Undertones in Food Criticism
Albi's wine list includes Lebanese varieties priced up to $650 but excludes Israeli labels. The New York Times previously identified Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, source of many listed wines, as a "Hezbollah bastion" and "one of Hezbollah's most fertile recruiting grounds." The U.S. government designates Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization, citing attacks including the 1983 Beirut bombings that killed 299 people, mostly Americans.
Mishan, in a 2026 interview with Columbia Journalism Review, stated her goal to "undermine the current order and redistribute power" through her work. The Times' four-star criteria, described by Mishan as requiring "love" and by colleague Tejal Rao as demanding "extraordinary, subversive or transcendent" qualities, have sparked debate among readers. Some questioned whether Albi's rating reflected political alignment rather than culinary merit alone.
The review follows a pattern of Times coverage emphasizing Palestinian cuisine through a political lens. In 2024, Mishan wrote about a Palestinian dessert while referencing "life under Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its blockade of Gaza." She concluded that "food may be the most effective form of propaganda." Critics note the paper has previously avoided mentioning Israeli connections to chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi, referring to him as "British" despite his Israeli heritage.
Albi's website includes a 3% "employee wellness fee" and notes select dishes adhere to halal standards. Rafidi, in a 2024 Instagram post, declared: "This award is dedicated to the people of Palestine," after winning a James Beard Foundation award. Readers pushed back against the review, with one commenting: "Is Albi an outstanding restaurant? Yes. Is it having a particular moment for reasons other than the food? Absolutely."