My party of 2 spent $342 at the Michelin-star pop-up in Coachella's VIP section, and a $21 burger was the highlight
Malik Peay
- Michelin-starred Camphor has a VIP pop-up restaurant at Coachella's Music & Arts Festival 2023.
- My friend and I paid $342 (before tax and tip) for the 12-course tasting menu and burgers.
Fine-dining spot Camphor hosted a pop-up at Coachella.
Coachella's festival grounds has a special guest this year: A makeshift pop-up of the Michelin-starred eatery Camphor.
Camphor is a Michelin-starred bistro located in Downtown Los Angeles helmed by chefs Max Boonthanakit and Lijo George. The restaurant received its first Michelin star in March 2022 and serves French-inspired food with nods to the pair's South and Southeast Asian backgrounds.
This year, the eatery is hosting a pop-up in the 12 Peaks VIP area at Coachella. It's open both weekends of the festival from Friday to Sunday.
The Camphor pop-up didn't really resemble the restaurant's main location.
The brick-and-mortar Camphor restaurant is lofty, full of gold and silver trimming and interior. Its Coachella pop-up features simple white wood to give a clean, sleek picnic-table feel.
The space has a bar, to-go burger window, and banquet-table seating. At the window, visitors can order quick meals like burgers, pomme frites (fries), or a kiwi-cardamom slush.
My friend and I reserved a table indoors for 6 p.m. on Friday.
The pop-up's biggest draws are probably its Le Burger menu and multi-course tasting menu.
We chose the 12-course family-style tasting menu so we could try as much food as possible and not get hungry later. We also added the famous burgers onto our meal later.
We started with an amuse bouche and a portion of bread and bordier butter.
In true LA fashion, I ended up seated across from two filmmakers who were telling me about their recent Oscar win in 2021. We could also hear the Afrobeats artist Burna Boy's melodic singing from our seats while we were waiting for our meal to begin.
Eventually, the courses kicked off with a side plate of cultured bread and butter and an amuse bouche, a single-bite worth of a hors d'œuvre. This one had green apple, cucumber, thyme, and galangal (a spice in the ginger family).
Next was a tasty gem salad.
After that, we received a gunpowder gem salad, made with a panko-crust-like topping of lentils and seeds and thick, fresh pieces of gem lettuce with a very light dressing.
The tossed salad was a great way to segue into the heartier dishes.
The next two starters were delicious takes on seafood classics.
Next was a filling portion of tuna tartare, hefty cubed-cuts of tuna placed below triangular crisps that made it simply clean and easy to eat seafood with our hands.
The tuna was tender and matched perfectly with the crisps.
Then we slurped down tangy oysters.
Oysters with amaretto were next. Amaretto, a nutty liqueur, elevated the oceanic aromas of the mollusca.
Before the mains, slices of bread and saucisson came our way.
At one point, we are passed slices of saucisson, dry-cured salami typically made of pork and other meats, and thick layers of bread.
Our favorite main courses were the scallop demi lume and the rib eye.
The scallops rested in a bed of truffle flecks and cream sauce. The decadent bivalves absorbed the colliding zesty ingredients to create a new flavor profile.
Served alongside the scallops were wide cuts of rib eye paired with a savory choron sauce. Choron is usually made with tomato paste and a Béarnaise sauce that customarily consists of egg yolk, white wine, butter, vinegar, and herbs.
The vegetables were impressive as well.
The next dish was the spinach vadouvan which appears as a very French plate to the naked eye.
The emerald-green, softened spinach was stacked on a plate and seasoned with a vadouvan spice blend — a French curry spice blend inspired by Indian flavors that usually includes cumin, turmeric, mustard seed, coriander, red pepper, and more.
The asparagus maltaise followed. The slim produce was covered in a citrusy marinade made with an assortment of juices from oranges and lemons and fluffed with eggs. It wasn't the star of the show but was solid enough to poke at all evening.
I don't love artichokes but the artichoke-gratin course changed my mind.
I am not a huge fan of artichoke but the artichoke gratin was so flavorful that I kept eating it.
The dish was filled with chunks of artichoke hearts cooked with bread crumbs, onion, garlic, and loads of cheese. The texture was so soft and each bite would ooze in my mouth.
Our meal concluded with ice cream and tarts.
The almond ice cream with lemon ice was so airy and delightful that it felt as if my palate was reset because of how cooling the cream was inside the silver cups.
Two small, circular chocolate tarts closed off the tasting menu with a memorable ganache and sweet raspberry filling.
Lastly, we ordered Camphor's famous Le Burgers.
VIP Coachella visitors can order Le Burgers at the Camphor pop-up window, and as guests of the dining section we were able to place an order for two from our table.
A single-patty cheeseburger costs $21. You can also add more patties for a higher price — the most you can have is four patties for $40.
The burgers are gourmet style, served with dry-aged beef, house-ground duck, and a special sauce made out of smoked beef fat. They're topped with caramelized onions.
The soft bun did an excellent job cradling the juicy burger. This was honestly one of the best burgers I've ever tasted.
Camphor's pop-up was such a special experience.
As someone who has been to Coachella seven years in a row, I loved how the tasting menu satisfied my appetite with fresh-tasting ingredients that gave me much-needed energy for the day.
My friend and I shared the tasting menu and added two burgers, bring our bill to $342 before tax and tip.
This is the most expensive restaurant bill I have ever received for a tasting menu. However, the pop-up's large portion sizes made this tasting menu feel way larger than others I've tried.
That said, I also like that a taste of Camphor's high-end cuisine can be more accessible since some of its burgers are under $25 — that's pretty affordable for Coachella, where a slice of pizza is over $10. But you do still need a VIP ticket to get to the pop-up, which can cost over $1,000.
After this experience, I'm excited to try Camphor's full-fledged restaurant back in Los Angeles.
Popular Right Now
Popular Keywords
Advertisement