firstborn
Asian restaurant · Chinatown ·
Creative Chinese-American with mapo tartare, duck sausage, fried chicken
Creative Chinese-American with mapo tartare, duck sausage, fried chicken
"I love that this cool Los Angeles spot has snack-focused bar menus and fantastic cocktails, a clear sign of intentional, bar-specific dining." - Eater Staff
"Firstborn’s Thanksgiving menu can be ordered by OpenTable and picked up anytime between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on November 25 and 26. The package includes a whole Heritage chicken breast packed with chicken, Chinese sausage, shitake mushroom, ginger, chestnut, and black truffle with a truffle jus gras. Also on the menu: sliced pork belly, brown butter-roasted honeynut squash, soy-braised eggplant casserole, and more. Dinner is $290 and an add-on green cardamom apple tart is available. Kenzo Han even developed a fall Manhattan cocktail that serves two for $29." - Eater Staff
"Set in the former Pok Pok space in Chinatown’s Mandarin Plaza, this modern Chinese American restaurant from chef Anthony Wang channels his parents’ history in Beijing, summer trips across China, and a childhood in Georgia and Miami into dishes like chile-flecked Chongqing fried chicken with a sturdy crust that chile oil clings to—flavorful but not all that spicy—and barbecue cabbage cooked twice (first whole to cook it through, then again to achieve a deeply charred top), dressed with soy sauce and black vinegar in a shallow pool of leek vinaigrette. Ripe heirloom tomatoes make the most of Los Angeles’s produce, dotted with fig leaves and nectarines, with semi-transparent blocks of jasmine jelly adding a light floral burst, while a cold mapo tartare nods to Wang’s line-cook days in Boston. Bar director Kenzo Han (an alum of Steep After Dark) puts a twist on classics with tea-infused cocktails, from a Negroni with baijiu and pu’erh tea to an osmanthus and fermented rice sour; a smaller bar-only menu features a miniature version of the barbecue cabbage, a duck fat scallion pancake, and “just a little” fried chicken with two pieces for $12 (the full menu is also available). Best for a photogenic group dinner in a changing Chinatown or a solo bar stop for fried chicken and a martini, the restaurant reflects a younger generation keeping the neighborhood’s history alive while bringing it into the future, and its name nods to Wang being the first in his family born in the U.S." - Rebecca Roland
"At this Chinatown restaurant, limited-time Mid-Autumn Festival specials include a chestnut lotus seed tart ($80) — a mooncake–Mont-Blanc hybrid from pastry chef Jaime Craten with a pâte sablée crust and butter cake sponge, filled with lotus seed and roasted chestnut paste and topped with whipped mascarpone — available for pre-order and pickup through October 2. A Mid-Autumn martini with green Szechuan peppercorn is also available to pre-order, a $32 ready-to-pour cocktail that serves two. The restaurant now offers its fried Chongqing chicken for takeout, paired with duck fat rice, preserved cucumbers, and daikon radish; the $75 set includes eight to 10 pieces and is designed to feed three to four people." - Rebecca Roland
"Summer is in full swing at this Chinatown restaurant, with a menu rife with warm‑weather produce like juicy tomatoes, nectarines, and peaches. Going down the menu during dinner, I made the most of the season with heirloom tomatoes with nectarine and jasmine, steamed egg topped with tomato and nori, and a corn congee dotted with tender bits of pork belly. While year‑round dishes like the Chongqing chicken and barbecue cabbage were still absolute hits, the summer dishes were unparalleled. Instead of obscuring the produce, Wang made it the star, building flavors around the corn kernels in the congee and those ripe nectarines. Days later, I still wish I had a pot of corn congee in my fridge, or fresh tomatoes to top my steamed eggs. If headed over for dinner, consider sitting at the bar to watch bar manager Kenzo Han work their magic; the dining room is gorgeous, but grabbing a seat at the mortadella‑colored stone counter, sipping a savory martini between bites of chile‑inflected fried chicken, might be the best way to do dinner here." - Eater Staff
