Flavors satisfy at Firstborn, a Chinese American restaurant
The much-heralded but short-lived Pok Pok restaurant in Chinatown’s Mandarin Plaza closed in 2017, and the space remained empty until March 2025, when Chef Anthony Wang moved in and opened Firstborn, his personal approach to modern Chinese American cuisine. It was worth the wait.
THE SMALL BAR turns out delicious and unusual cocktails.
Chef Wang’s culinary pedigree includes stints cooking in some of the most innovative kitchens in Los Angeles, including Michael Voltaggio’s ink., Eric Boost’s Auburn, and Jordan Kahn’s Destroyer. Although those experiences were influential, the glue that makes Firstborn successful is more intimate.
FIRSTBORN’S chic and airy dining room.
Memories of Chef Wang’s family life infuse every aspect of the restaurant, including its name, which is homage to the fact that he was the first child in his family to be born in America. Wang’s father was in the U.S. military, so the family moved around a lot. His time in Atlanta eating Southern food finds its way onto Firstborn’s menu with peach-glazed pork ribs and fried chicken. He watched his immigrant mother adapt her native Chinese cuisine to utilize locally available ingredients, which inspired such Firstborn dishes as Wagyu beef tongue slathered with a tingling Szechuan sauce. Before opening his restaurant, Chef Wang visited different regions in China to learn techniques and seasonings of his ancestral home. He then put a modern spin on them.
Firstborn’s décor is airy and serene, although the room gets noisy with chatter when full. Along one wall, large industrial windows overlook the busy street. Pale wood tables and chairs with jade-hued cushions match the jade tiles on an accent wall and lining the bar. Another wall has a calming pale pink and white marble effect. A large, graceful arch divides the dining room from the bar, visually extending the space. My husband and I ate on the string-lit patio. Across the plaza, patrons sipped tea from Steep teahouse at scattered tables. On this night a live jazz band entertained us, courtesy of the plaza.
PERFECT COCKTAILS: white Negroni (back) and tequila penicillin.
As always, we started with cocktails. Szechuan peppercorns, lamb fat, and fermented rice were a few of the many intriguing ingredients on the drinks list. My white Negroni was delicious, light, and fragrant from the Vietnamese Song Cai gin, distilled with flowers such as dragon claw and ylang-ylang. My husband loved his “tequila penicillin,” a mezcal-based cocktail with ginger, mellowed with remarkably smooth Suerte Blanco tequila.
Happily sipping away, we perused the food menu, from Salanova lettuce with wood ear mushrooms, turnips, horseradish, and black vinegar to duck breast with rose and prunes. One word of advice: don’t skip on the tomatoes. The simply named heirloom tomatoes starter was revelatory: juicy chunks of ripe tomatoes and succulent nectarine cubes nestled in a jasmine tea-scented gelée studded with fig leaves. Refreshing, bright, and luscious, we wished we had gotten an extra to-go carton of this vibrant dish.
TOMATO STARTER with nectarines, jasmine tea gelée, and fig leaves.
Photo by Ron De Angelis
Ethereal clouds of tofu dumplings swam in an umami-rich shiitake mushroom broth in our next dish. Like ricotta gnudi or quenelles, the pillowy oval dumplings had a silky texture and light flavor. Artichoke pieces enhanced the broth, and finely chopped raw haricots verts added a needed vegetal crunch.
FRIED CHICKEN in chili crisp broth.
Photo by Ron De Angelis
Half a dozen pieces of crispy-skinned fried chicken were piled atop a spicy chili crisp sauce. The chicken was moist and flavorful, with a kiss of heat. The breading was too crusty for me, but it was my husband’s favorite part. We also ordered the “BBQ” cabbage, a vegetarian version of twice-cooked pork. Layers of velvety cabbage leaves interspersed with braised leeks made for a slightly smokey, deeply satisfying plate in this deeply satisfying restaurant.
Firstborn, 978 N. Broadway (in Mandarin Plaza), 213-537-0142, firstborn.la. Open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday.
Category: Entertainment
