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For modern Chinese steeped in personal history: Firstborn. | Wonho Frank Lee Your handy guide on where to eat from the editors at Eater LA Every Friday, our editors compile a trusty list of recommendations to answer the most pressing of questions: “Where should I eat?“ Here now are four places to check out this weekend in Los Angeles. And if you need some ideas on where to drink, here’s our list of the hottest places to get cocktails in town.
For modern Chinese steeped in personal history: Firstborn Wonho Frank Lee For modern Chinese steeped in personal history: Firstborn. Firstborn, a new Chinese American restaurant by chef Anthony Wang in Chinatown’s Mandarin Plaza, tells a personal history through the lens of Jing and Los Angeles cuisine. Eggplant softened in a citrusy marinade comes crowned with chunks of Mandarin orange.
A nearly florescent-pink pickled rhubarb mound rests over earthy whipped tofu. Homemade duck sausage gets wrapped in a deftly formed tofu skin and then bedded in onion brodo. Barbecue cabbage might be one of the meatiest dishes on the menu with no meat — twice-broiled for a satisfying char and steeped in a fragrant leek vinaigrette.
The pièce de résistance for most tables in the room is a behemoth plate of fried chongqing chicken — its formidable, crunchy exterior doused with chile oil and spices. The room is dim but not moody, sharply designed but not cold. In short, Chinatown has a new destination restaurant — save room for a nightcap after at the brilliant bar Steep across the plaza.
978 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012. — Nicole Adlman, cities managerFor lunch with views of Downtown LA: San Laurel Rebecca Roland For lunch with views of Downtown LA: San Laurel.
Hotel restaurants used to have a reputation for being stuffy and often average. But in recent years, what a hotel restaurant can be has begun to shift with the arrival of dining destinations like Jose Andres’s San Laurel at Conrad, a hotel in Downtown LA. While dinner may be the first thing that comes to mind when headed to San Laurel, the restaurant also offers a sneakily excellent lunch that comes with daytime views of the city.
Start with some scallops in a zingy green seed tomatillo vinaigrette or ripe heirloom tomatoes dolloped with roasted piquillo crème fraîche. For a main, try a grilled lubina, which is a European seabass, or the crispy pollo frito that’s complemented by cucumber sunomono. Because it is a hotel lunch, you might as well toss in a glass of wine (if ordering the pollo frito, opt for white), and save room for dessert.
If you’d rather the restaurant just build a menu for you, go for the $48 prix fixe that comes with scallops, oysters, hiramasa crudo, and heirloom potatoes, as well as a choice of grilled lubina, pollo frito, or octopus. 100 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
— Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/SouthwestFor the best gukbap in LA: Jinsol Gukbap Matthew Kang For the best gukbap in LA: Jinsol Gukbap. While there are plenty of ways to eat through Koreatown, taking a tour of the neighborhood through its soups may be one of the most delicious strategies. There are plenty of essential stops on this proverbial tour, like Hangari Kalguksu, Han Bat Sul Lung Tang, Surawon, and, of course, Jinsol Gukbap.
The gukbap specialist serves steaming bowls of rich porky soup with a broth so milky that it's nearly opaque. Tender slices of pork belly swim in the broth, fluttering around each spoonful. The soup comes mostly unsalted, allowing one to season it to taste with salt, green onions, and gochugaru to taste.
4031 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90020. — Rebecca Roland, editor, Eater Southern California/SouthwestFor a snacky yakitori night in the South Bay: Torikizoku Matthew Kang For a snacky yakitori night in the South Bay: Torikizoku.
Arrive a little too far past the opening at the near-hidden Torikizoku, tucked between a Chili’s and a Verizon cell phone store on busy Hawthorne Boulevard across from Del Amo, and there will inevitably be a wait. That’s because many locals have caught on to the Japanese yakitori chain, which numbers over 600 in its home country and chose Torrance as its first U.S.
outlet. The cave-like dining room offers little in the way of natural light; enter and see its open kitchen occupying much of the main space and a double-sized grill up front to beckon diners in. Grilled bites are mostly excellent and reasonably priced at $4 a skewer for most of the chicken pieces.
The chicken hearts were split and therefore slightly underwhelming but the tsukune and thigh skewers soared. While I’m not sure it surpasses South Bay players Torihei, Koshiji, and Torimatsu, as those shops grill skewers over charcoal to impart a very necessary smoky flavor, Torikizoku has its own sleek appeal; a boisterous dining room; and a wider menu of salads, izakaya bites, and even yuzu shio ramen. 21839 Hawthorne Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90503.
— Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest.
