{"id":479777,"date":"2026-09-29T22:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/479777\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T22:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T22:14:12","slug":"firstborn-lucia-make-yelps-list-of-best-new-restaurants-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/479777\/","title":{"rendered":"Firstborn, Lucia make Yelp&#8217;s list of Best New Restaurants of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s never a shortage of new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/los-angeles\/restaurants\/best-restaurants-in-los-angeles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">places to eat in Los Angeles<\/a>, which makes getting noticed a little like trying to get a reservation at the hottest\u00a0spot in town. But two L.A. newcomers have managed to stand out from the pack, landing on Yelp\u2019s list of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yelp.com\/article\/best-new-restaurants-of-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">25 Best New Restaurants of 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The local entries are Firstborn at No. 2 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/los-angeles\/restaurants\/lucia\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lucia<\/a> at No. 19, with both restaurants bringing very different approaches to the fine-dining game.<\/p>\n<p>RECOMMENDED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/los-angeles\/news\/two-los-angeles-hotels-join-the-ranks-of-michelin-key-recipients-for-2026-092326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Three Los Angeles hotels join the ranks of Michelin key recipients for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Firstborn, the Chinese-American stunner in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/los-angeles\/news\/l-a-s-chinatown-is-officially-one-of-the-coolest-neighborhoods-on-the-planet-091726\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chinatown<\/a>, is the highest-ranked L.A. restaurant on the list\u2014and the only Angeleno newcomer to crack Yelp\u2019s top 10. Chef-owner Anthony Wang draws on his Chinese-American heritage and European culinary training for a seasonal tasting menu that evolves regularly.<\/p>\n<p>The restaurant occupies an art-deco space and has already earned Michelin recognition, but the food is what makes Firstborn particularly intriguing. The $68 prix-fixe offers three choices per course, with possible dishes including caviar blinis, duck sausage, crispy Chongqing fried chicken, duck fat rice and melon shaved ice. Cocktails lean into a sci-fi-movie aesthetic, while the lighting keeps things decidedly romantic.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>View this post on Instagram<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Lucia brings a seen-and-be-seen vibe with its Caribbean dishes.\u00a0Owner Sam Jordan and two-time James Beard Award finalist Chef Cleophus \u201cOphus\u201d Hethington focus on the Caribbean diaspora with seasonal items like the Jamaican bun with coconut butter and sorrel-apricot jam, truffle and manchego saltfish croquetas and jerk lamb shank. <\/p>\n<p>And while Firstborn and\u00a0Lucia are the Southern California standouts, Yelp\u2019s list highlights broader dining trends. Steak is having a very obvious moment: searches for \u201csteak near me\u201d jumped 59-percent over the previous year, reaching an all-time high in August 2026. Indian food is also surging, with searches for Indian bowls up 135-percent and \u201cIndian food buffet near me\u201d up 459-percent.<\/p>\n<p>Yelp says the rankings are based on the volume and ratings of reviews for new full-service restaurants opened after January 1, 2025, with reviews collected through June 11, 2026. So while L.A. may have enough new restaurants to fill several lifetimes of dinner plans, Yelp\u2019s algorithm has narrowed the field to two worth putting on the radar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There&#8217;s never a shortage of new places to eat in Los Angeles, which makes getting noticed a little&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14878,48,52,51,47,50,49,21101,412],"class_list":["post-479777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-categories-restaurants","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news-eating","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}