Accessible Delish: Jade Rabbit
To celebrate Thanksgiving Week, we trade recipes, divvy up cooking tasks, and indulge.
Thanks to community action, political courage, and the courts’ protection of SNAP funding, many of us can breathe a little easier. Last week, the Westside Food Bank and partners held their largest food drive of the year, transforming the West LA municipal building’s parking lot into a lively volunteer fair with booths, music, kids performing Mexican folk dances, a generous turkey raffle, and boxes of produce and other fixings for a holiday feast.
What better moment to spotlight Jade Rabbit, a newly opened restaurant in Santa Monica?
Owner Bryant Ng, a Chinese American born and raised in LA, comes from a family deeply rooted in Chinese American cooking. His father immigrated from Singapore; his mother hails from Hong Kong. Bryant’s grandparents opened Bali Hai in Culver City in the late ’50s, and his parents carried on the tradition with Wok Way in the San Fernando Valley. Over the past 23 years, Bryant has cooked at restaurants ranging from La Folie in San Francisco to Daniel in New York and served as the opening Chef de Cuisine at Pizzeria Mozza in 2006.
As third-generation restaurateurs, Bryant and his wife, Kim, first ran The Spice Table downtown before opening Cassia in Santa Monica a decade ago. “We love the neighborhood and the people here,” Bryant says. “It only felt natural that we’d open Jade Rabbit in Santa Monica.”
Though Bryant’s professional background is in fine dining, he and Kim strive to make Jade Rabbit not only welcoming but accessible. The fast-casual ordering style—akin to Chipotle and Panda Express—is intentional, offering a familiar, approachable experience for a wide audience.
Affordability is central to the concept. “Kim and I don’t come from generational wealth or privilege,” Bryant says. “We wanted a restaurant that serves tasty, wholesome food that feels democratic.” A meal at Jade Rabbit costs less than a cocktail or an Erewhon smoothie.
While he’s honored to continue the family business of feeding others, Bryant is quick to note that legacy is rarely linear. Local food traditions, personal palate preferences, nutritional science, and broader cultural currents all shape what lands on our plates.
As a Gen X Chinese American, Bryant recalls feeling caught between cultures, hearing versions of “You’re not Chinese enough, you’re not American enough.” Part of what drives him and Kim today is modeling pride in the “beautiful cross-pollinations of cultures” for younger Asian Americans. “It’s been amazing to see how Jade Rabbit’s food, service style, and even our aesthetics resonate with younger groups. Sometimes those of us who’ve been here for generations can be overlooked in the larger immigrant story.”
Navigating the tension between cultural continuity and the American melting pot inspired the menu at Jade Rabbit. There’s the unctuous Spicy Sichuan Chicken—“like popcorn chicken bites”—and the Spicy Minced Lamb, which Bryant recommends over rice or as a lamb sloppy joe paired with their scallion cheese toast (think Sizzler’s cheese toast, but with scallions). The tasty vegetable sides are more than simply for vegetarians. In Asian cuisine—xiaocai in Chinese or the banchan served with Korean barbecue—side dishes balance heavier hot dishes with cooler temperatures and complementary flavors and textures.
Many of the feats of symbiotic pairings arise from curiosity and openness—an eagerness to play, experiment, and be surprised. In a feat of alchemy, Jade Rabbit’s chocolate chip cookies are both crispy and chewy. They come by their incredible flavor through balancing nutty “almond, toffee’s sweet caramel-ness, the bittersweetness of the dark chocolate, and the sea salt.” Variations are truly the spice of life. Many cultures use similar ingredients. It’s the way individuals within a culture (or several) combine, highlight, and present dishes.”
For Bryant, the restaurant embodies the evolving nature of immigrant stories—proof that they don’t end with the first generation but continue growing and changing. And we and our taste buds are the better for it. As we tell children: Try it—you might like it. With Jade Rabbit’s lower price point and welcoming neighborhood vibe, adding a little more spice to our lives is now just down the street.
Jessica Cole