Wenwen is a culmination of the Asian American renaissance that has birthed a new generation of creative and cool and unabashedly inauthentic Asian American restaurants in New York City since the late 2010s. The second restaurant of Eric Sze, Wenwen opened up in 2022 as the more grown up version of what began on Saint Marks with 886. They even say on their site, it’s a restaurant for your 30s, after you’ve grown out of the ragers of your 20s, and truly, what better way to sum up Brooklyn compared to lower Manhattan?

For those who have raged at 886, a lot of the menu might look familiar. It’s a similar deal, with flamboyant interpretations of Taiwanese classics, but skews a bit more sit down family style restaurant than side walk stir fry night market vibes. Plenty of fan favorite wok fired dishes and noodles to accompany showstopping contemporary banquet style mains from whole fish stuffed with fish paste to the famed BDSM fried chicken. It’s no surprise Wenwen took Brooklyn by storm. Not to mention many fun Taiwanese inspired drinks. On any given day, the warm space is filled with diners surrounding filled table tops with very little negative space. It’s a good time, the food is indulgent, the ambiance is grown up, and it is a wonderful homage to modern Taipei.