Kasama
Kasama ranks eighteenth because Flores and Kwon have made a historic argument for Filipino cuisine in fine dining while refusing to let the fine-dining ambitions swallow the soul of the food.
On Chicago Avenue in Ukrainian Village, Kasama operates in two registers separated only by the time of day. Morning brings the bakery and café — rice dishes, adobo, Filipino pastries, egg sandwiches on house-cured meat — casual and deeply felt. Evening brings the tasting menu: intimate lighting, old-school Filipino music, attentive service, and food by Tim Flores and Genie Kwon that moves through the Filipino culinary archive with the confidence of people who grew up with it and have also cooked at the highest professional levels.
The two-Michelin-star recognition was historic — the first Filipino restaurant in the world to earn it — but what matters more is that the restaurant earns that recognition on its own terms. The cooking does not explain itself or soften anything for comfort. It is Filipino food treated with exactly the seriousness it deserves.
- Evening tasting menu
- Morning adobo rice
- House-made Filipino pastries
