Passero
Italian restaurant · Arlington Heights ·
Creative Italian-American menu, craft cocktails, warm inviting atmosphere
Creative Italian-American menu, craft cocktails, warm inviting atmosphere
"A creative Chicago-Italian restaurant that relocated to a larger suburban space with a dining room that seats around 100 and an emphasis on house-made pizzas and pastas." - Naomi Waxman
"A modern-Italian restaurant relocating to a larger suburban space where diners can expect house-made pastas, hand-rolled pizzas, and traditional pizzelles as part of its expanded offering." - Naomi Waxman
"Led by first-generation Korean-American chef Jennifer Kim, this buzzy new Chicago restaurant (opened in May) fuses Korean and Italian flavors in thoughtful, personal ways rooted in her upbringing and training. Kim combines ingredients like doenjang with bagna cauda and kimchi with Calabrian chile, and her dishes translate that vocabulary into memorable plates: cavatelli tossed in nori butter, a lamb ragu served with chewy rice cakes, and a gochujang-and-tofu stew with Manila clams, mussels, and head-on shrimp that bridges soondubu and cacciucco. The menu is presented as a progression that maps Kim’s immigrant experience—mixing the cuisine of her heritage with Italian traditions she learned in Italy and in Chicago kitchens such as Nico Osteria—and has resonated with diners who find their own memories reflected in the food (one couple likened the cacciucco-soondubu hybrid to a family étouffée). Beyond specific dishes, Kim’s point is philosophical: cuisines are porous and evolving, and her cooking intentionally blurs borders to show how comfort food can emerge from cultural crosscurrents." - ByElyse Inamine
"Jennifer Kim's Korean-American story in restaurant form." - Abbe Baker
"A food and drink pairing at the recently opened Passerotto. If you’re going to order the #koreanfriedchicken at #Passerotto I recommend a glass of the #DomaineduPetitCoteau #friedchickenand #bubbles" - Aaron Hutcherson