Passerotto - Jennifer Kim, 'Fun Korean Fare' - Andersonville

A friend and I had a really nice dinner at this relatively new spot in Andersonville from Snaggletooth and One Off Hospitality alum Jennifer Kim. We tried a bunch of dishes, which ranged from good to excellent . . .


Yellowfin Tuna | snow peas, hijiki, Thai chili
Simple, clean and tasty.


Bay Scallops | homemade xo, soy onion puree, citron
I really enjoyed the soy onion puree, which accentuated the briny scallops very well.


Summer Tempura | fresh buckwheat noodles, farm & foraged vegetables
Sorry for the lousy shot. It was hard to hold still, as I just wanted to start eating this. It was a refreshing and delicious take on udon, plated skillfully so that many of the tempura elements managed to stay perfectly crispy until we ate them.


Hwe Dup Bap | farro, seasonal raw fish, pickled ginger
This dish was actually farro, not rice and it was quite tasty. It kind of reminded me of a Japanese-style chirashi bowl.


Kalbi (front/center) | glazed short ribs, Mama Kim's kimchi
Cacciucco Soondubu (10 o'clock) | clams, mussels, silken tofu, kimchi broth
2 dishes are pictured here, each of which is listed on the menu as being for 2 people. The highlight (of the entire meal) for me was the Kalbi, which was an impossibly unctuous short rib, perfectly charred, parted out into bite-sized pieces and placed meticulously on top of 3 sections of bone. The meat was cooked to a texture that left it satisfyingly chewy but still tender enough to eat pleasurably. And those sections of bone were nice and meaty, and ready for gnawing. A modest assortment of banchan -- none particularly astonishing -- is served with these 'for two' dishes, though, the Mama Kim's kimchi on the plate with the rib itself was fantastic.

The other dish in the shot is the Cacciucco Soondubu. I liked this one a lot, too. The broth was rich and flavorful, and reminded me more of a bisque than a traditional soondubu. The clams, mussels and head-on shrimp were all fresh and tasty but the shrimp were a wee bit mushy in texture, maybe slightly overcooked? The bowl contained just a few scant cubes of delicate tofu. In any case these 2 dishes (along with a lamb tartare that had been 86'd) would definitely have me returning sooner than later.

Beverage options are limited but manage to nicely cover just about every category . . . reds, rosés, whites, sparklings, draft and packaged beer, digestifs and a trio of cocktails. Service was friendly, efficient and knowledgeable.

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5420 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60640
(708) 607-2102

I had many of the dishes Ronnie described above and can second his comments: the cooking here is unusually refined for its brief lifespan--the best is surely to come. But this has to be one of the worst designed restaurant spaces in the city right now.

chezbrad wrote:But this has to be one of the worst designed restaurant spaces in the city right now.

This space used to be the In Fine Spirits Wine/Cocktail Bar, then Premise and, most recently, The Brixton. I remember the first two of those fairly well and this space seems to have changed a lot since those concepts occupied it. Maybe it's mostly unchanged from The Brixton; I couldn't say.

In any case, it is a strange lay-out, with what seems to be an excessive amount unused space, especially near the front door. There's also a unusually long communal high-top that runs along the northern wall of the space. At first it seems like a counter but there's seating on both sides of it. We declined to sit there and instead, requested a table (we had a reservation). No one loves a bar stool more than I do, but sometimes you just want your feet on the floor! We didn't think the space was unattractive, uncomfortable or loud, though. It just felt like they could have had 25% more seating if they wanted to.

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It's not just the use of space, which I entirely agree is underutilized, but the overall aesthetic, which is wanting. I don't want to rag on a first-time restaurateur who obviously had to launch on a shoestring budget, but her cooking deserves a better room than the haphazard faux-"70s grotto" look they ended up with.

Still: both the crudos and pastas are promising. Comparisons to Parachute are inevitable but warranted: she has the potential here to cook at a high level.

chezbrad wrote:It's not just the use of space, which I entirely agree is underutilized, but the overall aesthetic, which is wanting. I don't want to rag on a first-time restaurateur who obviously had to launch on a shoestring budget, but her cooking deserves a better room than the haphazard faux-"70s grotto" look they ended up with.

Still: both the crudos and pastas are promising. Comparisons to Parachute are inevitable but warranted: she has the potential here to cook at a high level.

The space is pretty stark. I'm guessing budgetary considerations played into that. But we were there on a nice, sunny evening and the doors facing Clark Street were open, so it was very much a pleasant dining environment.

Were you ever at The Brixton? Looking at some old google pics, the space doesn't appear to have changed very much since then. Fwiw, the grotto elements were there when it was The Brixton but not when it was Premise, so they must have been "inherited" from The Brixton.

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I found this place odd, particularly the weird use or underuse of the space. The food was good. Nothing we had we didn't think was outstanding but the food just seemed neither here nor there. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but this seems like the kind of place that will have a hard time holding onto an audience.

j0emv wrote:I couldn't quite put my finger on it but this seems like the kind of place that will have a hard time holding onto an audience.

Given how many different concepts have occupied that space over the past few years, I think your feeling is entirely reasonable. For me, not even the call of that glorious Kalbi, which I loved, has inspired a second visit. Otoh, if someone asked me for dining suggestions in the area, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this.

Will it develop a following with people who live nearby? Is it good enough to become a destination for those who don't? The answers to those questions will become clear enough over time.

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ronnie_suburban wrote:Will it develop a following with people who live nearby? Is it good enough to become a destination for those who don't? The answers to those questions will become clear enough over time.

As someone who lives within walking distance, we haven't been yet. I scanned the menu when looking for a place for dinner and felt the price point was a tough high. It's on my list though as it looks good.

The GP wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:Will it develop a following with people who live nearby? Is it good enough to become a destination for those who don't? The answers to those questions will become clear enough over time.

As someone who lives within walking distance, we haven't been yet. I scanned the menu when looking for a place for dinner and felt the price point was a tough high. It's on my list though as it looks good.

That makes perfect sense. To me, this feels more like a twice-a-year restaurant than a twice-a-month restaurant.

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I've been once, and overall enjoyed but didn't love the food. As for the space, I didn't find anything particularly odd about it at all. I actually thought they did a nice job with the design, and I appreciate that they didn't try to pack tables in just because they can. If they ever get huge crowds (questionable in Andersonville given the cuisine), they can address the space. I also like the open feeling and natural light coming in the front, particularly in the summer.

As for the food, well, drinks first, I really loved the Coalmine's Canary - gin, malort, Aveze, grapefruit and bergamot, one of the more unique and delicious cocktails I've tasted in quite a while (so good I drank most of it before I took the picture):





Here's the yellowfin tuna Ronnie talked about. Yes, really good:





But the best thing I tried was the lamb tartare. The lamb flavor was so prominent and wonderful, and the match of savory with the slight sweetness of the Asian pear was perfect. I can't recall having had a more enjoyable tartare.





I was a little less enthused with the pajeon. One of my favorite things about pajeon is the texture and I thought that was missing in this version, and the toppings made the pancake slightly too wet. The flavor was decent though. In any event, it's not even on their current online menu so maybe they didn't love it either.





Ddukbokki lamb ragu was tasty, though I shared it and it was such a small portion that I hardly recall much about it.





Not pictured here is the hwe dup bap that Ronnie mentioned above. I only had a few tastes but I thought it was really good.

I enjoyed the food at Passerotto but with the possible exception of the incredible lamb tartare (and my cocktail), but based upon my one visit, I'm a bigger fan of Parachute's unique twist on Korean food. And with limited dollars and time, I'm not sure how often I'll find myself at Passerotto, but I'm fairly certain I'll return and check out more of the menu.

I've been here twice and thoroughly enjoyed both of my visits. The service was excellent and virtually every course was delicious. They do a great job with raw fish preps and can somehow make a sunchoke seem special. The rice cakes with lamb ragu are a highlight and the short rib course is a ten out of ten. I did have a butternut squash course that was pretty run of the mill but it might be because I'm not a big fan of butternut squash.

I feel a bit derelict in posting here as my last meal was about two months ago. I'm going to head back soon because this got me thinking about that short rib. I also can't believe that it's been almost a year since anyone has mentioned this place.

I made another trip to Passerotto this week and had another absolutely delightful evening. Here's a link to the current menu:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... 032019.pdf

Four of us ordered the entire menu omitting only the large format fried Branzino (which does not show on the linked menu) and dessert. Every course was excellent with the exception of the scallops, which I felt were a bit overseasoned.

I find it very interesting that Jeong gets so much love while this place seems to fly under the radar. My short rib at Jeong was barely edible and the short rib at Passerotto has been absolutely perfect on all three of my visits. My beet dish at Jeong was underwhelming at best and the beets I had Tuesday at Passerotto were top notch (and I don't care for beets). I prefer the rice cake Bolognese at Passerotto to the rice cake dish I had at Jeong but I will admit that I am in the minority as my two dining companions preferred Jeong. While I admit that the room is not perfect, the rest of my dining experience (except that small scallop problem) pretty much was.

I don't mean to give the impression that I didn't like Jeong, as my meal there was pretty good. The room is quite a bit nicer than Passerotto, if that is of importance. Since I spend most of my dining out time in relatively inexpensive ethnic restaurants, I guess it's less important to me. Passerotto also has a very reasonable $15 corkage policy which they will waive if you buy wine from them.

I guess what I am saying is that I don't quite get the lack of enthusiasm for Passerotto.

Had a pretty good meal at Passerotto a few weeks back. Really enjoyed the small plates and noodles, with their lamb dduboki being one of the best things I ate this year.

But here's my nitpick: the large format short ribs and the accompanied banchan wasnt all that special. At that price point, I'd expect an elevated version of this dish and it wasn't that. I'm sure there are higher quality ingredients in this preparation, but it was on par w galbi dishes served at Korean restaurants.

All that said, it was a good meal and I would go back and recommend to others

WhyBeeSea wrote:
But here's my nitpick: the large format short ribs and the accompanied banchan wasnt all that special. At that price point, I'd expect an elevated version of this dish and it wasn't that. I'm sure there are higher quality ingredients in this preparation, but it was on par w galbi dishes served at Korean restaurants.

Please let me know which Korean restaurants serve galbi on par with the dish at Passerotto. I end up cooking it myself at most places I go to and my cooking certainly doesn't compare. I agree that the banchan are not necessarily special but the short rib itself makes me cry a little.

deesher wrote:

WhyBeeSea wrote:
But here's my nitpick: the large format short ribs and the accompanied banchan wasnt all that special. At that price point, I'd expect an elevated version of this dish and it wasn't that. I'm sure there are higher quality ingredients in this preparation, but it was on par w galbi dishes served at Korean restaurants.

Please let me know which Korean restaurants serve galbi on par with the dish at Passerotto. I end up cooking it myself at most places I go to and my cooking certainly doesn't compare. I agree that the banchan are not necessarily special but the short rib itself makes me cry a little.

As I posted at the top, I've never had a short rib at at any Korean place in town that rivaled Passerotto's. It was the most memorable highlight of my meal there. If there are any others in town that even come close, I'd love to know about them.

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Sadly Chicago doesn't have many joints that serve galbi jjim but if you ever see it on a menu, I recommend that you try it.
Had a great version of it at her name is han in NYC recently, but that's not all that useful for most.

It's a wonderful dish and my favorite part is the sweet & salty braising liquid that you can sop over rice. I've had this countless times in my life and for me, I prefer that to what Passerotto served.

Definitely want to reiterate that this was a minor nitpick and think this place was very good!