At Pao, Chef Paul Qui, a James Beard Award recipient, orchestrates a menu that seamlessly fuses his Filipino heritage with Spanish, Japanese, and French culinary traditions.
Diners indulge in crudo specialties, innovative rice dishes, and meats seared tableside over Japanese binchotan charcoal, adding an element of Faena’s theatrics to the Pao dining experience. Foodie website Eater praises Pao’s culinary offerings: “The East Side King fried chicken and unforgettable kinilaw—a Filipino-style ceviche preparation— represent Chef Qui’s ability to transform familiar concepts into revelatory culinary moments that linger in memory long after dinner concludes.” However, it’s not Qui alone cooking up nuanced recipes packed with flavor.
His kitchen is a collaboration of chefs from diverse backgrounds taking inspiration from one another. “We draw inspiration from our collective culinary roots from the asian flavors of the Philippines and Japan to the benchmark recipes of Spain and France,” said Chef de Cuisine Paulina Ornelas. The newest dishes to arise from the kitchen coalition include Kare Kare featuring tiger prawns, almond Kare Kare, snowpea laves, salsa macha, and pickled shallots; Tuna Momo with Bluefin tuna, wakamomo, sanbaizu, negi, crispy quinoa and umami garlic; and grilled duck showcasing farm-sourced Maple Leaf duck breast, roasted celeriac puree, wild mushrooms, and duck adobo. For beverage pairing, Pao’s restaurant manager Cristian Munarriz recommends pairing Kare Kare with our japanese koedo beer with a unique fragrant sweetness, the Momo with our rich and compex Dassai 24 Junmai Daijingo sake and the duck with our round Pinot Noir from Sonoma County 2022. He also suggests sampling Nine in the Afternoon, a rum and sake-based cocktail that blends honeydew cucumber cordial, which adds a refreshing, slightly vegetal base, St-Germain elderflower liqueur, a dash of lemon juice and fresh mint leaves. “The cocktail got its name from the Panic! at the Disco song, which was playing when we created the cocktail.”
