Chef Andrew Musico is bringing Filipino fine dining to Houston with the city's first Filipino-inspired tasting menu restaurant called Chikahan, opening Jan. 8.

Meet the chef

Musico's background in cooking included working at fine dining restaurants such as the now-closed Oxheart in Houston, which served vegetable-centric New American cuisine in an industrial setting.

Eventually, Musico said he wanted to take the next steps in his cooking career with a tasting menu. He said he came up with different concepts, including a casual restaurant called The Fattest Cow or a food truck. However, Musico said he landed on fine dining as the concept when the opportunity to build one presented itself.
Owner Andrew Musico opened Chikahan in the hopes of educating Houstonians of Filipino cuisine (Courtesy of Andrew Musico)
Owner Andrew Musico opened Chikahan in the hopes of educating Houstonians about Filipino cuisine. (Courtesy of Andrew Musico)
Musico said Chikahan is dedicated to reimagining traditional Filipino flavors through a modern and elevated lens.

"When you think fine dining, you think of other types of cuisines like French and Italian," Musico said. "When you ask about what makes a French fine dining a fine dining restaurant ... it's quality ingredients, it's your time and technique. So for me, there's a dish, or even the conceptualization of combining another country's techniques, with Filipino food."


On the menu

With a focus on seasonal and local ingredients, and innovative techniques, Chikahan offers a refined yet heartfelt dining experience that celebrates the rich heritage and diverse culinary traditions of the Philippines. Musico said their mission is to tell stories through food, fostering connections and conversations at every table through their seven-course tasting menu.

One of the food courses is a reimagining of tortang talong, also known as a Filipino eggplant omelette. Tortang talong is typically a dish eaten for breakfast, where a whole eggplant is smashed flatly, dipped in an egg mixture and pan-grilled. Musico said they twisted the idea of tortang talong by making it a single-bite dish where it's an egg souffle baked into a square with eggplant fillings, and topped off with fermented rice and house-made spicy banana ketchup.

"We still use a lot of traditional Filipino methods to get there," Musico said. "I've poured over that one for a long time, and it ends up being a lot of people's favorites. I had several people say, 'I don't actually like eggplant, but I love that dish.'"


Another dish Musico said they mixed cuisines with is sinigang, a sour Filipino soup. Musico said Filipinos would often take their rice and pour some of the soup into the rice and eat it that way. This led him to come up with the idea of taking the two and making a sinigang risotto, served with a seared scallop.

More details

Musico said the name Chikahan is a Filipino term meaning chit-chat, gossip or small talk, something he believes is an important part of going to restaurants.

"Whenever you go to a restaurant, that's kind of what you do right?" Musico said. "It's a place to kind of talk and hang out, catch up with conversation and make connections."


Musico said his goal with Chikahan is to use the space to educate people on what Filipino cuisine can be, especially as more Filipino restaurants are opening nationally and getting more attention, such as Kasama, America's only Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant in Chicago.

"A lot of other cities have a much stronger Filipino foothold as far as restaurants go already," Musico said. "We've had a couple of people who are starting to pave that way, and I think there's a lot of Filipino people who are about to open up as well. I kind of want to be on that forefront of letting people know what Filipino food can be about."