SF Chef of Two-Michelin-Starred Restaurant Is Popping Up at Uchiko

Val Cantú, the executive chef of San Francisco’s Californios, the only two-Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant in the United States, is coming to Austin for a one-time pop-up at Japanese restaurant Uchiko. It’s part of the 4200 North Lamar Boulevard’s dinner series Ko-Lab, which will take place on Monday, August 19.

The seven-course dinner will feature a mixture of Japanese (from Uchiko chef de cuisine Edward Sura and the team) and Mexican (from Cantú) dishes. The dinner collaboration makes sense, since Cantú happens to be an alum of Uchiko’s parent restaurant Uchi, and grew up in Brownsville, Texas himself.

Cantú’s restaurant in the Bay Area, Californios, is a much-lauded dining experience focused on high-end Mexican fare served tasting menu-style. He started it off as a Bay Area pop-up and transformed it into the intimate physical restaurant space in the Mission neighborhood, which opened in 2015. It was awarded its first Michelin star that same year, and in the following two years, was upgraded to two stars.

The Cantú/Uchiko dinner, with drink pairings, is $185. There are limited reservations as it takes place in the restaurant’s private dining room, and it will begin at 6:30 p.m.

• All Coverage of Californios [ESF]
• All Coverage of Uchiko [EATX]