Magna Kusina, a lively space filled with reds, blues, and yellows borrowed from the Philippines’ flag, is great for Filipino food that’s more chef-y than homestyle. Start with a few grilled skewers to share, then move on to larger format items paired with something starchy, like Mom’s Crab Fat Noodles—the black squid ink noodles are tossed with tomalley from the crab and are a treat that lets nothing go to waste. This restaurant is pretty casual, but you still need to make a reservation for a table.

Let your taste buds travel through some of the least represented cuisines in America with Magna Kusina (Philippines), Kabba’s Kitchen (Senegal/Gambia), Two Brothers Cafe and Grill (Bosnia), Wajan (Indonesia), Merendero Estela (Honduras). And that’s just a small taste of what is in store for your stomach in Portland. Bring your stretchy pants.

Despite chef Carlo Lamagna’s name being attached to new projects from Beaverton to Denver, nearly every time I’ve eaten or even just walked by our 2021 Restaurant of the Year, he’s been inside, checking each dish before it heads out to the cozy dining room. That attention to detail is part of the reason Magna Kusina isn’t just a great Filipino restaurant for Portland, it’s part of a larger conversation that includes groundbreaking restaurants from Seattle to Washington, D.C. Here, veggies submerged in coconut milk and chicken heart skewers arrive alongside sizzling skillets of sisig, the hand-chopped fatty pork bits marinated in soy and calamansi, mixed with tiny chiles and egg then simmered until the edges form a crust worthy of Detroit-style pizza. At its best, it’s a textural nirvana, all crunch and succulent fat, and a showcase for the rich, funky, sour flavors that define a cuisine now squarely in the spotlight.

When Carlo Lamagna opened Magna Kusina in August 2019, the last thing he expected was a forced closure as a result of the pandemic. But the chef took that unexpected time to renovate and devise a new menu, which reopened and debuted last July. The Filipino restaurant consists of a variety of skewers, traditional snacks like lumpia and sisig, and creative takes on Pinoy food like a tomahawk pork chop dressed with an adobo sauce and a take on ensaladang pipino, where the cucumber is grilled and married with Dungeness crab and a crab fat vinaigrette.

It's past time for a food city like Portland to have its own great Filipino restaurant, and with Carlo Lamagna's Magna, we've got one. To a first-gen Filipino who grew up eating this food at every meal, Lamagna's dishes are both intimately familiar and achingly cool. In his hands, even the humble tortang talong—a simple fried eggplant omelet—is coddled with as much care as an Escoffier-style omelet, served with a spray of quick-pickled watermelon radishes, onions and fresh tomatoes.

Magna: At its best, the signature sisig at our 2021 Restaurant of the Year is a textural nirvana, all crunch and succulent fat from hand-chopped bits of pork belly and soy-marinated face meat simmered in a skillet until the edges form a drool-worthy crust. It’s also a showcase for the rich, funky, sour flavors that define a cuisine that suddenly finds itself in the spotlight at dozens of important new restaurants across the country, a group that surely includes Magna.

Chef Carlo Lamagna hosted Twisted Filipino dinners, which laid the groundwork for his restaurant Magna Kusina, at pop-up incubator Feastly. Indonesian-Chinese restaurant Gado Gado, from chefs Thomas and Mariah Pisha-Duffly, was originally a brunch and late-night noodle pop-up. Chef Gregory Gourdet’s wood-fired Haitian restaurant Kann — one of the most sought-after reservations in town — debuted as Kann Winter Village, serving multicourse menus in outdoor yurts.

James Beard nominate Magna’s chef Carlo Lamagna has enhanced his childhood memories with refined presentation at Magna Kusina. The small restaurant has a dinner-party feel, where you can interact with the bartenders and chefs from practically every seat. To soak in the action, get a seat at the chef’s table and watch the pros stir fry giant pots of pancit miki-bahon (noodles mix), while simultaneously grilling scallops and octopus skewers on charcoal flames.

I don’t usually start these lists in any particular order, but in this case, Magna Kusina is first on the list because…SURPRISE, it was my first introduction to Filipino food in Portland. Yup, that’s right, Millette and I were one of the lucky last tables pre-pandemic. But aside from this restaurant having a personal story for me, I also love to recommend it for fun date nights and for catching up with friends because the energy there really is electric.

Magna has reopened for dine-in service, and chef Carlo Lamagna was named one of Food & Wine's best new chefs of 2021. Seattleites Ethan and Geri Leung have opened their breakout cart Baon Kainan, one of our favorite cart openings of 2021. Judith Stokes is serving ube pandesal alongside chicken and waffles at her brunch spot Derby Kenton, where Allie G’s Pastries has also made pop-up appearances with lumpia and chicken adobo pot pie.

The pandemic was, arguably, the best thing to happen to Magna Kusina, chef Carlo Lamagna’s Filipino restaurant which — at the onset of COVID-19 — pivoted to take out, fed frontline workers and then promptly shut down for six months. That break gave Lamagna a chance to focus his vision while also renovating the joint. There aren’t many James Beard nominated restaurants where the chef also hung the bathroom tile.

Although Portland restaurants celebrate a lot of food diversity, Magna Kusina is one of the few Filipino restaurants in the city. We'd say it's doing it right: Chef Carlos Lamagna was named one of Food and Wine's best new chefs in 2021 and a 2022 James Beard best chef finalist. The menu features classic dishes like lumpia eggrolls, but we love the street food-inspired charcoal-grilled skewers (tuhog) best.

Modern Filipino food shines at this restaurant from Chef Carlo Lamagna, another semifinalist for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific at the 2022 James Beard Awards. Magna Kusina’s menu is inspired by the cuisine of Lamagna’s childhood and infused with techniques he learned working at farm-to-table restaurants in Chicago. Address: 2525 SE Clinton St, Portland, OR 97202

Magna Kusina: A block off of Division on Clinton, this place started as a pop up and has quickly become one of the most popular places to eat in the neighborhood. It’s Filipino food, and it’s a mix of street food, small plates, noodle dishes, and bigger proteins. It’s a great introduction into Filipino food, if that’s something you’ve never tried before.

Tucked away in the heart of the Clinton neighborhood in SE Portland is where you'll find one of the best Filipino restaurants in Portland, Magna Kusina. Chef/Owner Carlo Lamagna opened it 2019 after a stint as as head chef at Clyde Common. Two years later, Food & Wine magazine named Lamagna one of the Best New Chefs of 2021.

Ginisang Alimasag is a dish available at Magna PDX. The dish includes whole Dungeness crab, crab fat sarsa, bok cho and Meyer lemons. (Courtesy: Magna PDX). Magna Kusina, located in Southeast Portland, is a Filipino restaurant run by chef Carlo Lamagna.

Chef Carlo Lamagna, well known for his creations at Portland restaurant favorite Clyde Common, is honoring his Filipino roots at the new Magna and introducing Portland to a new realm of flavors.

2525 SE Clinton St, Portland, OR 97202Phone: 503-395-8542 Visit Website. View this post on Instagram. A post shared by Magna Kusina and Kantina (@magnapdx)