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Chef-owner Marc Grika’s menu features Orange Chicken Parm.
Reese Amorosi
If you’re opening a restaurant in Philadelphia designed for zesty comfort food fare, Italian cuisine is the way to go.
Since 2025’s start, Bastia Fishtown has a Corsican-Sardinian menu. Emmett in Kensington blends Italian with Levantine and French flavorings. And, along South Philly’s East Passyunk restaurant row, DaVinci & Yu goes further, flavorfully, by mix-mastering two distinct comfort food cuisines – Italian and Asian – in one taste sensation.
Chef-owner Marc Grika’s menu features Orange Chicken Parm with its breast coated in chow mein noodle crust and Italian seasoning with an orange demi-glaze, and topped with parmigiano, mozzarella and ricotta (of course, there’s orange tomato sauce-laden Chitarra pasta). His Italian wedding soup — here, ramen — is perfect with shrimp dumplings and cheesesteak-worthy long hots. For Genoa Italians who love sweetbreads, Grika has bao buns filled with them, brined-and-breaded, paired with capers, onion and bacon. Want Caprese salad? There’s DaV&Y’s Caprese Fresh Roll with buratta, Thai (not Italian) basil, roasted tomatoes and rice paper wrap.
Vegetarians seeking Italio-Asian thrills can feast their tastebuds on hearty Teriyaki-marinated cauliflower steak over a Giardiniera Italian relish of pickled vegetables (which also tastes like Japanese vinegar) and black rice.
DaVinci & Yu eats like a comfort food restaurant with fun drinks like the vodka-and-butterfly-pea-tea-
“Flannel was comfort food,” says Grika with emphasis of the Southern-fried fare he previously served at 1819 East Passyunk. “DaVinci & Yu’s food, in my mind, should make you think, make you tingle, make you want more.”
Inspired by his 2024 trip to Rome where future-forward restaurants like Zuma featured Asian twists on Italian dishes (and vice-versa) such as marinated black cod with Taleggio cream sauce, Grika decided to flip the script on Flannel and do DaVinci & Yu. It was that simple: Grika’s mind was blown and his tastebuds turned every-which-way.
“That was a combination that I had never imagined nor think I would’ve ever imagined,” says Grika thinking back to Zuma’s black cod/Taleggio cheese meal. “It wasn’t even the best thing I ate… And, each course got better. I was embarrassed I had never thought of it all. My mind reeled thinking of other combinations.”
In consideration of Philly’s aged fascination with Italian cuisine, Grika is happy it still flourishes, andthat chefs here take risks with its traditions.
“Philly has long been a stronghold of Italian cuisine. With so many talented people here, we’ll keep its notoriety. But, chefs are also creative people who explore, stretching current culinary boundaries.”
Grika had been having “fusion dreams” before DaVinci & Yu with a restaurant concept teaming BBQ and pho. But tasting that black cod in Rome was the lightbulb that lead Grika to fast action, to create DaVinci & Yu, and to fashion his own new Ital-Asian menu item inspired by Zuma: black cod dumplings marinated in sake, mirin, soy and ginger and pan-seared in an ever-so-sweet Taleggio cheese crème.
“I’m still not marinating the cod long enough,” says Grika, critical of his own DaV&Y dumplings. “We added fish sauce to the mix, and guests think that they are “fishy” which, in Asian standards, is a compliment. Perhaps not here, though.”
This is a fascinating point—how does his interpretation of Italian cuisine and his approach to Asian flavors at DaVinci & Yu harmonize? What notes should one be looking for, beyond seeing how the traditions of orange chicken and chicken parm are knitted together, and that Grika is adding ginger to Sunday “gravy”?
It’s a no-brainer to recognize how both cuisines are built over noodles and rice. Grika, however, goes further.
“Both cuisines share the silk road. From Trentino-Alto Adige to Sicily, a lot of spices, herbs, seasonings are techniques used similarly,” he says. “From Korea to the Filipinas, from Tibet to Mongolia, there’s also much going on. Cuisines were once based on territory. Today, there are no boundaries.
“The Orange Chicken Parm is a favorite – take the wording: Orange Chicken + Chicken Parm = Orange Chicken Parm. I didn’t have to hurt my brain here. The mixing of two cuisines is synergistic, 1+1=3. Chicken Parm has always been to me a fat boys dream, just heavy. The orange really picks it up and lightens the load. But you’re still eating a good-sized dish. You should be looking for the orange. It’s a luscious little layer under the cheese, and then a little zest on top. The ginger in ”gravy” thing is something I only use with the duck meatballs. We’re still evolving.”
Marc Grika may still be “evolving” his flavors at DaVinci & Yu. But one week into its opening, we’d say that his menu is already there.
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