The first time I visited Toyo Eatery, a fine-dining restaurant in Makati, one of the 16 cities that make up Metro Manila, the restaurant had just been named one of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. I had heard that chef Jordy Navarra was serving up innovative takes on traditional Filipino dishes, and it didn't take long for him to live up to that reputation and transport me back to his childhood in Manila.
For the salad course, Navarra came up with a dish that layered 18 fresh produce varieties, including peanuts, ginger, tomatoes and green beans, on top of dried eggplant “ashes” meant to mimic soil. These are the same ingredients that I, and every Filipino kid, sang about in “Bahay Kubo,” a folk song that means “house on stilts” in Tagalog and describes a humble home surrounded by fertile gardens where anything can grow. I nearly asked our server to sing a few lines with me. But while this reference point is familiar to every Filipino, the dish itself was entirely new. A mosaic of textures created by unexpected ingredient combinations, the Bahay Kubo salad has become Navarra’s trademark.
From left: Hapag chefs Thirdy Dolatre (left) and John Kevin Navoa present a creative mix of chicharrones, silog and lumpia at Hapag.
Edmar Pineda
That was in 2018. “There really wasn’t anyone doing what we were doing here in Manila,” Navarra said of the dining scene six years ago. A lot has changed since then, both at Toyo Eatery and in the Philippine capital. Though the bahay kubo salad is no longer on offer, another signature dish on Navarra’s ever-evolving menu is sabaw at mais (soup and corn). It combines a rich, plant-based broth made mostly from vegetable scraps, subtly sweet corn from Quezon province, and asin tultul, a rare rock salt flavored with coconut milk from Guimaras Island. This is Navarra’s more focused vision for Toyo Eatery: dishes that “showcase the different farmers we work with and showcase the flavor profiles of the Philippine terroir.”
For the last decade or so, I've made it a personal goal for me to return to the Philippines at least once a year. Now that I live in the United States, a big part of these trips is to reconnect with my homeland and its expanding culinary scene. What always strikes me every time I return to the Philippines is the boldness of Filipino cuisine. You can tell if a dish is salty, sour, or sweet with just one bite.
One place that caught my attention was Metiz, an industrial-chic restaurant located less than 100 feet from Toyo Eatery. Before opening in fall 2019, French-Filipino chef Stephane Duesme cooked in restaurants around the world, including in Colombia and New York. Duesme says he and his team cook for “Pinoys,” as Filipinos call themselves, and they filter that global perspective through a uniquely Filipino lens. “We try to understand what Filipinos find delicious,” he said.
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At Toyo, traditional Filipino cuisine is reinvented.
Edmar Pineda
One thing's for sure: We love rice, and we eat it at every meal, so I could eat any bowl of Duhesme's rice cooked in alije (crab fat). To further enhance the salty flavor of the crab, Duhesme emulsifies the dish with smoked egg yolk, giving it a creamy, umami taste. “Rice is so versatile, so I like to experiment with different things,” Duhesme adds. “But I always stick to comforting dishes.”
I choose to eat Filipino food because I want to get a taste of my culture, but what's great about these new restaurants and chefs is that they're finding new ways to prepare Filipino food while still allowing many of the flavors to remain familiar.
On another trip, we tried Thirdy Dolatre and John Kevin Naboa's Hapag, which recently relocated from its original location in Quezon City to a larger spot in Makati's Rockwell development. At Hapag, which means “table,” Dolatre and Naboa explore all the possibilities of Filipino cuisine. According to Dolatre, Hapag is “a place where guests can really unwind and connect with their roots.” OPM (original Filipino music) plays softly over the speakers, and guests are encouraged to eat several courses with their hands.
Ayà Wine Bar in Hapag.
Edmar Pineda
So when the duo upended the familiar flavour of kwek kwek, a street food staple made of battered and deep-fried quail eggs, with a shrimp flavoured twist, I was thrilled. The orange-red exterior (the batter has been infused with annatto powder) is classic, but when I cut into it, I quickly realised it had been transformed into a Scotch egg covered in shrimp cake.
We also tried a noodle dish called palabok, which was inspired by the noodles from Jollibee, a Philippine fast-food chain. Palabok typically features an orange sauce made with annatto powder. Hapag's version is less orange than Jollibee's and has a more homemade feel. The homemade rice noodles are tossed in a miso sauce made with shrimp heads and gamet, a dried seaweed with a deep and unusual flavor. Smoked fish flakes and crumbled pork skin add texture. Did either of these dishes need to be upgraded to fine dining? Not at all, but there's still a lot of joy and great eating to be had watching talented Filipinos having fun and rethinking our culinary limitations.
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Joey Osmeña (left) and Paolo Monasterio of the Bombinos.
Edmar Pineda
Another frontier Filipinos are trying to conquer is wine. A small but powerful movement is emerging to bring natural wine to Metro Manila. One of its pioneers is Joey Osmeña, who launched his import business Bombinos Bodega in Makati in 2020. The wine bar, which opened in 2023, is a loft-like two-story space decorated with sculptural wall mirrors and lantern chandeliers, and personalized with books and candles handpicked by Osmeña and friends. The drinks menu is categorized with easy-to-follow labels like “fun and fruity” sparkling wines and “interesting, juicy and wild” red wines.
Some of the food was designed by young chef Don Baldosano of Linam Nam, a modern Filipino restaurant in Parañaque. As a consultant there, he came up with shareable dishes with names that are recognizably Filipino, such as the rich and addictive tocino, a cured pork belly traditionally served for breakfast with garlicky fried rice. This was perfectly matched with a Chilean skin-contact Sauvignon Blanc that I picked from the “bright, citrusy” orange section. “I'm honored that people are curious and come to me,” Osmeña told me. This is my approach to dining out in Manila. So far, my curiosity has been deliciously rewarded.
A version of this story first appeared in the September 2024 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Dinetime in Manila.”
