a weekend guide for manila, philippines

Awarded Miele One to Watch 2018 by Asia’s 50 Best, Jordy Navarra transforms common Filipino food experiences into award-winning fine dining . For brunch, the nearby Panaderya Toyo is the Toyo team’s take on a traditional Filipino bakery.

Filipino breakfasts tend to be savory and hearty, exemplified by the beloved tapsilog, a portmanteau of tapa (cured beef), sinangag (fried garlic rice), and itlog (fried egg). Rodic’s has been serving a version since 1949 that’s tender, sweet, and shredded like corned beef. According to a student documentary about the restaurant, owner Pacita Tecson got the idea to shred the beef from her sister, who wanted to make the typically tough tapa accessible to both children and senior citizens who might have a hard time chewing. Every Sunday morning, entire families line up at the branch located in the University of the Philippines for little red and white boxes of tapsilog.

Marikina, a pedestrian-friendly city on the east side of Manila, is a bit of a food destination. The area boasts a lot of affordable restaurants and cafes, as well as a strip known as Puto Avenue, where small food stalls sell Filipino delicacies like suman (glutinous rice) and pichi-pichi (sweet cassava). But a trip to Marikina wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Rocha’s Puto and Kuchinta, the standard-bearer of puto Marikina, a remix of puto (steamed rice cake) and kuchinta (brown sugar sticky rice cake) with a bit of cheese on top.

Located on the second floor of a nondescript apartment building in Poblacion, Lampara serves a generous selection of hearty neo-Filipino cuisine and cocktails. It’s run by young chefs RJ Ramos, Prince Tan, and Alphonse Sotero, who all build on experience in the kitchens of other fine dining restaurants. Favorites include a starter of rice cups (inspired by lumpia), dinuckduckan (a duck version of the Ilocano dinakdakan), and pork (crispy porchetta, star anise reduction, and pork floss). Don’t leave without trying the inventive desserts, specifically the yema and tsokolate (sweet custard and chocolate).

Tetsuo’s menu is inspired by East Asian casual eats like baos, fried noodles, and Japanese-style fried chicken, served with various spices: sansho (lemon and pepper), ichimi (mild heat), and Kaneda (hot and spicy), the last aptly named after the protagonist of the cyberpunk masterpiece Akira. Unlike the first branch in Quezon City, the hip Poblacion outpost is open late and serves canned drinks like Strong Zero, Horoyoi, and One Cup Ozeki. According to cofounder Sean Bautista, the restaurant tries to cater to the creative community, especially musicians and artists.

Tapas are having a moment in Manila thanks to spots like Txoko Asador. The restaurant offers some of the most delicious and creative selections of Spanish tapas and Basque-inspired grilled dishes and mains. The hot and cold starters include standouts such as pan con tomate — a lightly crisp bread pillow filled with tomato foam, wrapped around a sliver of jamón serrano, and Iberico oil — and the pulpo a la brasa, grilled octopus with black potato puree. The paella negra pairs excellently with a martini or white sangria.

Feast on contemporary Filipino cuisine in a chef's backyard.

Go see taal volcano.

Manmade beach, built during the pandemic.

up and coming creative area

Built in 1914, this ancestral bahay na bato (stone house) features design elements typical of its time. Today, it holds artefacts and memorabilia of the revolutionary society of the Katipuneros.

A church made of steel

Along with the Curator, David Ong runs this cocktail lounge and listening room. An extensive selection of cocktails is set to the bar’s all-vinyl playlist, which pours out of the bespoke sound system. Like the Curator, Oto regularly hosts global bartender takeovers, but it also invites Manila’s finest young DJs to spin on most weekends, which has made it an indispensable part of the local nightlife and music scene. While everything on the cocktail menu is amazing, ask the friendly and talented bartenders for their recommendations.