Manila tasting‑menu buzz
Diners in Manila are praising new tasting menus described as provocative but subtle, with courses that refine global flavors into compact, multi‑course experiences (x.com). U.S. coverage similarly notes a weekly emphasis on global mashups at restaurants, framing the trend as part of a broader menu shift (x.com).
Manila’s restaurant scene is leaning harder into tasting menus, with new counters in Makati and Taguig turning cross-border flavors into eight-, nine-, and 11-course meals. (lifestyle.inquirer.net) Lifestyle.INQ reported on March 16 that three of the city’s newest tasting menus include Flow in Makati, where chef Kevin Uy opened in December 2025 after five years in Peru, and Singular in Bonifacio Global City, where chef Fernando Alcalá is serving an 11-course Spanish menu. (lifestyle.inquirer.net; gmanetwork.com) Tatler Asia said in January that Flow opened at Green Sun on Don Chino Roces Avenue with an eight-course menu linking Peruvian and Philippine ingredients, built by Uy and co-executive chef Gabriel Ong. The magazine cited dishes including raw scallops with sea urchin emulsion, blue spirulina granita and cassava crisps, plus beef cheeks with burnt coconut sauce, tri-coloured corn and tinigib. (tatlerasia.com) Singular officially held its grand opening on February 26, 2026, according to the Daily Tribune, which described the restaurant as a modern Spanish fine-dining concept led by Alcalá. Lifestyle.INQ said the menu moves through Spain’s regions with plates like tuna with pipirrana, Spanish mackerel with warm gazpachuelo and lamb with fermented grapes. (tribune.net.ph; lifestyle.inquirer.net) The backdrop is a formal upgrade in Manila’s dining status. Michelin launched its first Philippines guide on October 30, 2025, listing 108 establishments, including 90 in Manila and Environs and 18 in Cebu. (michelin.com) That first guide gave two Michelin stars to Helm in Makati and one star each to eight other restaurants, including Toyo Eatery, Gallery by Chele, Metiz, Inatô and Celera. Michelin said Helm’s eight-course tasting menu blends chef Josh Boutwood’s British, Filipino and Spanish influences, while Celera draws on flavors from Japan, China, Singapore and beyond. (michelin.com; guide.michelin.com; guide.michelin.com) The same shift is showing up outside the Philippines in trade coverage of United States menus. Flavor & The Menu wrote in January 2025 that “third-culture cooking” had become the new frame for mash-ups, with chefs building dishes from immigrant family histories instead of older fusion formulas. (getflavor.com) That language matches what Manila’s newer tasting rooms are selling: not generic fusion, but menus tied to a chef’s biography, training and pantry. Malaysia Airlines’ Going Places said in July 2025 that Manila’s rising restaurants were pushing “bold, refined” cooking rooted in local tradition, and pointed to set-menu formats at Inatô and other restaurants as part of that direction. (goingplaces.malaysiaairlines.com) Recognition has followed. Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ranked Toyo Eatery No. 42 in 2025 and named it Best Restaurant in the Philippines for the sixth time, while the 2026 extended list added Celera at No. 100 and kept Gallery by Chele at No. 72. (theworlds50best.com; philstar.com) For diners, the result is a Manila meal that now often arrives as a sequence of small plates, each one carrying a passport stamp and a personal backstory. Michelin’s first guide and this year’s openings suggest that format is no longer a niche splurge in the capital; it is becoming one of the city’s main ways of defining itself. (michelin.com; lifestyle.inquirer.net)
