Manila tasting menus praised
Recent coverage praised Manila’s new tasting menus for mixing provocative, subtle courses that have diners talking. (x.com) Social traction shows the menus are drawing attention across food communities. (x.com)
Manila’s newest tasting menus are getting fresh attention as chefs in Makati and Bonifacio Global City build multi-course dinners around Peru, Spain, and Filipino cooking. (lifestyle.inquirer.net) Lifestyle.INQ on March 16 highlighted three newer menus: Flow in Makati, Singular in Bonifacio Global City, and Inatô in Makati. The report said the city’s chefs are pairing “provocative courses” with quieter, more restrained plates. (lifestyle.inquirer.net) Flow opened in December 2025 and serves a nine-course menu led by chef Kevin Uy, who spent five years in Peru training under Virgilio Martínez and Pia León at Central and Mil. The restaurant says its menu puts the Philippines and Peru “side by side,” with dishes built around shared landscapes and ingredients. (lifestyle.inquirer.net, restaurantflow.ph) Singular officially celebrated its grand opening on February 26, 2026, with chef Fernando Alcalá leading a modern Spanish fine-dining concept in Uptown Bonifacio. Lifestyle.INQ described its menu as an 11-course trip through Spain’s regions, from Andalusia to Gran Canaria. (tribune.net.ph, lifestyle.inquirer.net) Inatô, at Karrivin Plaza in Makati, centers its chef’s-choice “Bahala Na Menu” on seasonal ingredients and changes the courses night by night. The Michelin Guide lists the restaurant as a one-star address in Metro Manila and describes its dining room as an eight-seat counter facing the open kitchen. (inato.ph, guide.michelin.com) That attention is landing just months after Michelin entered the market. The Michelin Guide launched its first Philippines selection on October 30, 2025, covering Manila and Environs and Cebu, with one two-star restaurant and eight one-star restaurants. (guide.michelin.com) The guide’s inspectors said in December 2025 that the Philippine dining scene was being shaped by young culinary talent and a more confident modern Filipino cuisine. Malaysia Airlines’ Going Places made a similar point in July 2025, saying Manila restaurants were setting the pace with food that was “bold, refined and rooted in tradition.” (guide.michelin.com, goingplaces.malaysiaairlines.com) Recognition has followed. Tatler Philippines named Toyo Eatery its Restaurant of the Year for 2026 and said many of the country’s best restaurants now combine global technique with a strong sense of place. (tatlerasia.com) The newer tasting rooms fit that pattern in different ways: Flow ties Filipino and Peruvian ideas together, Singular reworks Spanish regional cooking, and Inatô lets the kitchen rewrite the meal around what is available that day. In Manila right now, the tasting menu is less about copying European fine dining than about giving chefs a longer format to tell diners exactly where their food comes from. (restaurantflow.ph, singular.ph, inato.ph, lifestyle.inquirer.net)
