Eat & Drink
The restaurants, cafés and wine bars worth knowing: chef-driven dinners, slow brunches and a good glass of wine.
Makati
12/10
Gab Bustos's Japanese small plates, French technique
78-45-33
Unamplified live sets, fewer than 30 seats
Bad Cafe
Delicate pourovers and well-made specialty drinks
Bibio
One of the city's deepest natural wine lists
Big Fuzz
2026 Tatler Best Bar of the Year
Bolo Coffee Club
Specialty coffee with a distinct Hong Kong aesthetic
Cattery
Live sets most nights with no door charge
Celera
A Michelin star in its first year
Dominion Cellar
Sixteen thousand bottles, strong on Californian labels
Good Morning Wines
The only Japanese wine specialist of its kind outside Japan
Habitual Coffee
Serious filter and AeroPress coffee from a championship-level team
Inatô
Eight seats facing JP Cruz's open kitchen
ITO
Seven seats, coffee by day, cocktails by night
Kariton x Sabi Sounds
Vinyl behind the bar, DJs on weekend nights
Lampara
Michelin Bib Gourmand for value and quality
Metiz
French technique meets Filipino sourcing
Panaderya Toyo
The Toyo Eatery kitchen, sold by the piece
Problem Child
No. 44 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2026
Rekdi
Erik Matti's restaurant, opened in Poblacion 2026
Run Rabbit Run
One of the city's best-regarded craft cocktail programmes
Scratch
Some of the city's most respected sourdough
Super Uncle Claypot
Claypot rice cooked to order, crust and all
Tambai Yakitori Snackhouse
Charcoal-grilled skewers, chicken through vegetables
Taquería Franco
Miko Calo's tacos without the tasting menu price
The Black Bean
Serious specialty espresso and signature lattes
The Curator Coffee & Cocktails
The most consistently awarded cocktail bar in the Philippines
Toma Toma
Cocktails built on lambanog and Philippine fruit
Toyo Eatery
One Michelin star and Asia's 50 Best regular
Yardstick Coffee
The flagship of a 2013 Manila roaster
Your Local
The Legazpi table regulars keep coming back to
a mano
Woodfire pizza and pasta made by hand, not assembled
Annex House
A heritage house with a garden and a sunroom, not a mall coffee shop
Auring's
A real dinner before a Poblacion night, not bar snacks
Cafe Dalisay
Communal tables designed for getting work done
CDP Global Table
Three established cooks on one menu
Chef Jessie at Rockwell Club
A garden and pool view, which no other Rockwell room has
Commune
100 per cent Philippine coffee, and a decade of it
Din Tai Fung
Xiao long bao made to a standard the chain is strict about
FLO All-Day Drinking
Genuinely all day: coffee at eight, a burger at noon, a drink at ten
Grace Park
Farm-to-table cooking from a chef who built her name on sourcing
Helm
The country's sole two-star restaurant
Ippudo
Tonkotsu ramen made to the chain's Fukuoka standard
Japonesa
Nikkei cooking from a chef who learned it in both countries, not from a trend piece
Jiro Coffee Studio
An al fresco room in a converted 1974 house
Kodawari
Donburi done fast without being careless
LUSSO
All-day, so it works for a late lunch as easily as dinner
Mamou
Dry-aged steak done properly, and the truffle cream pasta people come back for
Milky Way Cafe
Open since 1962, and cooking to that standard
Natsu
Private cocoon booths for focused, quiet work
Nikkei
Peruvian-Japanese cooking, which almost nowhere else in the city attempts
Panco Cafe
Uncapped wifi, so a long session is not a negotiation
Rabbit Room
Small and hidden, so it rarely feels crowded
Rambla
Paella worth ordering, and tapas built for sharing
Salon de Ning
Live music through the evening rather than a DJ and a volume war
Sultan Mediterranean Grill
Proper kebabs and mezze in the middle of the Salcedo grid
Terry's Bistro Pasong Tamo
A deli and a wine cellar in the same room as the kitchen, so you can eat and then shop
Thai-Noy Cuisine
Thai cooking that holds up, in an area where most kitchens close early
The Curator
A serious coffee bar by day and an Asia's 50 Best cocktail room by night
The Filling Station
Open 24 hours, genuinely
The Grasshopper Bar
Quiet enough for actual conversation, with no volume war
The Lobby at The Peninsula Manila
A room where you can hear the person across the table, which is harder to find in Makati than it should be
BGC
Cochi by Marvin Agustin
Marvin Agustin's cochinillo, carved at the table
Cork Wine Bar & Shop
Drink from the shop shelves at the table
Flour Pot Bistro & Bakery
Rhea SyCip's cakes, finally in their own room
GotSoul MNL
Vintage Altec A5 horns behind the DJ booth
Iai
Bruce Ricketts making nigiri piece by piece
June Eatery
The Bibio team's brunch, with natural wine
KIJI Bakehouse
Charyn Lim's small-batch French butter croissants
LIT Manila
The first Japanese spirits bar in the Philippines
Los Tacos MNL
Bib Gourmand in the 2026 Michelin Guide
Makanai
Donabe rice pots made for sharing
Maker and Made
In-house sourdough from a heritage starter
Masa Madre Bakehouse
Croissants and Croloaf from Kris Edison Tan
Somewhere Quiet
The serious cocktail bar on Uptown's club strip
Southbank Café + Lounge
A 36-drink cocktail list with a culinary bent
Taupe by Chef Francis Tolentino
Michelin Selected in the first Philippine guide
The Attic
A bar behind a liquor shop shelf
The Back Room
Over 150 gins, including rare bottles and a house distillate
The Fat Seed Cafe + Roastery
Beans roasted in-house by a 2026 champion team
Apartment 1B Cafe
Breakfast served all day, which suits an odd schedule
BCN by Las Flores
Spanish cooking with a Filipino hand, from a group that has done it for years
Big Belly
Burgers and American plates at a fair BGC price
Bolero
Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026, awarded for quality against price
Burnt Bamboo
Affordable Filipino food inside BGC, which is rarer than it sounds
Burnt Bean
Steak at a price that made its reputation
Cargofish
Pick the fish, the sides and the sauce yourself
Dr. Wine
A serious wine list by the glass, not a token one
Eesome
A restaurant and a shop in one building
El Born
Catalan cooking rather than generic Spanish
Elephant Grounds
A wall of windows and tiered step seating
Frank & Dean Coffee
Opens at six, closes at two, so it covers both ends of a working day
Gallery by Chele
One Michelin star, Basque rigour on Filipino produce
Indus Modern Indian Kitchen
Butter chicken and curries that hold up against the biryani
Key Coffee Kissaten
Coffee from one of Japan's oldest roasters, brewed as a kissaten would
L'Opera Ristorante Italiano
Thirty years of the same kitchen discipline, which almost nothing in Manila can claim
Nihonkai Tsukiji
Sushi through to yakitori on one menu
No Entry Cocktail Club
2026 Tatler Best Design winner with weekly live jazz
OUT OF OFFICE
Well-made cocktails in a room designed to be dark and low-key
Providore
Familiar food that suits every age at the table
Salaryman
Izakaya plates and drinks after work, without a plan
Señorita Sunae
Dishes from across Southeast Asia rather than one country
Single Origin
Regional single-origin coffees with real depth
Steak and Frice
Pick your cut rather than take what the kitchen sends
Wong Place
Dumplings worth ordering several rounds of
Quezon City
Ampersand Bean + Bar
Coffee and cocktails from the same counter
Azadore
Paella and sliders on the same menu, both done properly
BeerBQ PH
Grilled meats and oysters in the same order
Drunken Pig Gastropub
Portions built for a big group
Episode Bar + Kitchen
Big screens and enough of them to catch a match
Hashi Donburi
Donburi and sushi without a mall around it
High Grounds Cafe
Long communal tables and seats you do not have to hunt for
Mismoo Grill
Grilled Filipino food cooked over coals, not a griddle
Ro's Steak and Seafood
Unlimited steak and seafood at a set price
X Wave Specialty Coffee
Proper tables and plenty of power
