Philippines / Metro Manila / Dining / Restaurants

In both, the tourist belt of Manila and in Makati, there is a wide variety of different cuisines of the world. There is a selection of food from neighboring countries such as China, Japan and Korea; there is Middle Eastern food; and there is regional European cuisine including Italian, German and French. Our Dining Guide describes some characteris-tics of all these different cuisines as they are found in the Philippine capital. Some comments on Philippine beverages and Philippine fruits follow this general introduction.

The cosmopolitan variety of restaurants in Metro Manila is a result of the attractive-ness of the Philippine capital to people from all different corners of the earth; many of the cuisines originally alien to the Philippines have been brought to Metro Manila by for-eigners who have settled here. And the flair of Metro Manila as a world city has been aided very strongly by these foreign res-taurateurs.

To have attracted foreigners and to have taken steps to turn Metro Manila into a true world city certainly was a merit of the former government. On the contrary, the current government does not see it as one of its major concerns to make Manila a really cosmopolitan city; it's not even con-cerned with maintaining the level Manila reached in the 70's and the beginning of the 80's. It's not the point that the current government has other priorities for spending.

Whether a city is cosmopolitan or not doesn't depend so much on government spending. It just simply depends on how wel-come foreigners are in a city, and whether they are allowed to become active in fields like the restaurant business. But regulations have been implemented to restrict the num-ber of foreigners employed in or managing restaurants.

The classiest restaurants of Metro Manila are found in five star hotels (Peninsula, Silahis, Holiday Inn) and in Makati at the edge of Greenbelt Park which has been very nicely remodeled during the past few years. The "Greenbelt row of restaurants" houses such excellent places as the German Schwarzwaelder, the Italian La Primavera, the Spanish Gasparelli, the international La Tasca, the Nandau seafood restaurant, and a few more. Most of these leading restaurants of the metropolis are comparatively large.

Pasay Road, also in Makati, has a strip containing large first class restaurants as well. Along Amorsolo St in Makati, in four large buildings, the Sunvar Plaza, the Gallery Bldg, the Creekside Bldg, and the Mile Long Bldg (which is much shorter than a mile), in the midst of many small boutiques and speciality stores, are a number of small res-taurants with a distinctive cuisine: Thai, Korean, Japanese, Mongolian, Vegetarian, etc.

While they abound in the capital, luxurious restaurants are not common in the provinces. Simple Western food, however, is not only available in the cities but in small towns as well. The upper strata of places for dining out in provincial cities is generally provided by Chinese restaurateurs.

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