Next great tastings
There’s certainly no question that Manila is experiencing a golden age of creativity in cuisine.
On the fine dining front, Manila’s best chefs—by blood or by heart—pen tracklists of courses that plunge deep into their personal backgrounds, turn to fiery techniques for inspiration, and even gamble with sinfully provocative themes.
Here, three of the newest tasting menus leave room for gastronomic exploration on your next (special) night out.
Flow
Fresh from his five-year stint in Peru, Kevin Uy and his new restaurant, Flow, were the talk of the town when it opened in December 2025. And for good reason: His Central and Mil training under Virgilio Martinez and Pia Leon makes itself felt in Makati, as he recalls stories to tell in his beautiful Anthony and Rita Nazareno-designed space.
At nine courses assembled on custom plates from the likes of Solon Perfecto and EJ Espiritu, Uy and his partner Gato Ong delight in the spectrum of the Philippines and Peru, transforming spirulina into puff and granita, paying homage to chupe de camarones, and making a cacao dessert without chocolate.
It’s as if Uy lets nature dictate the flow of his tasting menu.
Singular
Fernando Alcalá has a unique food rhetoric. At his Bib Gourmand restaurant, Bolero, in BGC, he eschews traditional Spanish cuisine in favor of modern European flavors. But at Singular, his minimalist yet cinematic fine dining concept, the Marbella-born chef departs from the usual and asks, “Think you know Spain?”
Together with chef Edu Fuentes, Alcalá finds himself on an 11-course journey across Spain’s heartlands and coastlines, the mini continent of Gran Canaria, and Andalusia’s Moorish pockets.
You see him fully commit to tradition yet stray away from the norm with a punchy bollo preñao, wonderful plates of kilawin-like tuna with pipirrana, a Spanish mackerel with silky, warm gazpachuelo from Malaga, and various depictions of proteins that deliver Alcalá’s imagination.
The rest of the courses speak of Alcalá’s vast experience, signaling that the chef knows exactly what he’s doing, even if it means shaking up Spanish food as we know it.
Tandem
With a theme that is their boldest yet, Tandem’s latest tasting menu (Alex Tan and Mikee Lopez-Tan’s fifth overall) is deceptively good despite its wicked undercurrents.
“We were honestly a little bit scared considering we’re in a conservative country, but when we were discussing, [we didn’t lean] into the moral failings of the seven deadly sins,” reveals Lopez-Tan.
Quite the opposite, really, as the two neither rail against religion nor play with hellfire (though “Wrath” certainly induces that feeling in the mouth), but instead, interpret them in opposite fashion.
Nothing here requires you to go to confession or communion, but the peaks are heavenly in the lethargic “Sloth” course of cappelletti stuffed with zero-waste onions and beef, while the depths are hellish (in a good way) in “Wrath,” which buzzes with a volcanic lava flow of red curry and sambal alongside the ashen remains of alugbati on the side.
Initially hesitant of the provocative theme, the couple turned the sins on their heads, reframing them into virtues that reflect their own, as well as Tandem’s growth.
This story was originally published in RED 2026 Issue 1
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