LIST: Highly Anticipated Restaurant Openings This 2025
It's going to be one mighty delish year, alright.
(SPOT.ph) 2024 was quite the year as we ate our way through countless dining spots of different cuisines and genres, homegrown and foreign. Seems there’s plenty of reasons to look forward to 2025, too. The new year is one filled with new restaurants to watch out for—ones that showcase the talents of Filipino chefs; ones that bring foreign icons to our part of the world; ones bound to introduce new flavors to the local palate. (Note that this running list focuses on spots that are set to open this 2025; recently opened places as of publishing have been excluded.)
Also read:
The SPOT.ph 50 Great Restaurants of 2024: Best of Manila and Beyond
The SPOT.ph 50 Great Restaurants of 2023: Best of Manila and Beyond
Standout restaurants opening in Manila this 2025
Margarita
Chef Margarita Forés’ illustrious career spans a whopping 37 years, some of the restaurants under her belt being Pepato, Cibo, Lusso, Cibo di M, The Loggia, and Grace Park. The 2016 Asia's Best Female Chef now moves forward to open what could well be her magnum opus. Dubbed Margarita, the two-story restaurant is slated to open at Ayala Triangle Gardens around the third quarter this year; it’ll be home to signature dishes that she’s done over the years, including that from Pepato, her catering business, and collaborations she’s done with other chefs. Behind the interior design is Sean Dix, who also did the interiors of Hong Kong's Yardbird and Manila's Steak & Frice.
Liyab + Anomaly
Chef Charles Montañez, formerly of Alegria and currently with Mamacita, will soon be opening his most personal work: Liyab, which would be home to a tasting menu of dishes that “represent his life.” Montañez and his team will be preparing these from a fully wood-fired kitchen where they’ll be exploring all the different ways fire can be used to cook food—yup, beyond grilling. Expect to see local ingredients (even ones close to extinction) on their menu, as the chef will be partnering with Slow Food Negros’ Ramon Uy Jr. You’ll likely see Latin American influences too, given Montañez’s own proclivity toward the cuisine, though he maintains that this wouldn’t necessarily define the menu.
The 1,300 square meter space in BGC will also house Liyab’s sibling lounge, Anomaly, which would be overseen by Montañez’s partners in KGA. It’ll seat 150 or so diners and accommodate some 250 to 300 standing folks, and have “proper sit-down food” that can be ordered ala-carte, as well as cocktails.
Liyab and Anomaly are slated to open in February.
Offbeat
Chef and food writer Angelo Comsti (author of Also Filipino: 75 Regional Dishes I Never Had Growing Up and other books) is partnering up with Chef Don Baldosano (of Linamnam) and opening Offbeat, located on the second floor of Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati. Comsti describes the restaurant as a retro Filipino bistro with a “red and retro” look; some items you can expect on the menu are lengua sandwiches, an Offbeat-fied take on classic fish mayonesa, and fun cocktails.
Savage and Juniper
In July last year, Chef Josh Boutwood-owned Savage bid us farewell from their original home at Arya Residences in BGC, but it's not a permanent goodbye. They’ll be moving to their next chapter with the opening of a bigger, better Savage at East Gallery Place (also in BGC) “sometime between the second and third quarter of [2025],” Boutwood tell SPOT.ph. While the reopened Savage would maintain much of its current identity—an ode to “pre-industrial dining” with pass-around small plates, meaty mains, and some plant-forward numbers served from their open-fire kitchen—but they’ll also be “building … and improving on it” with new dishes (described to be “more Savage-centric”). You can also expect updated visuals as they’ll be putting in more emphasis on the design.
In February, Boutwood will also be opening Juniper, which will revolve around gin (hence the name). This will be located at Shangri-la Plaza, Mandaluyong.
A Modern Teppanyaki Bar From the BBK Group
The Japanese division of the BBK Group (that is, the folks who brought us BBK Bibingka & Coffee) will be opening a "modern teppanyaki bar concept," in BGC in June. They also recently opened katsu-centric venture Katsudonya Saiko at MITSUKOSHI BGC.
Celera
Chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar left Restaurant Aurora in 2024, but only to make way for new beginnings, in the form of the opening of Celera, their upcoming restaurant which will be opening at Comuna, Makati. The chefs sought to make a “super duper fresh start” for the restaurant, whose plates would have a similar DNA as their formerly helmed restaurant Hey Handsome—what Santos dubs “mixed marriage cuisine” given the diversity of influences he’s encountered throughout his career. While the two are best known for their great hand at Asian flavors, Celera would take inspiration from a wider range of cuisines and genres—in Santos’ words: "It's just going to be us on a plate." They’re also bringing in acclaimed interior designer JJ Acuña to take on the restaurant’s look.
Celera will be opening in February with ala-carte and discovery menus; some dishes will be changed weekly.
Restaurant Idalia
Idalia began as a private-dining venture by Chef Kevin David (who’s worked in the U.S. for the likes of Otium in Los Angeles, and Barbuto and Marea in New York, and is behind Bun Run in San Juan) and Jolo David (of Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo). Come April, they’ll be opening their own fully open, dine-in restaurant in Salcedo Village, in partnership with Ferdi Salvador. Aptly called Restaurant Idalia, the dining spot will go by “warm, modernist, industrial” interiors that well matches the venture’s contemporary, progressive, unapologetic-meets-free form concept. They’ll have both a tasting menu as well as ala-carte offerings; expect dishes that star dry-aged beef and fish, sourdough, and fresh pasta, and an emphasis on butchery and fermentation.
Cong Caphe
Vietnam is known for its thriving café scene, and we’ll be getting a slice of that in Manila via Cong Caphe—one of the biggest chains in Vietnam that’ll be opening its first store in the Philippines. You can expect to find it at Gateway 2 in Cubao by mid-February this year.
Pizza Studio Tamaki
It might come as a surprise for outsiders to know that Japan takes its pizzas seriously, but yup—the Land of the Rising Sun has quite the lively local pizza scene. Of them is Pizza Studio Tamaki, which is said to serve say the best Neapolitan-style pies in Tokyo by Tsubasa Tamaki (formerly of Seirinkan a.k.a. Savoy in Tokyo; he was also 9th on the Pizza leg of the 2024 Best Chef Awards). They'll be flying to the Philippines with their own shop at Ayala Triangle Gardens.
Bistrot Le Coucou
From the Nikkei Group comes Bistrot Le Coucou, which will bring the characteristic flavors and charm of Parisian bistros to One Bonifacio High Street in BGC. It'll be opening on February 8th, and you can expect to nosh on fine French plates—oysters, cod brandade, French onion soup, escargot, steak au poivre, and duck magret, to name a few—and wine in an intimate setting.
Kong Noodles
Kong Noodles, the Crosta group's nood-centric baby, closed their original Salcedo Village location last year. Fret not; they'll be reopening soon at Ayala Triangle Gardens.
The Underbelly
From the Tasteless Food Group—same group behind Scout's Honor, Your Local, The Grid, and Public Eatery—comes The Underbelly, which could well be your new go-to for ramen and tsukemen (dipping ramen). You'll find the dining spot at The Alley by Karrivin; it'll also be home to a coffee bar dubbed Twelve Labors. Behind their branding and design is designer and illustrator Dan Matutina, so you can expect them to flaunt striking visuals and carry rad merch.
Photos for illustrative purposes only
this strange new world.