The Clay Oven Is Marikina’s Hidden Gem Where Filipino, Mediterranean, and Indian Flavors Unite

The Clay Oven Multi-Cuisine Restaurant
Unit A6 & A7, Algers Suites, Bayan-bayanan Avenue corner P. Valenzuela,
Barangay Marikina Heights, Marikina City
Contact: 0920-531-9367
Instagram: www.instagram.com/theclayovenph
Open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Thursday; and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday to Sunday

(SPOT.ph) Marikina is a not-so-hidden gem containing still-hidden gems, especially when it comes to international cuisines.

I know, the term “hidden gem” is a buzzword at this point in The Year of our Lord AD 2025, but hear me out, hear me out: There’s something about this industrious city that makes it conducive for culinaires and food lovers to call it home, or a home-away-from-home, as you'll understand shortly.

Maybe it’s the palpable sense of heritage, of pride-of-place, the warmth of local chefs, their long-time staff, and the neighborhood suki gathered around them. It can also be the walkable neighborhoods, protected from the heat by old-growth trees lining expansive bike lanes and sidewalks, where meandering can lead you to a public pocket park (each barangay is mandated to maintain one, each village often has one, too).

All this has led to the emergence of well-trod dining hubs like Lilac Street, San Roque’s heritage district, each bank of the famed River Park, and Gil Fernando avenue (now joining the Metro’s roster of car-free Sundays), where one is bound to happen upon a family-built garden restaurant or expat-couple-run hole-in-the-wall bringing a unique locality’s cuisine to Metro Manila’s historical shoe capital.

Still, there are also pleasant surprises in corners that get less press.

Marikina Heights has had a storied past: a large hacienda owned by friars in the Spanish colonial era, where horses were bred to meet the day’s transport needs. It eventually became a military installation in the American colonial era, housing an airfield which the Japanese also used during their occupation.

During the Korean War, Filipino soldiers volunteering for the United Nations cause trained in the baranggay owing to its rough, hilly terrain, mimicking that of the Korean Peninsula.

Today, the area houses the famed Lilac Street while also holding attractions like a book ethnology museum, specialty coffee shops, a pan de sal house that attracts people from outside the city, and a series of interconnected public parks— Brampton, Hardin ng Bayan, Yeong-do, and more—built around old acacia trees that makes it one of the larger green spaces this side of Metro Manila.

Also read: 24 Hours in Marikina

The Clay Oven in Marikina

A dream come true

It’s in this bustling example of inclusive urban planning (bike parking, wide sidewalks, numerous benches and gazebos) where Chef Liza Fielder and her sister Cherry decided to open shop despite hailing almost 70 kilometers away in Cavite, south of Metro Manila.

In late 2023, the siblings opened The Clay Oven Multi-Cuisine Restaurant between Brampton Park and Hardin ng Bayan. That time, it had been 10 years since her return to the Philippines from half a decade working in Dubai, taking stints in hotels like the Burj Al-Arab.

Between 2013 and 2023, Fielder worked mainly as a private dining chef with clients like business tycoons and their families, being referred within such circles as a “chef who cooked Indian and Arabic food well.”

Still, opening her own restaurant was always a dream for her, and Cherry was also a stage in life where she considered this venture a new chapter worth diving into.

Amidst such an alignment of goals, The Clay Oven, named after a traditional cooking apparatus between Mediterranean, Indian, and yes, Filipino cuisines, began heating up.

It’s all about range

Hailing from the pioneer batch of the De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde’s Culinary Arts Program, Fielder first discovered the joys of Indian and Arabic cooking when she first set foot in Dubai in 2009 as a trainee.

Working through the ranks and through the years before becoming an executive chef, she recalls waking up early to work under the guidance of Indian cooks who taught her the importance of herb roasting, all as she fell in love with the “cuisine’s complexity, the layered flavors that take turns revealing themselves,” complementing each other despite seeming contrasts.

Nonetheless, serving a largely Arabic clientele, she also learned the more aromatic, smokier, more floral, and less spicy Mediterranean palate. “The richness, the aroma, all of this ‘pag pinag-sama-sama mo siya. Dip it with the bread,” she shares of the combined cuisines, “Sarap talaga. Kakaiba. There’s nothing like it.”

During my visit, we tried the Lamb Biryani (P720, serves one to two),  Butter Chicken (P510, serves one to two and comes with a side of pita bread), and Ultimate Kebab Platter (P1,200, serves three to four, and comes with salad, hummus, and pita bread over a bed of long grain rice), as we ordered Cardamom Tea (P120/cup) and Pistachio Baklava (P325) for dessert.

Each entree was a full meal on its own, and we sure took our time.

The chicken was very close to the curry served in Makati’s Indian restaurants, run by Indian migrants. Here, thick, textured, and creamy, if less spicy, adjusted to a largely Filipino clientele. “Chilies are the only herbs we reduced. Everything else, every roasted herb, we kept,” Fielder shares. “The secret is in the masala, the base of most Indian dishes.”

Meanwhile, the Lamb Biryani is a more Arabic dish, with hints of rosewater brine on the meat that was marinated for hours, all with a smokier finish. The dish’s rice is stirred in a mix of roasted herbs: I picked up heaps of cloves and notes of cardamom and coriander. There’s a boiled egg halved, and a sliced lemon to balance everything out.

The Ultimate Kebab Platter, we ended up taking out, but not after trying a spoonful or two of the beef and chicken skewers over a bed of ghee-fried basmati rice. The sides, consisting of a fresh salad, drizzled with olive oil, pita bread slices, and a helping of hummus, provided a much-welcome counterpoint.

The Cardamom Tea, made from black tea infused with cinnamon and the eponymous seeds, tastes very similar to the chai latte I’ve tasted from Indians selling the drink in Kuala Lumpur’s historic central market: Milky, rich, but refreshingly mildly spiced.

I now get what Fielder was talking about when she said seemingly contrasting flavors could actually complement.

As it cleansed our palates, the tea made way for further appreciation of the Pistachio Baklava: a very nutty, very pistachio-infused version of layered phyllo cake, as Fielder prefers to rely less on cream and sugar. Be sure to scoop up all the crushed pistachios on the sides of your plate!

Fielder and the team source their herbs, especially garam masala, cinnamon sticks, and cloves, from close contacts in the local Indian community, shipping directly from South Asia. She shares that diners can request the restaurant to customize dishes: adding or reducing more of their preferred ingredients and condiments. Go ahead and go for the full Indian spice level if you want!

No place like home

Chef Liza usually visits the restaurant from Thursday to Sunday while doing administrative work, private dining, and other projects for the other half of the week. And while she trusts her cooks to maintain flavor quality and consistency all seven days of the week, she looks forward to interacting with customers during her weekend sojourns to Marikina from Cavite, wearing her make-up Arab style.

As such, I was invited to return to the Clay Oven to interview Chef Liza after our initial visit, having sent our compliments to the Chef during our first try. Fielder treated us this time around. We’re pleased to report that the food quality was the same during our incognito and formal visits.

Raised in Pampanga under a father who loved cooking, Fielder ultimately finds home in Filipino cuisine, a palate-cleanser but also a source of inspiration. It’s what she eats at home, while constantly craving Indian and Arab cuisine. Friends and family from Marikina and nearby cities who’ve visited The Clay Oven tell me they enjoyed dishes like their sinigang sa bayabas and tortang talong.

It’s like the old parable, isn’t it? After a long journey to the ends of the earth, the road always somehow leads home.

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