Asador Alfonso’s New Chapter: Tasting Menu Upstairs, A Roasting Room Below
Go from leisurely family gatherings to intimate degustation meals at the dining destination in Cavite.
Published on Feb 21, 2026
(SPOT.ph) As when it opened in 2024, Asador Alfonso still stands tall on The Lava Rock, the 9.4-hectare lot owned by Carlo Calma in Alfonso, Cavite. The structure is an architectural wonder, its exterior flaunting sharp lines and corners that evoke origami art. Particularly striking is the use of triangles on the roof and elsewhere, said to be a tribute to Taal Volcano and the mountains surrounding Cavite.
It would be an understatement to say the past months have been a whirlwind for the restaurant. Just a day after the end of their collaboration with Álvaro Clavijo, chef of Bogota’s El Chato, it received the coveted accolade that is a Michelin Star.
Asador Alfonso was, in its early days, a personal space where owner Carlo Calma and family would welcome family members and close friends. It soon developed into a full-fledged restaurant serving ala-carte plates. Given the location’s distance from Metro Manila and the fact that you could fly in via helicopter, diners had especially high expectations—a fact further magnified by their recent Michelin win.
More recently, they rolled out updates that both solidify and expand on their identity. The restaurant now embraces two sides of itself, serving ala-carte specials at Asador Alfonso Roasting Room as well as a more structured tasting menu at Asador Alfonso.
What's in store at Asador Alfonso in 2026
Months into the restaurant establishing itself as a full-on dining spot, Chefs Chele Gonzalez and Rodrigo Osorio had a number of realizations. They had, for one, noticed guests were coming in quite early—as early as 3 p.m. for dinner reservations, for example. The idea then came to set up lounge areas that would serve as leisure spaces for the super early birds.
One of these lounges is a cell of sorts, going by an otherworldly all-white motif. A colorful metal art piece greets visitors with tinted reflections; further inside is a small theatre with surrealistic clips of Asador Alfonso projected on the big screen. The visual experience continues as you go up the spiral staircase to the second level, which is home to a viewing deck with a hole that gives a glimpse of the sky.
More crucially, Gonzalez and Osorio also realized they were serving two “completely different” sets of clientele. Some would come in big groups—think whole families with their yayas in tow—while others would arrive looking for more focused experiences closer to a textbook fine-dining meal.
The new two-part dining setup at Asador Alfonso allows the restaurant to cater to both sides of the spectrum, and execute both identities with ample precision and focus. “In this way, it's about the guest,” Chele tells us. “You really personalize the experience and you make two different spaces that you will tailor fit to what they are looking for you.”
Laid-Back Luxuries at Asador Alfonso Roasting Room
The lower floor of the restaurant is now Asador Alfonso Roasting Room—essentially the more casual of the two, focused on serving bigger ala-carte plates designed for sharing. Its wide open glass windows usher natural light in, giving visitors a view of the pool with the azure sky behind it. Gold and brass tones are found everywhere, from the ridged waves on the ceiling to the counters at the central open kitchen.
Comprising the menu are superb executions of familiar Spanish favorites, as well as more contemporary numbers. Think: Buñuelos de Trufa y Pollo (P590/two pieces) with a perfectly crisp exterior that makes way for a truffle-scented chicken filling; Escalavida (P690), or wood-fired veg with a romesco sauce base and generous lashings of olive oil; and an especially tender Pulpo a la Plancha (P990) over a nutty puree of cauliflower.
As their name implies, they do especially impressive roasts, cooked in the Maestro oven custom-made for Asador Alfonso Roasting Room. Most excellent is the Cochinillo (P4,500/quarter, P8,500/half, P16,900/whole), cooked low and slow until mega tender, then finished on high heat in the oven to help crisp up the skin.
Don’t miss the other standout mains on the menu: Fabada de Marisco (P790/good for two), a lighter, brighter fabada of white beans, artichokes, and prawns in salsa verde; and the Rabo de Vaca (P1,500), or shredded oxtail cooked in red wine, pressed into cubes and browned. Rice options include the Arroz de Setas (P950)—that’s rice and deeply savory, earthy mushrooms, cooked in a casserole in such a way that the grains form a lacey, crisp layer of socarrat (tutong) at the bottom.
A More Intimate Degustation at Asador Alfonso
On the second floor is the more refined side of the restaurant, retaining the name of Asador Alfonso and serving tasting menus in a more intimate setting. We see the shift in identity from the interiors alone: it retains the brass tones and the triangle motif, but goes the more debonair direction with more greys in the backdrop, white tablecloths, and hushed lighting.
You can opt for the shorter Heritage menu with six courses (starts at P3,900/person with grouper as the main course), or the full 10-course Journey menu (P6,500/person) as we did. At their core these are tasting menus, but with a degree of intentionality—in progression, in timing, in the focus on precision (a crucial element to fine dining, Chele says)—that puts the experience in its entirety at a higher level. Both use Spanish roasting traditions as their starting point, taking strategic flourishes here and there that keeps the lineup suited to the present day.
High-quality extra-virgin olive oil with a fruity profile uplifts the vinegar-marinated Torta de Boqueron. We see a welcome Japanese influence in the Atun con Gazpachuelo—that's raw tuna loin over zippy green gazpachuelo—while the Cangrejo, a solo terrine of Spanish crab and potato mousse, evokes good ol’ egg salad under its jewel-like top layer of ikura. Their sourdough, available as part of the Pan y Mantequilla, is excellent with its complex tang and crackly crust. Not to be missed is their buttery Jamon de Wagyu made in-house with A5 Wagyu; and the perfectly crisp Jamon Iberico Croqueta bursting with velvety bechamel.
The Verdura de Temporada, a course of artichokes, leeks, and fennel roasted until soft and supple, shows Asador’s great hand at cooking veg. Deceptively simple is the Ostra, which has a piece of Gallagher oyster in a silky pool of chicken-mushroom escabeche; the Molleja y Guisante Lagrima on the other hand goes all-out rich with buttery sweetbreads, snow peas, and an egg yolk. The Lenguado pairs together roasted Atlantic sole and a garlic-vinegar-parsley emulsion that just about mimics the gel-like plumpness of the fish. There’s rice, too, in the form of the Arroz de Gamba Roja topped with the coveted Mediterranean red prawn.
Asador Alfonso’s mastery of the grill comes through in the Cochinillo, served with confit potatoes; and the Lechazo, or slow-roasted suckling lamb with a crisp, paper-thin layer of skin and fork-tender meat. Desserts of Tarta de Manzana (apple mille-feuille) and Flan y Manchego (a Gonzalez family recipe, topped with manchego cheese) wrap up the meal beautifully.
Two Sides, One Track
There’s a bit of an art to doing more as increasing quantity comes with the risk of sacrificing quality in the process. This, thankfully, is far from the case for Asador Alfonso—a characteristic we chalk up to the clear identities they’ve set for both Asador Alfonso and Asador Alfonso Roasting Room, and the team’s hard work at living out these identities and bringing the ideas to life.
What hasn't changed are their core values: they maintain an intentional approach to dining, taking great care to refine the big picture while polishing the details. Also well and alive is their deep sense of hospitality, evident in everything from the warmth of the team when welcoming and approaching visitors, to the way they anticipate diners’ needs throughout the meal. It’s these fundamentals that, at the end of the day, keep Asador Alfonso a destination diners will keep coming back to for years to come.
Asador Alfonso and Asador Alfonso Roasting Room are at Lot-3308 Barangay Road, Alfonso, Cavite. For more information, check out Asador Alfonso's Instagram page.
For Trish, food is as much a source of pleasure and fuel as it is an outlet for creativity; a medium by which stories can be passed on; and a way to connect with others.