Off Menu 2026: meet the restaurants and bars teaming up at Tatler Dining’s food festival this September

Tatler Best 20 Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best Service • Bar 2026

Josh Boutwood’s multi-awarded flagship restaurant, Helm, features meticulous menus that continue to impress both in terms of creativity and cookery. The minimalist space serves as a theatre for his whimsical and intellectual fare, with thematic, produce-focused tasting menus introduced every four months—shifting seamlessly between concepts like global street food, Star Wars or his current and perhaps best to date, Single Ingredient. Each course is a study in technical precision and clarity of flavour, weaving a personal narrative reflective of Boutwood’s journey.

Born from the ritual of hosting friends at home, Ito is a self-styled “beverage space” in Legazpi Village that recently transitioned from exclusive tasting menus to a more accessible walk-in format. Founded by Niko Tiutan and Alex Atienza-Tiutan, the serene spot offers coffee, tea, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages, guided by a curiosity for seasonal local produce. That ritual of welcoming friends into their home now unfolds at a seven-seater counter, whether guests visit for an afternoon tea and coffee flight or the new, more accessible à la carte format for evening cocktails.

Boutwood and Tiutan’s shared ingredient-led approach to food and beverage, paired together for one night only at Off Menu.

See also: Single Ingredient at Helm is chef Josh Boutwood’s strongest tasting menu to date

Tatler Best 20 Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best 20 Bar 2026

Chele González is best known for Gallery by Chele, winner of Tatler Best Innovation • Restaurant 2026—but Asador Alfonso, his Cavite restaurant devoted to Spanish live-fire roasting, is where the chef built something far more personal. Top ingredients and masterfully controlled heat do most of the work here, with showmanship left out of the equation entirely, in pursuit of a genuine asador experience still uncommon in this part of the world. Head chef Rodrigo Osorio, who shares González’s roots in Cantabria, brings a native warmth to the kitchen, delivering the soulful charm Spanish cuisine is known for.

The Back Room transports guests to 1920s speakeasy elegance through a cocktail programme built on locally sourced ingredients. Bartender Yllaine Payno found her way here through curiosity—what began as a reception role at Rue Bourbon eventually led her behind the bar, and later to a head bartender post at Indus Modern Indian Kitchen. Now part of the Shangri-La The Fort, Manila team, she channels that same inquisitive spirit into The Back Room’s drinks list, drawing on classic cocktails, considered ingredients and the people around her to keep the bar’s offerings—and its speakeasy charm—in constant motion.

Related: Tatler Best 20: the best bars in the Philippines 2026

Tatler Best Service • Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best Innovation • Bar 2026

Chef/owner JP Cruz blurs the line between kitchen and front-of-house at Inatô—Binisaya for “our way”—preparing dishes while conversing with guests who’ve become regulars, all on a close-quarters counter that puts the kitchen’s work in full view. The Bahala Na menu leaves the night entirely in Cruz’s hands, built on seasonality and availability, and shaped by traditional Filipino technique applied to exceptional local and global produce. Cruz honed this instinct as sous chef at Toyo Eatery before striking out on his own at its sister restaurant, carving a distinct, personal path for contemporary Filipino cooking that feels both familiar and inspired.

Cedric Allen Mendoza leads Recraft, an experimental neighbourhood bar that pairs world-class cocktails with warm, unpretentious hospitality. The co-founder brings an international perspective to the programme, having previously led the celebrated Manhattan bar in Singapore. Guided by a “familiar unfamiliar” philosophy, Mendoza constantly plays with expectations, reworking classics and introducing flavour-bending techniques while keeping the experience approachable and fun.

Deliberate, personal cooking meets a bar built on subverting expectations—an unlikely but fitting match at Off Menu.

Read more: Meet the bartenders behind Recraft: Lester Fuentes and Cedric Mendoza

Tatler Best Spotlight Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best Design • Bar 2026

Chef/co-owner Charles Montañez, also Tatler Best Rising Star • Restaurant 2026, builds nearly every dish at Liyab around live fire: grilling, smoking, roasting and stewing in full view of the room. The approach is ingredient-driven and patient, treating time itself as part of the technique and letting dishes take as long as they need to develop full flavour. Tableside preparations bring guests even closer to the process, and the tasting menu changes often, shaped by Montañez’s own memories and instincts.

Hidden within a loading dock and reached via a dimly lit staircase, No Entry Cocktail Club is a below-ground speakeasy and supper club that transforms its industrial setting into a moody “dark deco” dreamscape. With bartender David Abalayan, also Tatler Best Rising Star • Bar 2026, steering the beverage programme, its menu delivers captivating craft cocktails inspired by the taboo.

See also: Tatler Best-in-Class: awarding the best restaurants in the Philippines 2026

Tatler Best 20 Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best Bar of the Year 2026

With every new menu at Metiz, executive chef Stephan Duhesme and head chef Arlo Gregorio unravel another layer of understanding of Filipino cuisine. The progressive restaurant explores the flavours we carry with us—shaped by family, culture, travel and experience—and reconstructs them through a distinctly Filipino perspective. Where many shy away from the bolder flavours that shape our palate—the funky fishiness of bagoong, the distinct bitterness of ampalaya—Metiz not only embraces these elements but wields them masterfully.

Big Fuzz was started in 2023 by four friends with a simple vision: a place to sit down, connect and sip on classic cocktails with classic rock playing on vinyl in the background. Today, every cocktail nods to a pop-culture reference, from Punch Drunk Love, a wink to the Paul Thomas Anderson film, to Sound of Silver, an homage to LCD Soundsystem. Managing partner and head bartender Kyle Quismundo, who also plays guitar in homegrown indie rock outfit Cheats, reinterprets classic cocktails using modern techniques, while vinyl records—strictly 20 years or older—spin throughout the night.

Expect this Off Menu pairing to turn up the volume: Metiz’s fearless Filipino flavours alongside a bar that’s never met a classic it wouldn’t rework.

Read more: Tatler Best 20: the best restaurants in the Philippines 2026

Tatler Best 20 Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best 20 Bar 2026

Jorge Mendez wields a profound understanding of culinary techniques from around the globe, but it is Japanese cuisine that has truly captured his attention. Through Mōdan, the chef channels his personal memories and love for Japan into innovative, contemporary tasting menus, with the intimate chef’s counter format offering a more personal and immersive dining experience. The Cubao restaurant has quickly become one of the country’s most sought-after reservations, with dishes like its debasaki and nabe pot earning spots on many a food lover’s bucket list.

Fat Cat channels the spirit of a Japanese jazz kissaten—vinyl on the turntable, easy conversation and a snug space that builds a community out of strangers. Last year’s menu overhaul draws each drink from a card in the tarot’s Major Arcana. Ronald Cruz, surprisingly new to the industry, got his start hosting friends at home during the pandemic before seizing the chance to open a bar of his own—a leap that paid off when Fat Cat won Tatler Best Bar of the Year 2025. Later this year, Cruz heads to the global finals of Diageo World Class 2026 in Scotland, competing to bring home the championship title.

In case you missed it: Fat Cat—learn all about our Tatler Best Bar of the Year 2025

Tatler Best 20 Restaurant 2026 & Tatler Best 20 Bar 2026

Beef is treated as a craft rather than a commodity at Raging Bull Chophouse & Bar—every cut sustainably sourced, fired over the Josper charcoal oven and finished simply with housemade salts, mustards and sauces that let the ingredient itself lead. That same rigour defines chef de cuisine Loïc Brun's approach: 25 years in professional kitchens, including stints at Gordon Ramsay Bar & Grill and Ministry of Crab, fuel a passion for creating exceptional dining experiences.

The Grasshopper Bar is an ingredient-forward cocktail bar that marked its second anniversary last year with a sophomore menu, championing underrated local produce across 17 inventive serves. Managing partner Abby Quilal-lan once set her sights on a career in medicine, but a shift into hospitality management led her to Sofitel Philippine Plaza, and soon after, a server position at ABV, where she trained and experimented on her own time to climb from server to barback to full-time bartender.

Two very different disciplines meet at Off Menu: classical steakhouse precision behind one station, a self-taught, ground-up approach to bartending behind the other.

Off Menu Philippines returns this September 25 and 26, 2026 at Shangri-La the Fort, Manila. Tickets to day one are now sold out—secure your tickets to day two HERE.

Off Menu Philippines 2026 would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors: Lead Sponsor HSBC; Gold Sponsor Pernod Ricard; Supporting Sponsors OpenTable and Shangri-La The Fort; plus Patron Make It Makati. We thank them for helping us bring together the country’s best culinary and cocktail talent for this one-of-a-kind celebration of Philippine F&B.

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