Tatler’s ultimate guide: where to order the best empanadas in (and around) Metro Manila 2026

Location: Salcedo Village, Makati City

An artisanal spin-off of Bon Appétit at 1120 House, Bon Bakery found its footing in Salcedo Village with a café that blends the minimalism of Seoul with Parisian elegance. Among their collection of sweet and savoury pastries are a strong pick of empanadas. Alongside the classics—chicken, beef, tuna—the menu ventures further: customers swear by the chimichurri Lucban longganisa and the truffle mushroom, the kind of flavours that make you reconsider everything you thought you knew about merienda.

What to order: The chimichurri Lucban longganisa. Pair it with one of their handcrafted cocktails if you happen to be there in the evening.

Read more: Filipino Food: 9 Types of longganisa—Which one is your favourite?

Location: Various branches across Metro Manila

Cookbook author and TV personality chef Sandy Daza needs little introduction, and neither does his empanada brand, which has become a reliable fixture at malls across the metro. The retro coloured dot markers (a nod to old-school Filipino bakery aesthetics) signal each flavour at a glance: original, chicken, humba, tuna, spicy tuna, vegetarian, and vegetarian curry. For all its familiarity, Casa Daza by Chef Sandy has endured precisely because it doesn't overcomplicate things.

What to order: The variety pack—the best way to work through the range. The humba, in particular, stands apart from the usual suspects.

Tatler Tip: Don’t leave without the pork asado buns and the retro flying saucers—they’re as nostalgic as the empanadas themselves.

Location: San Pedro, Laguna (also available at The Grid, Power Plant Mall, Makati City)

What began as a private dining operation during the pandemic has grown into one of the most quietly celebrated destination restaurants just outside the metro. Chef-owner Jen Gerodias trained classically before turning her family’s Laguna vacation home into a restaurant, and that personal sensibility, heirloom recipes, playful touches, unmistakably her own, runs through everything on the menu. Her empanadas are among the most inventive anywhere: the French onion soup empanada, filled with caramelised onions, gruyère, thyme, and a red wine and roasted beef marrow bone broth glaze, is a bona fide showstopper. The beef brisket rendang empanada runs it close.

What to order: The French onion soup empanada—it earns every superlative. For a bolder hit, the beef brisket rendang.

Tatler Tip: Stock up on frozen, ready-to-bake empanadas to bring home. The cravings will come.

See also: Casa Luisa: a restaurant with Filipino flavours with French techniques

Location: UPRC III, Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City; Molito Lifestyle Center, Alabang

Founded in 2019 by brothers-in-law Erwan Heussaff and Nico Bolzico, Chingolo Deli is equal parts steakhouse and butcher shop, with the empanadas functioning as a brilliant argument for Bolzico Beef’s Argentinian Angus. The grass-fed provenance comes through in each bite; the empanadas are available fresh or frozen in original beef or chilli and cheese.

What to order: Go simple with the original beef to best appreciate their grass-fed Argentinian Angus meat.

Tatler Tip: Pair it with their chimichurri for an herbaceous twist.

Location: Rodriguez Avenue, Makati City (order via phone or Facebook @crispy.piayita)

Formerly known as Bailon Foods, Crispy Piayita Inc. is a Bacolod institution that has quietly maintained a loyal Manila following for decades. The business traces its roots to the late 1960s in Negros Occidental, where the Bailon family became the gold standard for muscovado-filled crispy piaya. The empanadas, made with the same Ilonggo home-cooking ethos, have their own devotees. The menu is deliberately simple, and that’s entirely the point: chicken or vegetarian, each made with care and without shortcuts.

What to order: Both options are worth trying—the chicken for the classic, the vegetarian for a surprisingly satisfying alternative. Customers pride themselves on knowing about this one.

Tatler Tip: Ask about the empanaditas—smaller versions of the same empanadas, ideal for when you want a taste without the full commitment.

Location: Various branches across Metro Manila

When it comes to Ilocos empanada in Metro Manila, Fariñas is the name that comes up first, and for good reason. Owned by the Fariñas family of Ilocos Norte and operating multiple branches across the metro, the brand has made shatteringly crisp, brilliantly orange Batac-style empanadas available to anyone who wants them, no bus ride required. Ingredients are reportedly shipped daily from Ilocos, and it shows: the dough is thin and crackling, the filling generous with egg, garlicky longganisa, and shredded green papaya.

What to order: The ultimate empanada—the classic filling elevated with crispy bagnet for extra crunch and depth. Order it fresh and eat it immediately; the crispiness waits for no one.

Tatler Tip: The sukang Iloko dipping sauce is non-negotiable. Some branches also carry bagnet and other Ilocano sides worth exploring if you’re eating in.

See also: What is the Ilocos empanada?

Location: Metro Manila (order via Facebook or Instagram @laurens.kitchenette)

Lauren’s Kitchenette is the kind of find that spreads through word of mouth, a home-based operation with a loyal following built almost entirely on the strength of the product. Their empanadas are listed as pies, but make no mistake: in spirit, execution, and satisfaction, these are empanadas through and through. Customers describe the crust with genuine enthusiasm, and the range of fillings, from classic chicken to the more unusual salmon, suggests a kitchen that isn’t content with the obvious.

What to order: The salmon pie—genuinely uncommon in Manila’s empanada landscape, and the one customers keep coming back for.

Location: Parañaque City (order via Facebook @lolodadempanadas or call +63 917 838 9196)

Lolo Dad Empanadas earned one of the strongest showings in our reader crowdsource, a testament to the kind of loyalty only truly good home cooking inspires. Based in Parañaque and operating on an order-based model, this is the sort of find that makes you feel like you’re in on something. The empanadas are made to order and delivered with the warmth you’d expect from a kitchen that takes its recipes personally.

What to order: The ham and cheese, the tuna pesto, or the classic chicken—each one a reason to order a full box.

Read more: Can Philippine coffee scale up without leaving farmers behind?

Location: Various branches across Metro Manila; also available on GrabFood and Foodpanda

The most popular recommendation from our readers, and by an impressive margin.

Since 1979, Mama Empanada has been doing exactly one thing, exceptionally well. Now in its third generation of family recipes, the brand has grown from a single kitchen into a metro-wide institution without losing the quality that made it beloved in the first place. The classic chicken remains the anchor: honest, consistent, and deeply satisfying. Around it, a range of flavours has accumulated over the years: Italian sausage, sriracha chicken, sirloin beef taco, herbed tuna, each one a product of the same careful recipe-keeping that started it all.

What to order: The classic chicken—the original, the benchmark, the one that built everything. If you want to venture further, the Italian sausage is the most-cited second order.

Tatler Tip: Frozen empanadas are available for those who want a stash at home. The classic chicken freezes well and reheats beautifully.

Location: Various branches across Metro Manila (order via maryandmartha.ph or @maryandmarthaph; also available on GrabFood and Foodpanda )

Mary and Martha’s empanada de kaliskis earns its name honestly: the pastry is made using a dough-layering technique similar to that of a croissant, building up a flaky, architectural crust that customers describe with the kind of reverence usually reserved for actual viennoiserie. The filling range is impressively considered: chorizo, beef & mushroom, tuna melt, ham & cheese, Jamaican, mushroom sisig, cheesy chicken, and relyenong bangus, a lineup that covers familiar ground and ventures well beyond it.

What to order: An assorted box, the only fair way to explore the range. The chorizo and the relyenong bangus are the two most distinctive, and both reward the curious.

Tatler Trivia: The kaliskis technique takes its name from the Filipino word for fish scales—a nod to the overlapping layers of pastry that give the empanada its characteristic texture.

See also: Beyond calamansi: 5 Filipino citrus fruits you should know

Location: Various branches across Metro Manila

Pedro the Grocer is the Metro Manila outpost of the Antonio’s Group, the legendary Tagaytay restaurant family helmed by chef Tony Boy Escalante, brought to the city by his eldest son, Basti. Think of it as the Antonio’s pantry made accessible: jams, sauces, frozen goods, and baked treats that carry the same quality standard the group is known for. Among the standouts: a mushroom and Gruyère empanada that has developed a quiet but insistent following among readers, praised for its depth of flavour and its premium credentials without pretension.

What to order: The mushroom and Gruyère empanada — the one readers kept naming. Worth every mention.

Location: Legazpi Village, Makati City

Chef JP Anglo’s beloved Filipino restaurant needs no introduction to Manila’s food community, but the beef pares empanada might still surprise those who haven’t sought it out. Made with beef brisket and tendons, it packs the deep, braised-beef comfort of pares into a pastry shell that has inspired genuine devotion from those in the know.

What to order: The beef pares empanada.

NOW READ

Where to order the best bread in Metro Manila: sourdough, focaccia, brioche and more

The rare artisanal salts of the Philippines and why they matter today

Matcha is having a moment: 13 matcha cafés in Metro Manila you should visit