These Metro Manila restaurants are deliberately located off the beaten path — proof that discerning diners will always go the distance for a good meal.
BY JACLYN CLEMENTE KOPPE
After years in the restaurant business opening various concepts together (Hey, Handsome, Sambar, Aurora, among others), chefs Nicco Santos and Quenee Vilar found themselves in an existential junction. “There comes a time in life that you ask: What is the point of all this?,” Santos candidly expresses. “While I have enjoyed all these years cooking and putting together concepts in the past, I have met my true self in Celera.” Derived from the Malay word “selera” meaning taste or appetite, Santos calls this new venture “a continuous exploration of self.” The contemporary Asian cuisine they prepare stems from not only the life journey of Santos and Vilar, but of the whole team as a collective, breathing life into their unique story.
Their initial offering is rich with Asian flavours and refined by classical cooking techniques. Creations include somen of glass noodles made from reduced shrimp heads; a Peking duck and chicken meatball skewered in pine branch and topped with strawberries harkening back to Santos’ summers in mountainous Baguio City; and a perfectly roasted quail served with a dense jus from its bones that shows deftness in the handling of delicate game meat.
The restaurant is located within Comuna, which is a creative hub built in the more industrial part of Makati City, a place where Santos feels breeds the kind of expressiveness they want in Celera. The restaurant designed by Hong Kong and Manila-based interior designer JJ Acuña boasts an open kitchen that feels like a hearth, its textures and inclinations provoked by the innate character of its location. “We knew from early on, we wanted a unique space that is off-grid, but at the same time accessible. It’s such a bonus that this building where Celera is – is now a home to a thriving community. We love where we are, and we can’t say that enough.”
Right now, the team is focused on finding their footing around their new space, coming up with thoughtful ways to engage diners every night. Come August, they have something new to offer guests to celebrate their six months of operations. “In the meantime, come join us for dinner,” invites Santos.
“Sustainability” is quite the buzz word these days, giving rise to a whole new concept: lab-to-table. These are coming from chefs and restauranteurs who want to find new ways to extract flavours from ingredients, prolonging their lifespan, and perhaps utilising parts that are normally thrown away. Maxine Kong, CEO of Now Now Canteen, explains how they are doing their part serving Asian comfort food in their fermentation-forward concept with husband Bryan Kong, director of fermentation and creative director. “We serve things like koji-marinated chicken, black garlic hummus, miso mash, amazake lemonades — and even our cookies and cocktails are crafted from a pantry of housemade shoyus, cheongs (Korean syrups) and misos,” she says. “Some ingredients are aged for weeks, others for months. All of them are designed to surprise your palate in subtle, playful ways.”
The canteen is located on the ground floor of their commissary for Kurīmu Ice Cream, one of their other food concepts, right in Mandaluyong City — incidentally, the geographic heart of Metro Manila. “We didn’t scout for the ‘perfect’ or ‘high foot-traffic’ spot — we simply made use of what we had. It’s a little tucked away, a little more personal,” Kong explains. “There’s something special about being in a quieter, less commercial pocket of the city and watching people make the effort to find us. It creates a different kind of energy — more intimate, more intentional. We’ve seen neigbours turn into regulars, friends bring their families, and curious strangers wander in and stay longer than they planned. I like that it still feels like a working lab — one that just happened to open its doors to diners.”
The curious are rewarded with innovative dishes like Now Now’s take on tortang talong (eggplant omelette) which is dressed like an okonomiyaki; crispy fried chicken marinated in shio koji that not only packs in the umami but also tenderises the meat. And there’s the bestselling udon bathe in their house-fermented soya paste which imparts deep flavour into the dandan noodles. They are currently working on some limited-edition pantry products from their fermentation lab, and launching in May a collaboration with local artist Isabel Reyes Santos who has moved between Manila, Berlin, and New York and is now finding a home in Now Now. “If you know her practice, you’ll know it’s layered, bold, and multidimensional — much like the food we serve.”
