By Eileen Mencias
Resto PH president and Mamalou’s founder David Sison and Resto PH president emeritus Eric Teng have teamed up again to bring Tadhana, a New York Michelin Guide-listed restaurant known for its Filipino tasting menu, to Manila.
Tadhana founder Chef Frances Tariga, a former private chef to the UAE royal family who has also competed in US cooking shows including Top Chef and Cutthroat Kitchen All Stars, said she was ready to return home after 25 years working overseas.
Tadhana was founded in New York in 2024 by Filipinos championing Filipino cuisine, Tariga said.
In Manila, the vision for Tadhana remains the same.
As Sison puts it: “We wanted to build something that meant something…a restaurant that could stand as a legacy, the kind of place that, years from now, people would still talk about. The kind of place that could put Filipino cuisine on the world stage where it has always belonged.”
The Makati tasting men traces Tariga’s journey through memory and technique. Binatog opens the experience as reference to her childhood in Sampaloc,followed by Pa-kwan—a crispy rice cake with watermelon and miso honey—and kwek kwek—egg accented with smoked ikura and bags dust.
The Kilaw centers on sawara (Spanish mackerel), aged for two days and paired with pili nut dressing, pomelo, olives and kamias. The fish is widely prized in Japanese cuisine. It is followed by Sinuglaw, combining wagyu with tomato nata, egg yolk jam and chicken skin.
“Here in the Philippines, what we did is we used premium ingredients from around the world. We want to showcase that while showcasing endemic Filipino produce,” Tariga said.
The menu continues with cornbread with tinapa mousse and dalandan-bignay marmalade, and sinigang sa bayabas with batuan and whipped gabi. A palate cleanser of kamias granita and caimito buyabon sorbet bridges the final course.
Tariga said the kitchen approach treats ingredients with equal respect from wagyu and samara to batman, tinapang bangus and kamias, using a mix of modern techniques.
“It’s a modern take on Filipino cuisine. At the end of the day, it’s faithful Filipino flavors,” Tariga said.
