The Food Tripper: A Food Trip in Manila, Then Something to Do

A Food Tripper's night in Manila is built around the meal: good food first, something to do within a short walk, then dessert or a drink close by. In Cubao Expo that is dinner at Best of Luck or Habanero Kitchen Bar, with a paper tray from Ichiban Takoyaki first if you arrive hungry, then the film-poster wall outside EXT.Cafe or half an hour digging through vinyl at Good Vibrations Records, then frozen yogurt at llao llao in Ali Mall, about a 5-minute walk away.

How the quiz picks a Food Tripper

Four answers decide it, and the drinks answer is not one of them. What makes a good night is "Good food and a long talk". The second question gets "Something a bit different" or "The place nobody's posted yet", never "The sure thing". The room has other people in it: "A warm room with some noise" or "The loud table everyone wants to join". The pace is "Somewhere in the middle" in either room, or "Out out" in the warm room only; "Out out" at the loud table makes a Barkada Captain. "Slow and easy" never leads here, and neither does the corner table for two.

The Food Tripper page says dinner is the point and the rest of the night is built around it. It is one of the eleven archetypes, and it describes an appetite for the evening, nothing about the person.

Cubao: the Expo night

Dinner first. Choose by mood.

• Best of Luck has Hong Kong-style Chinese plates for under ₱500 a head. In 2024 the Pork & Shrimp Siomai was ₱168, the Special Bacon Bao ₱188 and the Braised Beef Tendon Dry Noodles ₱288. It is closed on Mondays and it is two floors of two-seat tables, so it suits a pair better than a barkada.
• Habanero Kitchen Bar at Stall 63 costs ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head. Order the Oyster Sisig (₱395 in 2024); the torched 3-Cheese Pizza was ₱498 in the same year. It is open until 10 PM from Tuesday to Thursday and 11 PM from Friday to Sunday, and closed on Mondays.

If you arrive hungry. Ichiban Takoyaki opens at 3 PM from Monday to Saturday and 2 PM on Sundays. Allow 20 minutes and treat it as the starter, not a stop of its own.

Something to do. The covered walkway outside EXT.Cafe is papered floor to ceiling in black-and-white film posters, old and new. It costs nothing and is there whenever the compound is open, listed as 8 AM to midnight daily. Good Vibrations Records is a vinyl shop with a listening room and a small bar, open from 1 PM to 10:30 PM and closed on Mondays.

Dessert or a drink. llao llao is on the upper ground floor of Ali Mall and keeps mall hours: 9 PM from Monday to Thursday and on Sunday, 10 PM on Friday and Saturday. On a weeknight, leave the Expo by 8:30 PM. For the drink instead, Cubao X Brewery has no kitchen, so food comes in from the neighbours, which a Food Tripper can read as an invitation. It is open from 3 PM to midnight.

Budget: with the first dinner, the stall, the meal and the dessert each cost under ₱500 a head and the poster wall is free, so under ₱1,500 a head. With the second, up to ₱2,500.

Cubao: the Gateway night, for a bigger table

Every stop here takes a big group, and it is all indoors.

1. Dinner at World Kitchens on Level 4 of Gateway Mall 2: a food hall of 15 show kitchens at ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head, with cochinillo, gambas al ajillo and unagi hitsumabushi among the dishes. From Monday to Thursday it closes between 3 PM and 5:30 PM. The walk-in alternatives are Palenque, a hall of regional Filipino stalls, and Food Express on Level 3 of Gateway Mall 1, a food court that costs under ₱500 a head, with stalls such as Sisig Hooray, Salo Lechon Belly Kitchen and Bebang Halo-Halo.
2. A few frames at Paeng's Gateway Bowl, a bowling alley with 24 lanes and six billiard tables, open until midnight. It takes group reservations.
3. Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory or Caramia Cakes & Gelato for dessert, both under ₱500 a head and both on mall hours.

Budget: up to ₱2,500 a head.

For a third kind of night, Dampa sa Farmers Market has the group buy seafood at the market stalls and have it cooked for the table. Ask a stall for its cooking hours first.

Where a Food Tripper eats in the other areas

The planner covers Cubao now, so in these areas the dinner is the fixed point and the rest of the night is yours to add.

BGC. Start at Greenlight Burgers, where smashburgers are ordered through a stoplight system, for under ₱500 a head. For dinner, choose Los Tacos MNL for tacos made with Oaxacan technique, Hikiniku to Come for charcoal-grilled hamburg steak served three ways, or Em Hà Nội for phở gà and nem rán. All three cost ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head. Budget: up to ₱2,000 a head for both.

Poblacion, Makati. Three kitchens to pick dinner from, each ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head: Scratch Smashburgers for a smashburger on a brioche bun, La Pita for Middle Eastern food with a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and Super Uncle Claypot for claypot rice. Pick one and order for the table; the bars for afterwards are in the Poblacion bar crawl.

Makati CBD. Aida's Chicken serves Bacolod-style grilled chicken for under ₱500 a head. In Salcedo, Taquería Franco at LPL Center does French-accented tacos and is open to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and Kodawari at Adamson Centre is an izakaya known for gyudon, open until 11 PM. On weekend mornings, Salcedo Saturday Market and Legazpi Sunday Market run from about 7 AM to 2 PM.

Pasay Bay Area. Stay at MOA: dinner at Army Navy for a burrito with a bay view or The Aristocrat for chicken barbecue and java rice, then Bo's Coffee to finish. Budget: up to ₱2,500 a head.

Plan the Cubao night

The night-out planner covers Cubao now, with the other areas to follow. For a Food Tripper it plans good food, something to do, and dessert or a drink close by, and any stop can be swapped for another kitchen. The routes on this page have the same shape and are there to walk on your own.

Go deeper with Cubao Expo food under ₱300 a plate, where to eat in Makati on the Bib Gourmand list, BGC restaurants by occasion and MOA restaurants by budget. For a full table, see the barkada night out guide.