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A long table laid for twelve in a garden, mid-morning, with the house behind it.

You already know adobo. Come eat the other ninety percent.

A home lunch for twelve, at Shiela's own table, forty minutes from Makati. Seven regional Filipino courses, cooked the way they are cooked at home.

See the next datesWhat's on the table
  • 12 seats
  • ~3 hours
  • 40 min from Makati
Shiela in her kitchen, looking directly at the camera, mid-sentence rather than posed.

Your host

Shiela

Adobo is the one dish that left the country. The other ninety percent stayed home — so you have to come to a home.

I cook the food I grew up eating, in the house I cook it in every other day of the week.

I’m from Manila, and most of what I’ll put in front of you is regional — dishes that never travelled, because there was never any reason for them to.

For years I’ve been cooking traditional food, and I bake as well. What I kept noticing was that people who came to the Philippines went home having eaten adobo, sisig, and a mango. That’s three dishes out of a few hundred. Not because the rest is difficult — because nobody sits them down and explains it.

So: twelve seats, one table, my house. I cook seven courses in an order that makes sense, I tell you what you’re eating and why it’s in that position, and I give you your own sawsawan tray so you can finish each dish the way you want it.

Nothing gets made milder. That would be the one thing I could do that would waste your trip.

Signed, Shiela

The format

What this actually is

A home, not a restaurant

An alfresco table on Shiela's own property, about forty minutes out of Makati or BGC. There is no sign, no menu card and no service charge.

Twelve seats, one table

You eat with the other guests. If that isn't what you want, this isn't the right lunch — and a private buyout probably is.

Seven courses, about three hours

Small portions, in a deliberate order. Long enough to end up talking to the people next to you.

Cooked properly, not toned down

Sour, funky, fermented, and occasionally challenging. Nothing is made milder for the table — you get told what it is instead.

How that works
  • The table set for twelve before guests arrive.
  • Hands mixing vinegar and chilli in a small dish on a guest's sawsawan tray.
  • The gate and short approach to the house from the street.
A single sawsawan tray photographed from above, its seven small dishes separated and readable.
  • Coconut vinegar with crushed siling labuyo settling in it.
  • A small dish of bagoong.
  • A kalamansi being squeezed by hand.

The signature

Your own sawsawan tray

Every guest gets a tray: coconut vinegar, patis, kalamansi, soy, siling labuyo, bagoong, and one thing from the house. You build your own dipping sauce, and you rebuild it for each course — sharper for the fried things, saltier for the grilled ones. Shiela will tell you what she'd do. You are under no obligation to agree with her.

Sukang tuba
Coconut vinegar. Softer and rounder than cane.
Patis
Fish sauce. Salt, and a great deal more than salt.
Kalamansi
Halved to order — it goes flat within the hour.
Toyo
Soy. The one thing on the tray you already know.
Siling labuyo
Crushed, and the only real heat on the table.
Bagoong
Fermented shrimp. The most divisive thing here, and the best.
The house one
PLACEHOLDER → menu-and-pricing. Whatever Shiela puts on the tray that nobody else does.

A Filipino dish is finished by the eater, not the cook.

The menu

Seven courses, in this order

The order is deliberate. Each course sets up the one after it — sour first to wake the palate, then fat, then the long slow ones, then something cooked over fire and eaten with your hands. Nothing here is toned down.

  1. Kinilaw na tanigue

    Raw mackerel, cured at the table in coconut vinegar with ginger, red onion and a little chilli.

    Davao. Vinegar, not citrus — the older way.

  2. Chicharon bulaklak

    Optional — tell us at booking

    Crisped pork ruffle fat, eaten with a spiced vinegar you mix yourself.

    This is offal, and it is one of the best things on the table. Say no and you get extra ukoy instead — no one will mind, and no one will ask twice.

  3. Adobong puti

    Adobo before soy sauce existed — pork and chicken in vinegar, garlic, peppercorn and bay. Pale, sharp, nothing like the brown one you know.

    Batangas. The dish the whole idea is named after.

  4. Ginataang langka at hipon

    Young jackfruit and prawns simmered in first-press coconut milk with long chilli.

    Bicol. The only dish on the table that is properly hot.

  5. Sinigang sa sampalok

    Tamarind broth, so sour it is almost a shock, with pork belly and whatever greens came in that morning.

    Ordered fifth on purpose. First, it would have been too much.

  6. Inihaw na liempo, kamayan

    Pork belly over coals, served on banana leaf and eaten with your hands. Rice, tomatoes, salted egg, and your own sawsawan.

    Cutlery is on the table if you want it. Most people stop using it.

  7. Sinukmani at kapeng barako

    Sticky rice and coconut caramel, cooked down until it darkens, with strong Batangas coffee.

    Barako is a different bean and it tastes like it. Ask for a second cup.

The menu moves with the market. Dietary requirements are taken when you book.

Next seatings

The next lunches

  • 12 noon

    Introductory rate

    12 seats

    ₱3,600≈ $62per seat

    Introductory rate — the first eight tables only. ₱4,500 after that.

    Request these seats

  • 12 noon

    Introductory rate

    4 of 12 seats left

    ₱3,600≈ $62per seat

    Introductory rate — the first eight tables only. ₱4,500 after that.

    Request these seats

  • 12 noon

    Sold out

    ₱3,600≈ $62per seat

    Sold out

What a seat includes

  • Seven courses
  • Your own sawsawan tray
  • Kapeng barako
  • Water and one house drink

Before you book

Full prepayment. Dietary requirements are taken when you book, not at the table. Bookings close 48 hours before the lunch.

No reviews yet

This is new, so here is what there is instead

  • Shiela cooks every lunch herself, in her own house. Her name and face are on this page because you are booking her, not a venue.
  • The dishes are regional Filipino, and most of them are her family's versions rather than restaurant ones.
  • The Google Business Profile below is verified, with a real pin on a real street.
  • Opened October 2026. There are no reviews yet, and there will not be any invented ones here.

See the listing on Google →

Register

Ask about a seat

Tell Shiela what you're after and she'll come back to you within a day, with a payment link if there's room.

This is an enquiry, not a booking — nothing is charged here and no seat is held until it's paid for.

What are you asking about?

It's faster than email if something changes on the day.

Shiela shops the morning before, so this is very hard to change later.

We only use this to answer you. See the privacy note.

Private hire

The whole table, just your group

The full property and all twelve seats for one group, on a date of your choosing. The same seven courses, with the menu adjusted to whatever your group needs. Common for embassies, visiting teams and family birthdays.

Group size
10–15 guests
Duration
About 3 hours
Date
Yours to choose

The whole table

₱45,000–₱60,000

≈ $775–$1,035

Depends on the group size and the menu. Shiela will quote you a fixed number before anything is confirmed.

Enquire about a buyout

Before you ask

Questions people actually ask

How do I get there?

Once you’ve paid, you’ll get an email with a Google Maps pin and the full address in a block you can copy. Show that to your Grab driver — it’s the simplest way to arrive, it costs very little from Makati or BGC, and it’s what most guests do.

Allow about forty minutes from Makati. Leave a bit more room on a Sunday morning if it’s raining.

Is the food spicy?

Almost none of it. Filipino food generally isn’t spicy — that’s a Thai and Indian association that follows the whole region around. Only one course here has real heat in it, and there’s chilli on your tray if you want more.

What Filipino food is, and what catches people out, is sour — sharply, deliberately sour — along with fermented and funky, and sweet notes turning up in savoury dishes where you don’t expect them. The courses are ordered to walk you into that rather than drop you in it.

I'm vegetarian, allergic, or pregnant. Can you work around it?

Usually, yes — but tell us when you book, not when you sit down. There’s a dietary field on the enquiry form and it can’t be skipped.

A home kitchen cooking seven courses for twelve people can adapt a long way with a few days’ notice and almost not at all on the morning. Pork and shellfish run through a lot of the menu, so vegetarians and anyone avoiding either should expect a genuinely different set of dishes rather than the same ones with things removed.

Can I come on my own?

Yes, and plenty do. It’s one table of twelve, so a solo guest ends up in the conversation within about ten minutes whether they planned to or not.

If you’d rather not eat with strangers at all, the private buyout is the better option.

Is this a restaurant?

No, and the difference matters more than it sounds.

It’s a home. One table, one seating, twelve people, a fixed menu that changes with what’s at the market that week, and a host who cooks it and then sits down with you. There’s no à la carte, no walk-ins, and no second sitting after yours — so the food is timed to the table rather than to a service.

The practical version: you’re a guest, and you’re expected to arrive at the time on the booking.