Destined for home: The return of Tadhana
Tadhana Makati has opened its doors at the Levanto Building in Makati, introducing a contemporary Filipino tasting menu designed for a global audience. Headed by Chef Frances Tariga, the restaurant marks her return to the Philippines after 23 years of working abroad.
Frances was born and raised in Manila. She started her career in Dubai after graduating from culinary school to work at the Burj Al Arab, also known as the world’s first seven-star hotel. After a year there, she started working as a private chef for the royal family of the UAE. Frances started working in the US when she was offered to be the private chef to the ambassador of Dubai to the United Nations. She cooked for all the royal events at the Waldorf Astoria, Metropolitan Club, and The Plaza.
In 2023, the Top Chef Season 13 alumna became the first-ever winner of Sushi Master. The Roku TV series was the original Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s six-episode cooking competition series, said to be the first to focus on sushi. Frances eventually opened Tadhana (meaning destiny or fate) on the Lower East Side of New York in 2024. Tadhana was recognized by the Michelin Guide and was named Time Out New York’s Best New Restaurant in that same year.
I first met Chef Frances when she cooked at a restaurant in Quezon City and was impressed with her dishes. I then tried another of her dinner pop-ups in Marvin Agustin’s Kondwi in Makati and was even more in love with her food. Now she has her own restaurant, which is her most personal project to date. She points out that Tadhana Makati is rooted in place, premium ingredients, and international ambition and is not a reinterpretation of tradition.
It is a forward-looking expression of Filipino cooking, shaped by the Philippines' endemic ingredients and elevated through contemporary technique, design, and service.
She says, “This restaurant isn’t about looking back. It’s about showing where Filipino food can go next.”
At the core of Tadhana Makati is a progressive tasting menu that moves deliberately from restraint to power. Mostly Luzon land and coast anchor the opening courses, while premium proteins such as native poultry, dry-aged pork, and grass-fed beef appear later in the experience, earned through narrative rather than excess.
The contemporary Filipino tasting menu I had consisted of 12 courses. Frances names her dishes with familiar Filipino dish names that we are all bound to be familiar with. Even Filipino street food like binatog and kwek kwek are served but not in an ordinary way. Everything is carefully re-imagined and elevated in ways that only a creative culinary mind like hers would do.
My personal favorites include Binatog—corn tortilla, truffle Comté (cheese) espuma, and coconut snow. It was definitely not the buttered and sugared corn kernels with shredded coconut I bought off the streets when I was a kid! The Pa-kwan—a seaweed tart with watermelon and miso honey—was heaven in one bite! I never liked kwek kwek (fried battered quail eggs) growing up, but the version of Frances was an annatto pie tee cup with egg, smoked ikura (salmon roe) topped with bagsik dust (her house-made spiced vinegar powdered).
I also loved her version of Sinuglaw made with Wagyu, tomato, egg yolk jam, and chicken skin.
Every single dish she prepared turned out to elevate every single ingredient of every dish.
The Ginataan was the dish I loved the most. This dish is rooted in her ancestral home in Quezon. Imagine coco custard with blue crab (alimasag), seafood velouté, and squash crowned with a dollop of caviar… this was definitely the highlight of my dinner! The best thing about this dish was my dinner companion was allergic to shellfish so I was lucky enough to have two servings of this! I did give my friend my Tocilog in exchange for the crab dish as I am not fond of pigeons. Frances’s version was Peking pigeon, tocino tare (Japanese for sauce), silog furikake (fried rice and egg topped with flavored seaweed), with pinakurat kosho(her genius play on the Japanese condiment yuzo kosho but using our local pinakurat vinegar instead of the Japanese citrus).
Another favorite of mine was the Inihaw at Gulay made with Iberico secreto (Spanish black pig), pickled pakbet vegetables and banana mole (yes, like the Mexican sauce)… I could have had two of these as well! There was a variety of desserts to cap this excellent meal. The Ube made with ube, calamansi, kaffir lime and caramel was a perfect ending for me but Frances went all out and presented more—Pili Nut Mango Maja Blanca Turon. This was a box of several small Filipino desserts beautifully presented in a box decorated with grass and flowers— something that Frances made herself!
Endemic ingredients, coastal herbs, native citrus, coconut, cacao and fermented grains are stars of the dish. Subtle use of modern fermentation and dry-aging techniques allow the Filipino flavor profile to emerge as polished and distinct. The menu feels and is authentically Filipino, yet completely at home on the world stage.
Tadhana Makati is positioned in the fine-dining scene with a long-term vision aligned toward international recognition. Frances concludes, “We’re building something that can stand anywhere in the world. Not by copying, but by being precise about who we are.” Tadhana Makati is poised to position modern Filipino cuisine on the global stage.
Also watch out for the opening of Taglish (specializing in seafood and steak), also by Frances, soon to open beside Tadhana Makati.
