Ana de Ocampo’s Osteria Antica: A love letter to Italian cuisine
There are people who open restaurants, and then there’s Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo. The woman behind Wildflour, Farmacy, Pink’s, Kei Maki, and more is not just in the business of feeding people—she’s in the business of bringing them home. Not to her own kitchen per se, but to places they’ve never been but somehow feel achingly familiar. Now, she’s done it again with Osteria Antica, a new Italian concept perched on the sixth floor of The Podium in Ortigas.
“It has been the evolution of our love for Italian cuisine,” De Ocampo shares. Wildflour Italian—her first foray into pasta and pizza—set the stage five years ago, but Osteria Antica is the epic reveal. “Our travels to Italy inspired us to bring that dining experience to Manila,” she says. But don’t expect just another trattoria with checkered tablecloths and Negronis on repeat. This is something else.
Authenticity thy name is Antica
Authenticity is a loaded word in the restaurant scene. Everyone claims it, few achieve it. Osteria Antica takes the purist route—not just in sourcing the finest ingredients but in committing to techniques that make Italian food, well, Italian. “We have gone so far as to fly over a brick wood-fired oven from Italy,” De Ocampo says. “Staying true to the real techniques will help the Philippine clientele feel as if they are dining in Italy itself, no tweaks necessary.” All this to recreate the way Italians make classic Neapolitan pizza.
What about the other dishes? The same as the pizza: elegance best served fresh.
The selection starts strong with tasty antipasti like the fritto misto and tricolore salad, a variety of extremely fresh pasta, wood-fired oven pizzas, and capping it with Osteria Antica’s takes on classic desserts like torta di cioccolato and tiramisu.
“I would describe it as simple but elegant, focused on traditional flavors and approaches that make you feel a genuine connection with the food.” Think Black Truffle Focaccia di Recco, a dish Ana personally fell in love with in Italy. “The truffles from Italy are some of the most flavorful and freshest in the world,” she says. That obsession translates to the table.
And if you’re in the mood for something that reminds you of coastal Italy, Osteria Antica has seafood dishes that channel Mediterranean summers—minus the jetlag from the long-haul flight.
The view is as good as the food
Why Ortigas? Why not BGC, where Wildflour reigns supreme? Ana knew the answer the moment she saw the space. “When we were shown the sixth floor space at The Podium and its unparalleled view of the Ortigas skyline, we instantly fell in love with it,” she says. The high-rise setting adds elements of escapism, adventure. “I knew then it would be the perfect spot for a literal elevation of our Italian concept.”
It’s also a strategic move. “Ortigas has been ripe for a private dining place for important meetings or special occasions,” she explains. Osteria Antica is meant to be a destination—the kind of place where executives seal deals over a bottle of Barolo, or where families gather for Sunday pasta feasts.
The interiors have the power to transport guests to a faraway osteria: from Antica’s black Obstrastone floors and ambient luminaires, to the antique furniture, Old World brickwork and passageways that lead to more spaces (just like those in beautiful, labyrinthine Venezia).
De Ocampo is no stranger to culinary precision. She’s spent the last decade building an empire of comfort food executed with near-religious devotion. Osteria Antica is no exception. “Osteria Antica is the highest expression of our dedication to bringing the best of the global food scene to Manila,” she says. But at its core, it’s still about making people feel at home—just in a different time zone.
“Our more than a decade of perfecting bread-making at Wildflour contributes heavily to Osteria Antica,” she reveals. That means pizza and all bread-based dishes get the same obsessive attention as Wildflour’s famed pastries. It’s the small details that make the experience seamless for diners who have followed her journey from croissants to calzones.
But here’s the real magic trick: Even after all the years of research, travel and menu development, Ana still finds joy in the simplest of dishes. “It may be cliché, but I feel nothing beats an honest-to-goodness freshly made pasta,” she says. And that’s exactly what Osteria Antica delivers—handmade pasta, the way Italian nonnas have been doing it for centuries.
Her team of chefs even made trips to various regions of Italy. “(This is) our version of R&D,” De Ocampo says with a laugh. “They visited several restaurateurs upholding family recipes passed down over generations with restaurants housed in beautiful open spaces with alcoves and antiquated furnishings. It really drove the vision for the type of Italian experience we felt Manila would appreciate.”
What excites Ana de Ocampo the most? The stories that will unfold here. “I’m excited for more special memories to be made at the unique, elevated space we have worked so hard to build,” she says. Osteria Antica isn’t just another Italian restaurant in Manila. It’s a time capsule of all the meals, places and moments that made her fall in love with Italy in the first place.
So, when you find yourselves in The Podium with a sprawling view of the mesmeric lights of Ortigas while being served glasses of Hugo Spritz and slices of the best pepperoni pizza in town, keep in mind that this is no ordinary meal.
You are at the heart of a culinary romance with all things Italian. And if you listened closely, you could almost hear a mandolin murmur tales of love and memory.
