Tadhana Makati feels like a homecoming with something to prove. Led by Chef Frances Tariga, the restaurant brings her Filipino tasting menu concept from New York to Makati, transforming familiar flavors into a more personal, fine dining experience.
Located inside the Levanto Building on Jupiter Street, Tadhana is not trying to make Filipino food feel foreign or overly restrained. Instead, it leans into what Chef Frances does best: taking dishes, memories, and ingredients that feel deeply Filipino, then reshaping them with global technique and a sharper sense of intention.
The tasting menu moves through different expressions of Filipino flavor, from playful opening bites to richer, more structured courses. What makes it compelling is that the food still feels recognizable. It is not Filipino cuisine stripped of its identity for the sake of fine dining. It is Filipino food made more precise, more layered, and more expressive.
Chef Frances Tariga’s style comes through in that balance. Her cooking carries the discipline of someone who has worked abroad and built a name internationally, but the soul of the menu remains rooted in home. Tadhana is driven by memory: the kind of flavors you grew up with, the dishes you know instinctively, and the regional ingredients that deserve more attention.
The experience also feels intentionally different from traditional fine dining. There is polish, but there is also personality. The space, the pacing, and the food all carry a sense of confidence without feeling too stiff. It feels like a restaurant that wants to show where Filipino cuisine can go next, while still honoring where it comes from.
And it looks like Chef Frances is not stopping with Tadhana. There is already a hint of another concept coming in the same building: a seafood-focused restaurant next door. If Tadhana is the more composed tasting menu expression of her cooking, the upcoming seafood spot could show a looser, more casual side of the same vision.
That makes the Levanto Building even more exciting as a dining destination. With Tadhana already setting the tone and another seafood concept on the way, Chef Frances Tariga seems to be building more than just one restaurant. She is creating a small world around Filipino flavor, one that feels personal, ambitious, and very much worth watching.
