Celebrating Filipino culture and cuisine through education and experience
2GO Travel, the country’s premier sea travel operator, introduces Taste of the Philippines, a one-of-a-kind cultural and culinary journey at sea, specially designed to immerse future tourism, hospitality and culinary professionals with firsthand experiences of authentic Filipino flavors, regional traditions, and the rich food heritage of the islands, all brought to life through meaningful, real-world learning onboard and ashore.
Developed in partnership with FEATR Media, a digital platform dedicated to Filipino food and travel stories, the program combines travel, education, and cultural appreciation. Students and culinary enthusiasts will embark on curated voyages that highlight regional specialties, local markets, and cooking traditions unique to Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Participants will dive into hands-on discovery of authentic Filipino flavors and traditions through culinary workshops and live cooking demonstrations led by acclaimed chefs, complemented by guided market tours and curated tastings that highlight the Philippines’ rich and diverse food heritage. Beyond the masterclass sessions, the program fosters meaningful connections with industry leaders, opening doors to valuable mentorship and networking opportunities for aspiring professionals pursuing careers in hospitality and the culinary arts, both locally and on the global stage.
“We are proud to partner with 2GO in championing local flavors and traditions through this program,” said Erwan Heussaff, co-founder of FEATR Media. “Filipino cuisine has rich regional stories that deserve more recognition. By immersing students in these experiences, we help nurture a deeper appreciation of our food culture and the value of telling these stories.”
As FEATR’s co-developer of the program, the channel will also document and share these culinary journeys, ensuring that Filipino food and heritage continue to gain visibility at home and worldwide.
“Taste of the Philippines is part of 2GO’s Educational Tour Series, which provides students with practical exposure to the industries they aspire to join,” said Francis Chua, 2GO Travel Business Unit Head. “Through this program, we not only celebrate Filipino cuisine but also strengthen the link between travel, education, and cultural appreciation.”
The inaugural run of Taste of the Philippines will begin in September 2025 as a limited program, sailing the Manila–Cebu–Cagayan de Oro route to link the country’s major islands while highlighting regional cuisines and culinary traditions.
To learn more about Taste of the Philippines, send us an email at tours_groups@2go.com.ph.
With a vibrant food scene and countless restaurants around the Metro, finding your next meal can be a challenge. If you’re tired of endless scrolling to find the perfect restaurant, look no further than OpenRice, Hong Kong’s #1 dining platform, now making it easier than ever for Filipinos to search restaurants, book tables, post reviews, and earn rewards!
Founded in 1999, OpenRice has evolved into a leading culinary guide. Within 25 years of operations, OpenRice has evolved into the ultimate dining app, now operating across eight countries in Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, and the Philippines.
The platform is designed to be your go-to resource for all things dining while connecting you with a vibrant community of fellow food lovers.
Key Features That Make OpenRice a Must-Have App
Search Restaurants with Ease: With over 19,000+ listed restaurants in Metro Manila alone, OpenRice helps you find the perfect spot for any occasion. Whether you’re craving a specific cuisine or looking for a restaurant in a particular location, their powerful search filters will guide you. You can even search via video for a more immersive experience.
Book Tables Instantly: Avoid the long queues and reserve your table with OpenRice. The platform allows you to book a table at over 150 partner restaurants (and counting), giving you instant confirmation and access to app-exclusive deals. OpenRice is partnered with restaurants such as Antonio’s, Single Origin, Le Feu Steakhouse, and Shi Lin, with more partners being added to the platform weekly.
Share Your Experience: As a dining enthusiast, your opinion matters! OpenRice encourages users to document their dining journey by writing reviews and sharing photos or videos. Your contributions help the community discover hidden gems and make informed decisions.
Earn Rewards While You Dine: Connect your GoRewards account to your OpenRice profile to earn points for confirmed bookings and reviews. (Earn up to 6 points per seat, 8 points for your first review.)
Are you eager to discover your next delicious meal? Download the OpenRice app from the App Store or Google Play Store today. Where to connect: For more information, visit our website at https://ph.openrice.com/en/manila or follow us on social media:
* Instagram: @openrice_ph
* TikTok: @openriceph
* Facebook: OpenRicePH
* Email: ph.marketing@openrice.com.ph
Take a sip, dazzle, and dazzle some more. Maria Clara Sparkling Sangria, a sparkling spin on the original Filipino sangria, is a new addition to the brand’s legacy.
Last June 10, 2025, Azadore Restaurant, Sacred Heart, Quezon City, launched this exciting new variation, delighting both loyal fans and new drinkers. Maria Clara Sparkling Sangria is lively, refreshing, and celebration-ready with its signature sweet red wine and citrus hint heightened by a brilliant fizz.
The new Sparkling Sangria, in a compact 330-ml aluminium can, is light, vibrant, and easy to drink from the fridge, on ice, or from the can. Its 7% ABV (14 proof) is perfect for sunny days, spontaneous hangouts, rooftop sunsets, and cosy nights in.
For busy people, its ready-to-drink format is ideal. No corkscrew needed; Maria Clara Sparkling Sangria is a delightful, simple solution for meetings, events, and weekends.
Maria Clara Sangria’s creative assortment includes the classic red wine favorite since 1985, the non-alcoholic Virgin Sangria, and the halal-certified Maria Clara Punch, created to open more communities to the celebration.
7-Eleven locations countrywide sell Maria Clara Sparkling Sangria exclusively.
Destileria Limtuaco & Co., Inc., the country’s oldest distillery and maker of White Castle Whisky, El Hombre Tequila Flavoured Spirit, and Napoleon VSOP Brandy, proudly produces this sparkling sangria as another milestone in its legacy of innovation and Filipino pride.
Dining out is much more delicious with a discount—especially if it’s up to 55% off! All you have to do is pay the bill with your BDO Credit Card through BDO Pay.
This April, BDO Elite and Gold Credit Cardholders can enjoy 50% off and an extra 5%off when paying through BDO Pay in these restaurants:
Botejyu: An authentic Japanese traditional cuisine restaurant serving a variety of dishes – from sushi and ramen to the signature okosoba or okonomiyaki. Dine in with a minimum of P3,000 and get 55% off using BDO Elite or Gold Credit Cards on BDO Pay.
Greyhound Café: Craving Thai food? Greyhound Cafe offers ‘Thai food with a twist’. Pay using your BDO Elite or Gold Credit Card through BDO Pay and get 55% off a minimum dine-in bill of P3,000.
Standard, Classic, or Co-Brand BDO Cardholders can also enjoy 30% off plus an extra 5% off with BDO Pay.
Ready to enjoy this deal? Download the BDO Pay app, sign up for an account, and link your BDO Credit Card. After the app launches, use its scanning feature to settle your restaurant bill, which will subsequently charge your credit card.
Get it while it’s hot—these discounts are valid Monday through Friday until April 30, 2025, only!
For more promo details, visit the BDO website and search for the restaurant’s name.
In a time when the quality of being wais (or “Wa-Ease”, as coined by Tip-Top Chicken) feels scarce, Tip-Top Chicken keeps this Filipino trait alive with simple kitchen tips that help everyday Filipinos live out the spirit of “Wa-Ease-ness” at home and in the kitchen.
Tip-Top Chicken Products
Buy only fresh and high-quality ingredients.
Every good meal starts with fresh, flavourful ingredients. Fresh ingredients are not just safer and healthier, but they also taste better. Therefore, don’t compromise on the quality of your ingredients!
Tip-Top Chicken ensures freshness by processing and packing a variety of choice cuts on the same day. Its product line, which includes Tip-Top Whole Chicken, Tip-Top Choice Cuts (breast with bone, thigh with bone, breast fillet, thigh fillet, wings, and drumsticks), Tip-Top Chicken Nuggets, and Tip-Top Chicken Tocino, comes at affordable prices for everyday grocers to stay within their budgets and still make delicious meals at home.
Simple doesn’t have to mean bland.
You don’t need a complicated recipe to make a delicious ulam. If you season it well with salt and pepper, a simple dish can become the highlight of the dinner table. If you’re feeling daring, you can even add an acid like vinegar or lemon juice to give your cooking some tang.
For starters, you can experiment with tocino sisig using Tip-Top Chicken Tocino. It’s possible to make it with ingredients you already have at home, making it a low-maintenance dish for home cooks with high standards
Chicken Tocino Sisig Recipe
By Alonzo Cruel (@crucrukatchoo on Tiktok/Instagram)
Serving Size: 2-3 pax
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 Tip-Top Chicken Tocino
2 green chillies
1 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp liquid seasoning
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 pc calamansi
1 egg
1 siling labuyo (optional)
Instructions:
Cook the chicken tocino according to the packaged instructions on the pack. Once cooked, dice into pieces.
In a pan, add the green chillies, red onion, and garlic, and cook until the onion has softened.
Add back in the chicken tocino, and then add liquid seasoning, oyster sauce, black pepper, sugar, calamansi, and one egg.
Top it with more diced red onions, green chillies, and siling labuyo.
Liven up your recipes with seasonal ingredients.
Using ingredients that are readily available year-round makes cooking more convenient, but challenging yourself to use a few different ingredients here and there is a step towards becoming more confident in your skills. If you’re uncertain about how to begin experimenting, consider starting with what’s seasonally available.
For instance, summer is perfect for cooking with the Philippines’ delicious fruits! Summer is a wonderful time for mangoes, so why not incorporate them into your next dish? It does not necessarily have to be a viand. You can play around with salads and side dishes, too.
Freeze food to avoid wastage.
Putting your food in the freezer is a simple trick to keep ingredients fresh and reduce your stress on a lazy Sunday evening. Storing them in the refrigerator might keep them edible for a few days, but freezer storage can help them stay fresh for months.
You can save yourself multiple trips to the grocery store in a month by buying more ingredients at once and then storing what you don’t immediately need in the freezer, from vegetables to meats and fish.
If you have leftovers that you’re unsure about having for another meal, store them in the freezer. They’ll be safe to reheat and consume the next time that you find a craving for them—no cooking is required.
Have fun!
“Our goal is to make every kitchen activity enjoyable with your kids, your friends, and also yourself!” shared Ralph Recaido, brand marketing manager of Tip-Top, at its first-ever “Tip-Top Fiesta” event. “We hope you find Tip-Top to be the Wa-Ease Choice and that you also find the fun in cooking.”
What is the benefit of learning to cook if it isn’t enjoyable? There are little things that make the activity more joyful. You can play music while prepping ingredients, do some stretches while waiting for your food to cook, or invite a family member or a friend to join you and make a bonding activity out of it.
Cooking is a time of adventure and discovery within the four corners of your home, so let Tip-Top Chicken accompany you as you find the dishes that make you fall in love with cooking and celebrate your Wa-Ease moments!
Tip-Top Chicken is a brand of C-Joy Poultry Meats Productions, Inc., a joint venture between Cargill Philippines and Jollibee Foods Corporation. Tip-Top offers consumers budget-friendly chicken products that are high in protein, free of salitre, made with 100% chicken meat, and processed and packed on the same day. Its choice cuts are available in major groceries like Robinsons Supermarket, The Marketplace, and Shopwise.
For more information on Tip-Top Chicken and its offerings, visit their Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok pages (@tiptopchickenph).
A Samgyupsal feast in the Philippines is now a multi-sensory adventure through Filipino cuisine, accompanied by infectious laughter and priceless memories shared with loved ones. The folks at Hyeongje Grill in Ortigas Center are well-versed in it. That’s why it has everything that makes Korean barbecue and samgyupsal so special: it’s located on the metro side.
Guests of the Red Planet Hotel, families, and Ortigas office workers frequent Hyeongje Grill, which is situated on the ground floor of the hotel on Shaw Boulevard in San Antonio, Pasig City. It didn’t begin grilling until May of 2024, but it’s making a name for itself among the area’s most dedicated foodies.
The samgyupsal feast at Hyeongje Grill is the main attraction, and for good reason: the premium cuts of meat and fresh sides, served with the special excitement of a grilling experience, are sure to please even the pickiest eater. For the highest quality Korean BBQ, the restaurant employs charcoal instead of LPG. Rest assured, the exhaust at each table is always well-maintained, so there’s no need to be concerned. The best part is the affordable pricing for the limitless grilling feast, which can be as little as₱549 during certain times of the day.
Beef Bulgogi and the incredible Samgyup bowl, which includes rice, kimchi, lettuce, fishcake, and grilled pork or beef, are two other noteworthy meals on the menu. The bowl is perfect for clients who are in a rush or who are on the move.
Hyeongje Grill offers a wider variety of dishes than just Korean BBQ. Korean and Japanese flavors come together in this fusion dish. Beef Gyudon, Chicken Tenders (with Karaage), Tempura, Beef Yakiniku, and Wagyu Ribeye are just a few of the other popular items on the menu. Its tempura, chicken karaage, and beef gyudon rice bowls will surely become famous.
All samgyupsal dinners include complimentary ice cream, so there’s no complicated dessert selection. Frozen treats like Melona bars and other famous Korean treats are also available.
When families visit Hyeongje Grill, they can order kid-friendly dishes to satisfy even the pickiest eaters. Tempura, Chicken Karaage, Beef Yakiniku, and Grilled Plain Beef with Salt and Pepper are some of the most beloved foods among youngsters. For children under the age of seven, the price drops to half price, and those under the height of four can eat for free.
Distinct from the crowd
Hyeongje Grill’s co-owner Reb Garcia explains that the restaurant stands out from the competition thanks to its emphasis on high-quality food and ambiance. Above all else, we value our clients’ opinions and work hard to incorporate their suggestions into our service. Our main differentiation is that.
Reb Garcia, Co-Owner of Hyeongje Grill
Not only does Hyeongje Grill have a tantalizing menu, but its location and ambiance also make a big impression. Located just 2 kilometers from major Pasig City and Mandaluyong City grilling joints, the place is easy to miss. Customers who drive can park in front of the eatery in plenty of spaces.
There are 18 tables within the restaurant, each with its own exhaust system, and a maximum capacity of 63 people can be served at once.
With enough space for ten or twelve people, Hyeongje Grill even offers a separate VIP area. Groups that value privacy while dining, meeting, or singing their hearts out can reserve this VIP room.
You can see the glass-enclosed kitchen from the side of the restaurant. “We intend the kitchen to be open for viewing so our customers can see how we cut our fresh meat and ensure freshness of our supplies,” Garcia adds.
You can get some cool drinks made at the open bar that’s right at the door. Soju, Japanese whisky, local beer products, and Japanese beer types are some of the spirited drinks offered at Hyeongje, which helps to explain why it’s a popular spot for professionals looking to unwind after a hard day at work or on weekends. In the near future, the eatery plans to create its own line of alcoholic cocktails.
The fifteen-person crew that works the restaurant’s three shifts every day—three cooks and a variety of dining and kitchen attendants—makes for an excellent eating experience. The staff here are real players, and they all share my vision for providing exceptional service and the best food to our customers. I encourage them to do a good job since I am their leader,” Garcia says.
Growth strategies
Hyeongje Grill has only been open for a short time, but it has already seen the growth opportunities for both its services and its brand. The restaurant is now just delivering to local offices, but they have big plans to extend this service so that more people in the city and beyond can have Hyeongje Grill in the comfort of their own homes.
Online ordering and delivery are currently under development. Like the recent meticulous and successful integration of credit card and e-wallet payments into our payment terminals, we are working on a dependable system, according to Garcia.
In addition, he drops hints that a second Hyeongje Grill location, most likely in the southern part of Metro Manila, is in the works for the near future. “Things are looking up for us right now. We are already in full swing, and I have no doubt that growth will soon set in. According to Garcia, they are even looking at forming a partnership with Red Planet Hotels in order to expand their branches to all of the locations where the hotel is located.
The 37-year-old Garcia owns and operates businesses in a wide range of industries, including business process outsourcing (BPO), foreign exchange (ForEx), co-working spaces, computer and laptop distribution, and Airbnb leasing, among others. The first restaurant he ever owned, Hyeongje Grill, was co-owned by his brother and a buddy from the United States who they also consider a brother. “That’s why the restaurant is called ‘Hyeongje,’ which is a Korean word for ‘brothers,'” according to him.
At the Ortigas Center in San Antonio, Pasig City, you can find Hyeongje Grill at Lot 5 Blk 4, Shaw Boulevard. It is open from Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. and from Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Send an email to hyeongjegrill@gmail.com or give them a call at 09209026248 if you have any questions.
