THERE is something rather encouraging about Marriott International’s latest food-and-beverage (FandB) report for Asia Pacific.
It seems that the future of dining is not necessarily about expanding restaurant space, making these establishments more elaborate, or more intimidating. It is about making them more personal.
‘The Rise of Place,’ Marriott’s Future of Food Asia Pacific report for 2027, points to the upcoming trends in the way people eat. These means smaller and more distinctive restaurants, more casual and intimate spaces, shorter fine-dining experiences, greater use of technology behind the scenes, and, most importantly, a growing appetite for food that tells us exactly where we are.
In the case of the Philippines, the last point seems to be the direction we are moving as more chefs serve up dishes from their hometowns, created from local ingredients, and inspired by their home provinces or their grandmother’s recipes.
According to the report, the country is developing a more confident culinary identity, with Manila increasingly recognized as a dining destination, and regional food cultures gaining greater attention.
Chef Jordy Navarra of Toyo Eatery, for instance, specifically points to the Visayas region, including Bacolod and Iloilo, as places with strong food cultures that are becoming better understood and appreciated.
I must admit that there is nothing more comforting and heartwarming than having a steaming bowl of La Paz Batchoy or Kansi, chomping down on a smokey Inasal na Pakpak ng Manok, and relishing an earthy and nutty Lumpiang Ubod from Silay.
Navarra’s point is significant. For years, we keep waiting for international validation like our neighbors in Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, as one foreign chef after another points to Filipino food as ‘the next big thing.’ Perhaps it’s time we stop waiting.
Overall, the report identifies local signatures-distinct dishes and drinks strongly associated with a particular place-as recording the strongest increase in guest demand across Asia Pacific. In the Philippines, specifically, 40 percent of restaurants surveyed reported a higher demand for local signatures. More strikingly, 67 percent said authenticity of local signatures influences guest decisions.
In other words, people want to know what makes a place ‘that place.’
This is where we Filipinos have an enormous advantage, as we don’t have just one cuisine. We have hundreds of regional stories, local ingredients, cooking traditions, and food memories. There is Ilonggo, Negrense, Cebuano, Bicolano, Kapampangan, Ilocano, Muslim Filipino, to name a few, which are often vastly different from one another.
The opportunity for us, therefore, is not to lump all these into one generic ‘Filipino’ menu for tourists. Restaurants need to dig deeper, and chefs have to research more and perhaps rely on their own personal stories.
Abba Napa of The Moment Group sees Filipino chefs and restaurateurs moving toward ‘fewer ideas on the plate, but more depth behind each one.’ Thank goodness for that!
Many chefs have spent too much time trying to prove how many techniques they can put into one dish, when sometimes the most powerful thing a chef can do is take one ingredient, one memory, or one regional tradition and tell its story exceptionally well.
(Pwede ba, chefs, stop deconstructing the kare-kare, or ‘elevating’ the lowly sisig by drizzling it with truffle oil!)
Chef Ines Castañeda Matos of Roots in Siargao puts it even more beautifully: contemporary luxury is what is ‘real, authentic, endemic to a place.’
Interestingly, the physical restaurant is changing, too. Across the region, 45 percent of properties report a growing preference for casual spaces. In the Philippines, 49 percent see greater preference for intimate and quiet dining spaces, while 37 percent report increased preference for more casual spaces.
This makes sense. Dining out has become less about enduring a grand ceremony and more about having an experience that fits the occasion. This means a counter seat, a small dining room, a chef within view, a private room with friends.
The report also sees a move toward shorter fine-dining experiences. The much-discussed ’99-minute’ menu is essentially an acknowledgment that diners have lives beyond the restaurant. Even Navarra notes that smaller, more focused concepts are thriving, and that guests are increasingly comfortable trusting a chef-led experience.
I approve of this development. Fine dining should be memorable, not an endurance test. I was once invited to a 10-course dinner, which felt like 20, and I had to get up in the middle of the meal, go around to talk to friends sitting in other tables, then go down to the restaurant’s yard to walk off the dishes and drink I had earlier consumed. In the end, I remembered thoroughly enjoying just three dishes. (And honey, in this economy, who can afford a P15,000 degustacion?)
Unsurprisingly, as younger generations join the dining crowd, more are favoring non-alcoholic drinks. In the Philippines, the report records a 77-percent increase in sales of alcohol-free beverages, alongside a 40-percent increase in sales of soft drinks and water. That suggests the local bars will have to stop treating the mocktail as an afterthought. (As a Gen-Xer though, it’s still wine or whisky for me!)
Technology, meanwhile, is quietly making its presence felt in the kitchen. Artificial intelligence is being used around Asia Pacific to develop menus, implement marketing strategies, track guest behavior, improve staffing, and reduce food waste.
But even as technology makes strides in the FandB industry, it should just remain in the background, as hospitality services will continue to be decidedly human.
For Philippine restaurants and dining, therefore, the story is about becoming unapologetically ‘us’-Ilonggo or Ilocano, Batangueño or Caminguinon, Muslim or Spanish-Filipino, etc. We don’t have to imitate dishes in Tokyo, Singapore, or Bangkok or try to do a ‘Pinoy twist’ on their food.
And so the real luxury in Filipino dining will not be imported ingredients, famous foreign restaurant brands or Michelin-starred chefs, or increasingly elaborate presentations.
Perhaps it will simply be knowing exactly where our food came from-and having someone tell us why it matters.
The report surveyed Marriott International FandB teams in 284 properties across 20 Asia Pacific markets: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Fiji, and Guam. The survey was completed in July 2026.